Runs and hundreds galore

Stats highlights from the fourth Test between West Indies and England, which ended in a dull draw in Barbados

03-Mar-2009

Stats highlights from the fourth Test between West Indies and England, which ended in a dull draw in Barbados.

Alastair Cook finally got a century after 15 Tests, but there was little in the contest by then © Getty Images

On a pitch which had little in it for the bowlers, 1628 runs were scored for the loss of 17 wickets, an average of 95.76 runs per wicket. It's the second-highest in all Tests in the West Indies, next only to a Test between West Indies and New Zealand in Guyana in 1972, which averaged 99.40 per wicket. It's also the fifth-highest among all Tests played anywhere; the highest average is 136.12, when India played Pakistan in Lahore in 2006. The top ten contains two matches which happened over the last ten days: the Pakistan-Sri Lanka game in Karachi, which averaged 86.27, is at eighth slot.

This was easily the most batsman-dominated Test in Barbados - the previous highest runs per wicket here was 68.33, way back in 1965. The result is all the more discouraging as Barbados used to be the one venue in the West Indies which consistently prepared result-oriented pitches: 24 of the last 28 Tests here have produced a decisive result.

Alastair Cook's unbeaten 139 was the fifth hundred of the Test, which equals the record for a match between these two teams. It's also the fifth time five centuries have been scored in a Test between West Indies and England - three of these matches have been in the last five years.

Cook's knock is his first century in more than a year - before this game he had gone 15 Tests without a century, though he'd scored ten fifties during this period.

Daren Powell bowled a couple of good spells, but ended the game with match figures of 1 for 142 from 36 overs. It continued a barren run for him, which has lasted more than a year: since 2008, he has taken just 24 wickets in 13 Tests, at an average of 60.04, and a strike rate of 102 deliveries per wicket. During this period, Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards have been far more successful.

Daren Powell Alastair Cook England West Indies West Indies vs England England tour of West Indies

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo