The most compelling head-to-head battles in ODIs

I had earlier mentioned that my next article would feature a very intriguing topic: Test batsmen's consistency, as suggested by Robert Eddings. Unfortunately, I have to postpone this by a fortnight since I will be out of my work place during the scheduled publishing weekend and may not be able to respond to the initial lot of comments, especially since the topic could warrant quite a few comments. So my apologies to those waiting for that specific article.

How often do I do this? As often as necessary: I am referring to Milind's invaluable (even this word seems to be too prosaic) contributions to the database I use. The jewel in the crown is the ball-by-ball data. He has provided the raw ball-by-ball data for the initial lot of matches, and the mechanism to download the data for current matches: for Tests, ODIs and T20Is. I have done a lot of analytical articles covering head-to-head numbers, series performances, Test performances and career summaries using the Test ball-by-ball data.

Recently I did a lot of over-based analysis using the T20 ball-by-ball data. The ODI data has been with me for a few months but I moved the initial T20 analysis ahead since I was fascinated by the completeness of the data and the possibilities it offered. In this article I will look at the famous head-to-head confrontations in the ODI format between a few selected batsmen and all the bowlers they faced during the period for which data is available. More analyses will follow. The presence of multi-team tournaments in ODIs, not present in Tests, makes these an ideal analysis base as we have the complete data for four World Cups.

Like Tests, and unlike T20s, we do not have complete ball-by-ball data for all ODIs that have been played. The starting point is match #1443, the first match of the 1999 World Cup, played in England. We have the data available for all the World Cup matches and then there is a vacuum. For over 200 matches there is no data available. Then we have data available from match #1719 (2001). After that only a few matches are missing. At the final count we have the data available for 1745 matches out of 3489 played to date (20 May 2014). This works to a second decimal point above 50%.

Now we come to the players. Since only part data is available from 1999, many modern batsmen have incomplete data. However it is good that we have reasonable data for many great batsmen. The table below gives a complete idea of the data availability pattern for the top batsmen. This table is relevant because I decided to feature 13 batsmen in this article. In bold letters, let me proclaim that the data for all batsmen, barring none, is available in the huge Excel file, which can be downloaded. In fact that table is more complete than the featured tables since the cut-offs are much lower and even for these featured batsmen you will get additional data in that.

BBB data availability for top batsmen

No L Batsman         Team  Runs Balls BBD-Bls  & %  Feature
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1   SR Tendulkar     Ind 18426 21367  10191  47.7%   Yes
 2   RT Ponting       Aus 13704 17046  12090  70.9%   Yes
 3 ~ ST Jayasuriya    Slk 13430 14725   7619  51.7%   Yes
 4 ~ KC Sangakkara    Slk 12500 16164  15593  96.5%   Yes
 5   Inzamam-ul-Haq   Pak 11738 15812   5333  33.7% Too Low
 6   JH Kallis        Saf 11574 15866  10074  63.5%   Yes
 7   DPMD Jayawardene Slk 11512 14684  12419  84.6%  Sang
 8 ~ SC Ganguly       Ind 11363 15416   7429  48.2%   SRT
 9   R Dravid         Ind 10889 15284   9213  60.3%   SRT
10 ~ BC Lara          Win 10405 13086   4182  32.0% Too Low
11   Mohammad Yousuf  Pak  9720 12942   9840  76.0%
12 ~ AC Gilchrist     Aus  9619  9922   6326  63.8%   Yes
13   M Azharuddin     Ind  9378 12669    209   1.6%
14   PA de Silva      Slk  9284 11443   1191  10.4%
15 ~ Saeed Anwar      Pak  8824 10938   1643  15.0%
16 ~ S Chanderpaul    Win  8778 12408   8380  67.5%
17 ~ CH Gayle         Win  8743 10380   9669  93.2%   Yes
18   DL Haynes        Win  8648 13707      0   0.0%
19   MS Atapattu      Slk  8529 12594   6589  52.3%
20   ME Waugh         Aus  8499 11053    845   7.6%
21 ~ Yuvraj Singh     Ind  8329  9547   9496  99.5%   MSD
22   V Sehwag         Ind  8273  7929   7929 100.0%   Yes
23   HH Gibbs         Saf  8094  9721   7576  77.9%
24   MS Dhoni         Ind  8046  9016   9016 100.0%   Yes
25 ~ SP Fleming       Nzl  8037 11242   5995  53.3%   Yes
26   TM Dilshan       Slk  8025  9363   9096  97.1%
27   MJ Clarke        Aus  7683  9754   9754 100.0%  2 Aus
28   Shahid Afridi    Pak  7619  6590   3949  59.9%   Yes
..
43   AB de Villiers   Saf  6331  6746   6746 100.0%   Yes
..
84   KP Pietersen     Eng  4440  5128   5128 100.0%   Yes

