Bradman's epic Ashes, and an average of 563

The recent Test series between West Indies and England was a one-sided affair with England winning 3-0. West Indies' capitulation was largely due to their batsmen's inability to support Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who averaged nearly 149 in the series. He scored 446 runs in only three Tests after missing the second due to injury, 155 more than what Dwayne Bravo, West Indies' second-highest runscorer, scored in four matches. This week we look at the biggest differences between the highest and second-highest runscorers and wicket-takers for a team in a series.

Don Bradman set the record for most runs in a Test series during the 1930 Ashes in England. He scored 974 runs in five Tests but actually batted only seven times, hitting two double-centuries and his career-best 334. In fact, that innings alone was nearly as much as Australia's second-highest runscorer, Bill Woodfull, managed in the entire series: 345 runs at an average of 57.50.

Wally Hammond's 563 in two Tests (two innings) against New Zealand in 1932-33, ranks higher than several larger series aggregates in our table. During a two-Test series that was drawn 0-0 because of bad weather, Hammond got to bat twice and scored 227 and 336 not out, giving him an incredible average of 563 for the series. His 336 also beat Bradman's 334 as the highest individual score in Tests. England's next highest runscorer was Les Ames, who scored 103 and 26 in the series.

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The biggest difference between the highest and second-highest wicket-takers for a team in a Test series is 39, during England's tour of South Africa in 1913-14. Sydney Barnes took 49 wickets in the series at an average of just under 11 and a strike rate of 28. England's next best bowler was Albert Relf who took ten wickets at 22.70 apiece. In the second Test at Johannesburg, Barnes took 17 for 156, the best match figures in Test cricket until Jim Laker took 19 for 90 at Old Trafford in the 1956 Ashes which is the second entry in our table below.

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There are only two bilateral ODI series in the table for largest differences between the first and second highest runscorers for a team in series. Desmond Haynes's prolific home series against New Zealand in 1984-85 is ranked tenth. However in second place, wedged between Sachin Tendulkar's and Mark Waugh's memorable World Cup in 1996, is the series that shot Kevin Pietersen into the spotlight. Pietersen toured South Africa, the country he left to play for England, in 2004-05, the sum of his experience at that stage being four ODIs against Zimbabwe. He went on to score 454 runs in six innings with three hundreds and a fifty, won two Man-of-the-Match awards and was also the Man of the Series. Yet England lost 1-4 and Michael Vaughan, with 159 runs, was their second best batsman and the seventh highest runscorer in the entire series.

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Waqar Younis has three entries in the table for biggest differences between the highest and second-highest wicket hauls for a team in an ODI series. No other bowler appears more than once in the series and Waqar's feat is particularly impressive given that he's bowled with Wasim Akram, Aaqib Javed and Saqlain Mushtaq. During the Austral-Asia Cup in 1990, Waqar was the Man of the Series for his 17 wickets, 11 more than Akram and Mushtaq Ahmed.

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