England's dismal ODI stats, and Younis steps up

In their last 20 one-day internationals, England have won four and lost 15 (one match was washed out), for an abysmal win-loss ratio (wins divided by defeats) of 0.26. In the same period - from December 2005 - the corresponding figure for Australia is 2.14, for New Zealand and West Indies 2, for India 1.57, for Pakistan 1.42, for Sri Lanka 1.07 and for South Africa 0.85. Even Zimbabwe have a win-loss ratio of 0.88, though all the wins came against the lesser teams. England's record is a damning indictment of just how much catching up they need to do on the other top teams, and the fact that the World Cup is only six months away makes the situation even more dire. Take out England's unconvincing win against Ireland, and the numbers look even worse - three wins and 15 defeats, for a ratio of 0.20.

As you'd expect, the overall stats don't look good for England - they average 27.4 runs per wicket, and score at 5.10 per over, but concede 38.9 per opposition wicket, and 5.54 per over. England lag behind their opponents in most aspects, but sloppiness in certain areas of their game has hurt them more than others. Let's break up the match into bits and compare England's performance with the opposition's during this period.

As the table above indicates, England have struggled at the start, both of their innings and the opposition's. In the first ten overs their batsmen have been unable to get runs quickly, while their bowlers have leaked nearly a run a ball at the start, and have been woefully unsuccessful in getting among the wickets too. The middle overs have been a problem too - England concede more than five an over and more than fifty per wicket, and such generosity has seldom been replicated by their opposition.

In fact, opposition batsmen average more than 50 per wicket against England in the first 40 overs: England's average score at that stage is 189 for 6, the opposition's is 213 for 4. Interestingly, despite the lack of wickets in hand, England have done a fair job with the bat in the last ten overs, though the comparison is slightly skewed by instances when the opposition were well on course for victory and hence didn't press for runs as much as they otherwise might have.

The table below shows another area of concern which Duncan Fletcher, the coach, needs to address urgently: England's bowlers have generously conceded 175 wides, compared to just 98 by their opponents.

The absence of Andrew Flintoff has hit England hard as well, as they have struggled to get the ball away to the boundary. Some teams would compensate for that lack of firepower by keeping the score ticking over with singles and twos, and by playing fewer dot balls; however, as the table below shows, England have been outplayed in that department too. With one-day cricket's biggest tournament round the corner, Fletcher certainly can't complain that he doesn't have enough on his plate.

Younis Khan steps up
England's demolition in the third ODI of the series at Southampton was engineered by Younis Khan, who is slowly coming into his own as an international batsman. His track record in ODIs is impressive, but it's as a Test batsman that he has become utterly prolific. Younis's average has crept up to nearly 50 now, and it's largely because of the awesome form he has been in since 2005. He has only scored 90 runs fewer in his last 16 matches than he did in his first 31, and his conversion rate has improved drastically as well.

The table below lists the best batsmen - in terms of averages - since 2005. Younis sits pretty at fourth place, ahead of far more renowned names like Rahul Dravid, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Jacques Kallis. (Click here for Younis Khan's career summary in Tests.)