The Australian juggernaut rolls on

From Murali's record to Australia's records, rare milestones to hot streaks, and more. A look back at the statistical highlights of 2007

George Binoy

06-Jan-2008

Cricinfo looks at the statistical highlights of 2007

Australia were the only team to be unbeaten in Tests in 2007 © Getty Images

Continuing their dominant form from 2006, Australia were once again undefeated in Tests in 2007, winning all four of their matches. England and India drew the most Tests, five each out of 11 and 10 matches respectively, while Pakistan won only one - against South Africa - out of eight. West Indies nearly went winless for the second straight year but they beat South Africa in the Boxing Day Test in Port Elizabeth to end a 20-match winless streak. New Zealand, who lost both of their Tests, and Bangladesh were the only teams not to record a win this year.

Australia played only four Tests in 2007, the fewest they have in any year since 1987, when too they played four Tests and won the World Cup. New Zealand played just two Tests this year, which is their lowest aggregate since 1977, when again they played two Tests.

The last year had the biggest percentage of draws in the 21st century. Nine out of 31 Tests were drawn, compared to 12 out of 46 in 2006, and 12 out of 49 in 2005.

Australia were the dominant one-day force in 2007, a year in which they won the World Cup for the third time in a row - to add to their Champions Trophy triumph in 2006. They won 24 out of 34 ODIs, a win percentage of 75%. The highest success-rate for 2007, however, belongs to Kenya, who won 13 out of 17 matches (76.47%). England were a much improved ODI outfit in 2007, winning 18 out of 34 matches, compared to five wins out of 20 in 2006.

There were 191 ODIs played in 2007 - the most in a year, 31 more than the second-highest year, 2006. It was also the largest number of ODIs in a World Cup year; there were 147 ODIs in 2003, 154 in 1999 and 127 in 1996. Due to the World Cup and the inaugural World Twenty20, there were only 31 Tests played in 2007, which is 15th on the list of years with the most Tests.

There were 51 totals of 300 or more in ODIs in 2007, a record, beating 2005, when teams went past the score 27 times. In 2007 teams scored over 300 and still lost 11 times. The previous highest number of defeats in a year for a team scoring more than 300 was four - in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Four of the top seven match aggregates in ODIs have also been scored in 2007.

Sourav Ganguly scored 1000 Test runs in a year for the first time in his career © AFP

Several landmark events occurred after long periods of time in 2007. Australia recorded only the second 5-0 whitewash in Ashes history, since Warwick Armstrong's team beat England 5-0 in 1920-21. India won a Test series in England after 20 years. South Africa won a series in Pakistan after ten years. India won a home series against Pakistan for the first time since 1979. And West Indies won their first-ever Test in South Africa.

England's victory in the CB Series in Australia was their first win in a multi-team ODI tournament since Adam Hollioake led them to victory in Sharjah in 1997. They also won a one-day series for the first time in Sri Lanka in October.

The 3-0 victory in the Test series extended England's undefeated run against West Indies to 16 Tests, beating the previous record of 13 between 1954 to 1960. The innings-and-283-run defeat at Headingley was West Indies' worst in Tests, beating the defeat at The Oval in 1957.

South Africa's 358-run win against New Zealand in Johannesburg was their biggest margin of victory [in terms of runs]. It was also New Zealand's largest margin of defeat [in terms of runs]. India too recorded their largest Test win, beating Bangladesh in Mirpur by an innings and 239 runs.

Twelve batsmen scored over 1000 ODI runs in 2007, compared to six in 2006, three in 2005, two in 2004, five in 2003, ten in 2002, six in 2001 and seven in 2000. In Tests, however, only three batsmen - Jacques Kallis, Sourav Ganguly and Kevin Pietersen - scored more than 1000 runs.

Matthew Hayden was the leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2007. He made 1601 runs in 30 innings at an average of nearly 60 and a strike-rate of nearly 90. His aggregate was also the highest by an Australian in a year for ODIs. Kallis was the leader in Tests, with 1210 runs at an average of 86.42. The last year was the first in which Ganguly scored more than 1000 runs since he made his debut in 1996.

Kumar Sangakkara didn't score 1000 runs in the year but his average of 138.28 is the best among the three batsmen who averaged more than 100 during 2007. Sangakkara scored 968 runs in nine innings with four scores of above 150 in consecutive Tests. Ricky Ponting tops the ODI averages for batsmen who've played at least five innings, scoring 1424 runs at an average of nearly 80 and a strike-rate of 91.69.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was prolific in both forms of the game. He scored 912 ODI runs in 18 innings at an average of 76, and 558 runs in seven Test innings, at 111.60. Chanderpaul's 446 runs in three Tests in England gave him an overall average of 77.85 in the country, which is the fourth-highest average for batsmen who've played at least five innings in England. Chanderpaul also equalled the record held by Everton Weekes and Andy Flower of scoring seven consecutive fifties. Australia's Phil Jaques scored six.

