Fearsome finishers, and Flintoff's fireworks

Perhaps numbers never do reveal the full story, but they tell a large part of it. Every Friday, The Numbers Game will take a look at statistics from the present and the past, busting myths and revealing hidden truths:

For a while now, finishers have been working in pairs. Not every team has them; indeed, some would be happy with just one, but Australia, England, India and Pakistan have two who gel well. They've all won matches, but Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke, in particular, have begun asserting themselves: each time they play together, 65 runs are added to the team total. And though Andrew Flintoff deserves all the applause he can get, Paul Collingwood has served England nearly as well. Together, they contribute 55 runs to the team's cause.

However, when it comes to partnerships between the two, some are not as intimidating as they're made out to be. Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif have not scored many runs together, even though they've played plenty together. It's Symonds and Clarke that teams should be frightened of. Their average of 65.9 is nearly 30 ahead of anyone else in the list. It's also ahead of many teams' opening partnerships.

Freddie's fireworks
Does it feel as if Andrew Flintoff has the crowd scattering each time he goes out to bat these days? Well, he does. With six sixes in two games against India, Andrew boosted his tally to 69 in 67 one-day innings. At present, that makes him the most prolific big-hitter among past and present batsmen. Shahid Afridi comes in next, with 0.93 sixes a game. What's astonishing about Afridi's six-hitting prowess is its extent - 166 in 177 innings - and, more importantly, the percentage of his overall runs those hits fetch him.

Eliminating minnows
While the ICC's heart is in the right place, the logic of playing big tournaments with a number of weak teams has been questioned for a while. Last year's World Cup was described as being tediously lengthy, with few matches of high quality. You could argue that the inclusion of non-Test-playing teams is necessary for their exposure, but it could also be said that in a tournament like the Champions Trophy, where all it takes is one match to be eliminated, teams aren't given enough exposure. Well, you knew it all along, but here are some numbers for previous editions of the tournament.

Bangladesh are a Test team, and though they have begun faring reasonably well in Tests, their one-day record is woeful. If - only a suggestion - they were put alongside Kenya and the rest, the figures above change quite dramatically. While an average win-margin of 68 runs seems quite large, matches would be more competitive and lead to less-inflated scores.

Rahul Bhatia is on the staff of Wisden Cricinfo. He'll be playing The Numbers Game while S Rajesh is away.