Bracken's 330-plus jinx, and Super Sanath

Chasing 347 for victory, New Zealand needed seven runs off six balls to whitewash Australia in the Chappell-Hadlee Series. Nathan Bracken, renowned for his ability to find the blockhole, was entrusted with the final over. His figures at that stage were 1 for 34 off nine overs, exceptional in a match that contained 25 sixes and 55 fours, but in that last over he dished up a full toss that Brendon McCullum sent over the long-leg fence. This week's column focuses on performances of bowlers and batsmen in tall run-chases and in low-scoring games. For this article, a high run-chase is 275-plus and small scores are less than 200.

The past week's events mean Australia have been on the embarrassing end of the four highest run-chases in ODIs, while Bracken and Hussey have the unenviable record of being the only players to play in all of them. To his credit, Bracken conceded just 5.66 runs an over in those games and took nine wickets at an average of 24.22, figures that are far better than those of his fellow bowlers.

That seven of the top ten bowlers involved in the highest number of losses while defending 275-plus are from India and Pakistan isn't such a surprise, given that pitches in the subcontinent have been decidedly in the batsman's favour. But with South Africa, New Zealand and Australia dishing up 300-plus totals with alarming regularity in recent months, you can expect more bowlers from those countries to break into the top ten. Ajit Agarkar and Virender Sehwag have played in eight games in which India failed to defend 275-plus scores but it is the difference in Harbhajan Singh's average that catches the eye. When India have won after setting a target of over 275, Harbhajan averages 22.58 per wicket, when they've lost that figure soars to 76 - an indication that Harbhajan's form is crucial to how India fares.

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Some of those bowlers are in that table because of the batsmen who make it to the next list, which picks out the ones who have won while chasing targets over 275 the most number of times. Sri Lanka have lost 27 of the 36 times they've had to chase over 275 with Sanath Jayasuriya in the team - he averaged just 23.84 in those games. But on eight other occasions when Sri Lanka won, Jayasuriya blazed away at an average of 90.14. If we raise the bar to successful chases above 300, Jayasuriya averages 69 and, with a strike-rate of 143, he's given Sri Lanka rocket-fuelled starts to their chases.

But even Jayasuriya's impressive figures are eclipsed by Ramnaresh Sarwan, who averages 118.75 in successful chases over 275. Compare that with Brian Lara, who averages 77.50. Sarwan scores 64.66 per innings in the all matches West Indies have won while chasing.

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In one of our first few columns, we'd said that Lara has been involved in the most number of Test defeats. He doesn't have that honour in ODIs but he has been involved in the most number of defeats when the target has been less than 200. Curiously the top seven batsmen in this table are all West Indians, and most of them played much of their careers before the late 1990s and 2000s when West Indies became the whipping boys of cricket's major league.

Viv Richards's case is perhaps the most surprising; he averages a healthy 34.33 in the six games West Indies have fallen short of 200. If you look at the most matches lost chasing a total of less than 200 since 2000, the table is dominated by West Indians and Pakistanis.

Click here for the full tables.

Click here for the full tables.