The run gluttony of Sangakkara and de Villiers

The 2015 World Cup has been all about batsmen, but even in a tournament full of batting milestones and heaps of runs, two names have stood out, as much for their aggregates as the manner in which they have got those runs. Kumar Sangakkara has four centuries in successive innings - a feat that had never been achieved previously in ODIs - in six games in the tournament, and has 496 runs at an average of 124; AB de Villiers has scored at a strike rate of 144 in this tournament, and his aggregate of 417 includes innings of 162 not out and 99. No other batsman has topped 400 runs after 36 games in this tournament.

Both Sangakkara and de Villiers have been at the pinnacle of their games in the last couple of years, and it's only fitting that they have continued their glorious form in the biggest tournament of them all. Both batsmen have been pivotal to their teams' fortunes so far: they have each won two Man-of-the-Match awards so far, and are two of four players to have won multiple match awards in this World Cup - Trent Boult and Shikhar Dhawan are the others.

But the run gluttony for Sangakkara and de Villiers has been in existence for a while now, well before this World Cup began. In the last couple of years (since January 2013), they have the leading averages among batsmen who have scored at least 1500 ODI runs during this period. De Villiers has averaged 62, at a strike rate of almost 112, while Sangakkara has an average of 59.5, at a strike rate of 93. De Villiers has passed fifty 23 times in 51 innings during this period, while Sangakkara has done slightly better in this aspect - 31 out of 63 - because he bats higher up the order. Sangakkara has won 11 Man-of-the-Match awards in these two years, to de Villiers' ten.

A good way to judge batsmen, apart from their runs and strike rates, is to look at the extent by which they have outscored the other batsmen in the matches they have played in. The table below compares the batting index (average multiplied by runs scored per ball) of these batsmen to the overall batting index of the top order (top seven batsmen) in the matches they have played, since the beginning of 2013. For example, the overall batting average of the top order in the ODIs de Villiers played during this period was 33.79, while the strike rate was 84.92, which meant the overall index is 28.69; de Villiers' index, on the other hand, is 70.52, which means his index is 2.46 times the average index. The corresponding ratio for Sangakkara is 1.84, with Kane Williamson coming in third at 1.75. Moving down the list, Rohit Sharma has a better and strike rate than Ross Taylor, but Rohit's played in matches which have higher averages, because of which is index, relative to that of the other top-order batsmen, is marginally lower.

Best ODI batsmen since Jan 2013 (Min 1500 runs)

Player	Inns	Runs	Average	SR	ave x SR(1)	Overall ave*	Overall SR*	ave x sr(2)	Ratio(1/2)
AB de Villiers	51	2708	62.97	111.99	70.52	33.79	84.92	28.64	2.46
KC Sangakkara	63	3274	59.52	93.14	55.44	35.25	85.44	30.12	1.84
KS Williamson	36	1812	58.45	86.94	50.82	33.56	86.42	29.00	1.75
V Kohli	59	2609	54.35	96.09	52.22	37.10	85.81	31.84	1.64
TM Dilshan	62	2942	54.48	85.05	46.34	35.30	86.53	30.55	1.52
HM Amla	50	2450	52.12	87.90	45.81	34.82	86.80	30.22	1.52
LRPL Taylor	39	1558	51.93	82.30	42.74	34.46	87.78	30.25	1.41
RG Sharma	45	2055	52.69	85.73	45.17	38.06	87.53	33.31	1.36

For batsmen in the top 7

As if their pre-eminence as ODI batsmen wasn't enough, Sangakkara and de Villiers have also been outstanding in Tests during this period: Sangakkara leads the list of top averages, scoring 77.07 runs per completed innings, while de Villiers is third with an average of 65.84, with Angelo Mathews in second place.

Test cricket will be the last thing on the minds for both players at the moment, though. De Villiers has the added responsibility of leading South Africa, while Sangakkara has been keeping wicket and batting at No. 3. Along with that, they have scored about a quarter of their teams' runs in the World Cup so far: Sangakkara has scored nearly 29%, including centuries in two 300-plus chases, against England and Australia. de Villiers has the third-highest individual score of the tournament - 162 not out against West Indies - and most sixes so far, 20. They have also been two of the most dominant batsmen in the middle overs of this World Cup, scoring effortlessly at over a run a ball despite taking minimal risks.

Unfortunately for the tournament, though, it looks likely that only one of the two batsmen will be around beyond the quarter-finals stage: if New Zealand beat Bangladesh and Australia get past Scotland, Sri Lanka will finish third in their group and face South Africa, who are second in Group B. That willl ensure that one of de Villiers or Sangakkara has only one more innings left in the competition. What impact each of them has with the bat in that match could well decide which of the two teams go further in the tournament.

Sangakkara and de Villiers in the World Cup so far

Batsman	Inngs	Runs	Average	Strike rate	100s/ 50s	Dot %	% team runs
Kumar Sangakkara	6	496	124.00	119.51	4/ 0	38.5	28.8
AB de Villiers	6	417	83.40	144.29	1/ 2	34.6	23.1

Sangakkara and de Villiers in the middle overs in the 2015 World Cup

Batsman	Runs	Dismissals	Average	Strike rate	4s/ 6s
Kumar Sangakkara	379	3	126.33	120.2	42/ 6
AB de Villiers	283	3	94.33	121.3	28/ 7