The top-order allrounders

On the second day of the Newlands Test, Shane Watson began the madness after lunch with a five-wicket burst that routed South Africa for 96. He had little time to savour his performance for he was soon opening Australia's second innings. Watson lasted only three balls as Australia were razed for 47. In the aftermath of that eight-wicket defeat, Watson said it had been a challenge to switch to a batting mindset soon after bowling. In this week's column, therefore, we've examined the Test stats of top-order allrounders: those who batted in the top five and bowled a sizeable number of overs as well. The likes of Watson and Garry Sobers, not Daniel Vettori and Ian Botham, who batted lower than No. 5.

The first table lists all players who batted in the top five for more than half their careers and bowled an average of 15 overs per Test. It begins with George Ulyett (1877-1890) and ends with Watson (2005-2011). There are only 42 in all, out of 2658 Test cricketers, making the top-order allrounder a rare asset. Manoj Prabhakar, Carl Hooper, Jacques Kallis, Neil Johnson, Shahid Afridi and Watson are the only ones since 1980.

Another current allrounder who is close to getting on that list is Mohammad Hafeez. He has opened in all 41 innings but bowled only 310 overs in 21 Tests, which is fewer than our qualification average of 15 overs a match. He has become a much more regular bowler for Pakistan in the last 12 months, though. Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan has batted above No. 6 only once, so doesn't make the cut.

Our second table is a list of allrounders with the best averages while batting in the top five, in Tests in which they bowled more than 10 overs in the same innings. Jacques Kallis, for instance, has batted in the top five for South Africa and bowled more than 10 overs in an innings in 129 innings. He has scored 5713 runs in those innings at an average of 51, while taking 176 wickets at 35.61 apiece.

Garry Sobers, widely acknowledged to be the allrounder sans pareil, batted higher than No. 6 and bowled more than 10 overs in 54 innings. He scored 2696 runs in those innings at an average of 55, and took 94 wickets at an average of 34 each.

The best batting average when bowling at least 10 overs in the same innings belongs to former West Indies captain Frank Worrell. He averaged 71.65 with the bat in 36 innings, with seven centuries and 10 fifties, and took 41 wickets at an average of just under 40.

The third table contains allrounders with the best bowling averages when batting in the top five in the same innings. Keith Miller averaged 22.41 apiece for his 129 wickets and batted in the top five in 76 innings, scoring 2687 runs at an average of 38.

Trevor Goddard, the former South Africa captain, used to open the innings and bowl first or second change. He opened the bowling in five innings as well. So in 72 innings in which Goddard batted in the top five, he took 114 wickets at an average of less than 27. He scored 2337 runs in these innings at an average of 34.

So which allrounder had to do the most bowling on average after batting in the top five? Goddard had one of the highest average number of balls bowled when batting in the top five in the same innings. He bowled 10894 balls in 72 innings - an average of 151.3 balls.

The highest average, however, belongs to India's Vinoo Mankad, who averaged 211 balls per innings for the 38 innings in which he batted in the top five. Mankad took 88 wickets at 34.30 apiece in those innings and scored 1567 runs at an average of 43,52.