Sleep-inducing run-fests and exciting droughts

The abundance of runs in recent Test matches around the world got us thinking: which series have been dominated most heavily by the bat? And which ones have had wickets falling by the dozen? We ranked series according to the average runs per wicket to produce a list of contests with the highest mean, and another with the lowest. DVDs of the series in the first table could work as a substitute for sleeping tablets.

Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan, which was cut short by the terror attack on the visitors' team bus last week, had the highest average runs per wicket among all Test series with at least two Tests. Before the Lahore game was abandoned, both teams had scored a total of 2269 runs for the loss of only 29 wickets in seven days of play. There were three hundreds, three double-centuries and a triple in five innings; the only two without a hundred were only 31 and 23.4 overs long. A wicket cost 78 runs and came 21 overs apart on average.

Seven of the top nine entries in the table below involve India. Their last tour to Pakistan, in 2005-06, was tedious until the third Test in Karachi. During the first two Tests, in Lahore and Faisalabad, the batsmen scored 2791 runs and the bowlers scraped together only 36 wickets, at an average of nearly 78 per breakthrough. That figure plummeted to 56.68 after the third Test, though. Irfan Pathan began that match with a hat-trick in the first over, and Mohammad Asif too helped redress the imbalance between bat and ball.

The five-Test series between West Indies and England, which ended on Tuesday, also appears in the table, at No. 17. Stuart Broad was frank in his assessment of the pitches on the tour, which according to him "have been terrible" to bowl on. The batsmen scored 17 hundreds, the second highest aggregate for a five-Test series, while the bowlers took only four five-wicket hauls. The average runs per wicket for this series was 46.71, and that after England collapsed for 51 to lose the first Test at Sabina Park, and West Indies were 114 for 8 in the final innings in Trinidad.

If only footage from the 19th century existed: highlights of the series in our next table would make for far more interesting viewing than those above. The four series with the lowest average runs per wicket are from the 1800s - the Ashes in 1886-87, 1888 and 1890, and England's tour of South Africa in 1888-89. The Tests in those four series were of three days' duration, but eight out of the nine matches finished in two. The average runs per wicket in each of those series was less than 15, while bowlers rarely had to wait longer than 45 balls for a wicket.

The troubles the Indian batsmen faced on their tour of New Zealand in 2002-03 received a lot of attention ahead of their ongoing visit to that country, and with good reason. That series is the only one from the 21st century to appear in the table of 25 series with the lowest averages. There were two totals of less than 100 in the two-Test series and only one in excess of 200. The Hamilton match, in which India and New Zealand collapsed for 99 and 94, is the only Test in which both teams fell for less than 100 in the first innings. Nobody scored a hundred and only three batsmen managed half-centuries in the whole series. The average runs per wicket for the series was only 16.14, and the strike-rate of 34 balls per wicket was lower than even the Ashes contests of 1886-87 and 1890.

However, judging by the ongoing one-day series between New Zealand and India, the batsmen will not be facing minefields in the Tests. The pitches have been true and the boundaries minute, and therefore the average per wicket after the first three ODIs is 43.51, while only 31 wickets have fallen. The staggering stat, however, is the run-rate for the series so far - 7.10 runs per over.

The 2006-07 Chappell-Hadlee series in New Zealand had an even higher average per wicket - 50.57 - at a run-rate of just over six. And that despite Australia being dismissed for 148 in the first ODI, a total that New Zealand overhauled with all wickets intact. The scores in the next two games, though, were 336 for 4, 340 for 5, 346 for 5 and 350 for 9.

Three ODI series from the last five months rank among the top eight series with the lowest averages per wicket. The first was Sri Lanka's tour to Zimbabwe in November 2008, when neither team passed 200 - even though Sri Lanka batted first twice - in five matches. A total of 1310 runs were scored and 77 wickets lost.

The next two series were in Bangladesh in January 2009: a tri-series involving Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and the hosts, followed by a bilateral contest between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The average runs per wicket in both contests were approximately 18.

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