Boycott's slow start, and Atherton's poor finish

Travis Basevi and George Binoy12-Dec-2007

Andrew Symonds has been an invaluable part of Australia's one-day set up since 2003 © AFP

After last week's column, where we looked at players with the largest difference in averages between the first and second halves of their Test careers, divided on the basis of matches played, we had several reader requests asking for the one-day equivalent. So here it is.

It's perhaps a little unfair on Michael Hussey that he tops our table of batsmen who've had an excellent run in the first half of their careers and a relatively poor second. Hussey made his one-day debut in 2003-04 against India in Perth, as a one-off replacement because Ricky Ponting and Michael Bevan weren't playing, and then had to wait a year before restarting his career. Hussey's re-entrance was so spectacular that by the time he was dismissed for the first time - after six innings - he averaged 229. After 28 innings and 1021 runs, that average dropped to 78 during the one-day series in South Africa in 2005-06, which is mid-way through his career at the moment. Since then he's played 26 innings, scored 805 runs at a perfectly acceptable average of 44, but his difference of 33.8 is nearly six runs more than Glenn Turner, who is in second place.

Although Mike Atherton had established himself as a regular in England's Test side, the first half of his 54-match one-day career spanned six years, during which he scored 1188 runs at an average of 47.58. He played his last 27 innings over a span of just two years, between 1996 and 1998, but his form suffered and he scored only 603 runs at an average of 23, less than half his average after his first 27 innings.

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Geoffrey Boycott, another England opener, had the opposite pattern to his one-day career. After facing the first-ever delivery in one-day internationals, Boycott started slowly, scoring 235 runs with a high score of 41 in 16 innings, which included his self-imposed break from international cricket between 1974 and 1977. His career picked up during the World Series Cup in Australia, which included West Indies as well, where he scored 425 runs in six innings at an average of 85, including four fifties his only one-day hundred.

Andrew Symonds is another batsman who has been prolific in the latter half of his ongoing career. He's scored 2824 runs in his last 77 innings with five hundreds, and averages nearly 48 with a strike-rate in the 90s. But before he cemented his one-day spot with a crucial 143 not out in the 2003 World Cup opener against Pakistan, Symonds had scored only 762 runs in 38 innings at an average of 23.81.

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Ashantha de Mel's one-day career reached its peak when he became one of two bowlers - the other being Gary Gilmour - to take consecutive five-wicket hauls in a World Cup. de Mel achieved this on helpful wickets in the 1983 tournament, which boosted his career stats to 42 wickets after 28 games, at an average of 26. However, it began to go downhill for de Mel from there, and out of his last 29 ODIs, he went wicketless in 16. His 1 for 97 against West Indies at Karachi in the 1987 is the most expensive ten-over spell in a World Cup and a serious knee injury after the tournament brought his career to a premature end.

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Rao Iftikhar Anjum has been a much improved bowler for Pakistan in the one-day format. He began his career poorly and at one stage, after five matches, his bowling average was over 100. Though he improved on that later on, it still exceeded 50 during the first half of his career. However, over his last 19 games Iftikhar has picked up 29 wickets at just under 27 apiece and has become a handy third medium-pacer for Pakistan, with an overall career average of 34.69.

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