Murali surpassed Warne as Test cricket's highest wicket-taker © Getty Images

Shahid Afridi lived up to his billing as the player with the best strike-rate in ODIs by topping the strike-rate chart for 2007, scoring his 359 runs at 161.71 per 100 balls.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar became the first players to play 400 one-day internationals during 2007. Jayasuriya was the first but Tendulkar has gone past him and ended 2007 with 407 ODIs to Jayasuriya's 403.

Anil Kumble got to his maiden Test century - 110 not out against England at The Oval - in his 118th Test, making him the cricketer to play the most Tests before scoring a century.

Adam Gilchrist became the first player to hit a 100 sixesin Tests during Sri Lanka's tour of Australia.

Matthew Hayden broke Robin Smith's record of the highest individual score in an ODI defeat when he scored 181 against New Zealand in Hamilton.

Two batsmen repeated Garry Sobers and Ravi Shastri's rare feat of hitting six sixes in an over. Herschelle Gibbs did it against Netherlands' Daan van Bunge during the World Cup and Yuvraj Singh hit six sixes off Stuart Broad during the World Twenty20 in South Africa. Dimitri Mascarenhas fell one short, hitting five sixes in a Yuvraj over at The Oval.

Chris Gayle became the first, and to date only, Twenty20 international centurion, scoring 117 runs off 57 balls against South Africa in the World Twenty20 opener in Johannesburg. Click here for more numbers from the World Twenty20.

India's 413 against Bermuda during the group stages was the highest team total in World Cup history.

21,333 runs were scored during the World Cup for the loss of 725 wickets in 51 matches, which works out to an average of 29.42 runs per wicket at 4.95 runs per over, which in turn works out to a 50-over score of 248 for 8 in 50 overs. Click here for more World Cup stats.

Muttiah Muralitharan became Test cricket's leading wicket-taker when he took his 709th - Paul Collingwood in Kandy - and went past Shane Warne. Murali achieved the record in his 116th Test at an average of 21.67.

Muralitharan and Anil Kumble topped the Test wicket-takers' chart in 2007, with 49 wickets apiece. Murali had a poor year compared to 2006 when he took 90 wickets in 11 Tests. Monty Panesar, Danish Kaneria and Paul Harris are the other spinners among the top ten wicket-takers. It's a spinner who tops the list for ODIs as well - Daniel Vettori's 5 for 7 in the last one-day international of the year boosted his tally to 43 wickets in 31 matches at an average of 26.11 and an economy of 4.15; Brad Hogg isn't far behind, with 38 wickets.

The bowler with the best Test average of the year is a bit of a surprise. It isn't Murali, or Brett Lee or Dale Steyn. It's West Indies' Darren Sammy, who played just two Tests but picked up nine wickets at 14.77. Murali doesn't even have the best average for a spinner: Ramesh Powar took six wickets at 19.66 compared to Murali's 22.30.

Murali, however, does have the second-best average in ODIs; his 26 wickets coming at 14.46 apiece. The cheapest bowling average belongs to Fidel Edwards, who took 14 wickets in six matches at only 11.28 apiece.

Edwards has the second-best economy-rate, conceding only 3.56 runs per over. Shaun Pollock has been the most miserly in 2007, with an economy of 3.37 in 29 matches. Incidentally, Pollock was also the most economical bowler in 2006.

Glenn McGrath took 26 wickets in the World Cup, which is a record for most wickets in an individual tournament. McGrath also surpassed Wasim Akram as the highest wicket-taker in World Cups.

Stuart MacGill took five wickets during the home series against Sri Lanka and became the joint fourth-fastest to 200 Test wickets. He did it in his 41st Test, equalling Ian Botham. Waqar Younis and Dennis Lillee did it in 38 and Clarrie Grimmett was the quickest, reaching the landmark in just his 36th Test.

India's left-arm bowlers took all ten wickets in an ODI against Australia, in Mumbai - the first such occurrence. The previous highest was nine, also in Mumbai, and also in an India-Australia match: the last time the two teams played there in 2003-04.

India conceded 76 extras against Pakistan in the first innings in Bangalore, the highest in an innings, beating the 71 West Indies conceded - also against Pakistan - in Georgetown in 1988.

George Binoy is a staff writer at Cricinfo