Elliott fizzles, Ponting sizzles

Test cricket is littered with players who faded after promising starts, and those who stuck it out to resurrect careers after disastrous beginnings. Vinod Kambli and Marvan Atapattu are examples of each that spring to mind. This week we look 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.

Matthew Elliott, the former Australia opener, made his debut at Michael Slater's expense during the 1996-97 home series against West Indies. He began with a duck at the Gabba but scored 78 in the second Test in Adelaide before retiring hurt after a collision with Mark Waugh. He tore a knee cartilage and did not play again in the series. Elliott came back strongly on the tour of South Africa with 85 in Johannesburg and also contributed significantly to the 3-2 Ashes win in England in 1997. He scored two centuries, including 199 at Headingley, and two fifties on the tour, and his career average touched a high of 54.20, after 16 innings, during the fifth Test at Trent Bridge. However, that was as good as it got for Elliott, who was dropped after he failed at home against South Africa and New Zealand in 1997-98. He received two more opportunities, against West Indies in 1998-99 and Sri Lanka in 2004, but was dismissed for four ducks in his last eight innings. Elliott scored only 322 in his last 19 innings, which included a century in Hobart, at an average of less than 17.

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Lawrence Rowe still remains the only batsman to score a double-hundred and a century on debut. He averaged 314 after his first Test, against New Zealand in Kingston in 1972, but that figure shrank to human proportions - 57.22 - before England toured the Caribbean in 1973-74. Rowe scored three hundreds against England, including a double, and pushed his average back up into the 70s. Thereafter it went into freefall as Rowe scored only 754 runs from his last 27 innings, compared to 1293 from his first 22, at an average of 29. His participation in the rebel tour to South Africa in 1983 ended his career for the West Indies.

Ricky Ponting's rise as the world's premier batsman over the last five years has been meteoric. If you spilt up his career into two halves, he scored 3505 runs with ten centuries and averaged 45.51 after 89 innings in the first half. However, since the neutral-venue series against Pakistan in 2002-03, Ponting has outstripped his contemporaries, scoring 6003 runs in 97 innings at an average of 72.32. He has scored 23 hundreds during this period, including back-to-back centuries on three occasions.

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Narendra Hirwani spun circles around the West Indians on a dust bowl in Chennai and picked up 16 for 136 on Test debut in 1987-88. He continued his excellent start, taking 20 wickets at 19.50 apiece in the three Tests that followed at home against New Zealand. However, Hirwani's form dipped once he left the spin-friendly surfaces at home and travelled overseas. His 21 wickets in nine Tests in West Indies, New Zealand and England cost 59 apiece. His final ten matches, the last against South Africa in 1996-97, yielded only 22 wickets at an average of 48.

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Intikhab Alam finished his 47-Test career with 125 wickets at an average of 35.95. However, his record after 25 Tests was nowhere near as good: he had taken only 39 wickets at 51.87 apiece with a best of 4 for 39. However, in his last 22 Tests he picked up 86 wickets at 28.73 with five five-fors and a couple of ten-fors to rapidly improve his bowling stats.

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