Now for the selection process. I set 50% of ball-by-ball data availability as a minimum requirement to consider a batsman for featuring. This is understandable since we want the analysis to be relevant. That rules out great ODI batsmen like Brian Lara (32.0%), Inzamam-ul-Haq (33.7%), Saeed Anwar (15%), Mark Waugh (7.6%), Martin Crowe (0%), Vivian Richards (0%) and so on.

I made an exception for Sachin Tendulkar since even his 47.7% availability translates to over 10,000 balls. So he was the first selection. Then came Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni for India. Both very attacking and different batsmen in different batting positions. From Australia I picked Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting; can anyone doubt their credentials? I picked Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara from Sri Lanka: two batsmen from different generations. From South Africa: Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers, again as different as chalk and cheese. I rounded off with one each from the other countries: Kevin Pietersen, Chris Gayle, Stephen Fleming and Shahid Afridi. Afridi's is an interesting case. I wanted to see how his attacking batting was handled by different bowlers.

The other batsmen who were under serious consideration were Mahela Jayawardene, Mohammad Yousuf, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden and Sourav Ganguly. They could not be accommodated because there were other equally good and similar batsmen. Crowe would have been a nice study since he faced tough and hostile bowling right through his career. And let me remind readers that this is a linearly structured article: the more the featured batsmen, the longer the article would be.

The comments follow a pattern. First I will comment on the confrontations in which the selected batsman was ahead. This will be followed by battles that were clearly won by the bowler. It is not easy for me to cover the many aspects of a key confrontation in two short paragraphs. I leave it to the readers to locate gems of their own.

The cut-offs are dynamic. If I have a 100-balls cut-off for Shahid Afridi, I will have no entry. If I have the same 100-balls cut-off for Sangakkara, there will be 48 entries. So this has been dynamically determined. In general, the cut-offs range from 60 (for Afridi) to 180 (for Sangakkara). In addition, I have also included bowlers who have captured quite a few wickets despite bowling relatively fewer deliveries. The idea is to have ten to 15 entries in the featured article. The Excel sheet, of course, has all the confrontations. Therefore, you may not need to ask me about how Tendulkar fared against Muttiah Muralitharan, because the Excel sheet covers head-to-heads such as this.

The strike rate percentage value (S/R %) is computed by comparing the concerned batsman's strike rate against the particular bowler to the batsman's career strike rate. It is possible that I could have used the strike rate derived from the ball-by-ball data instead of using career strike rate. However this would make sense only for batsmen for whom we have only part ball-by-ball data and the impact seems minimal. The strike rates of Tendulkar for the ball-by-ball period is 85.9 (Career-86.2), Gilchrist 99.0 (96.9), Jayasuriya 91.1 (91.2) and Afridi 119.4 (115.6). And all values are compared to the same figure. Hence I have stuck to the career strike rate since it is available readily.

AC Gilchrist (S/R: 96.9 BBD: 63.8%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
SM Pollock	254	168	66.1	68.2%	7	36.3	172	67.7%	92	54.8%
WPUJC Vaas	237	206	86.9	89.7%	6	39.5	144	60.8%	108	52.4%
M Ntini	187	211	112.8	116.4%	6	31.2	111	59.4%	152	72.0%
M Muralitharan	174	157	90.2	93.1%	2	87.0	85	48.9%	36	22.9%
KD Mills	149	165	110.7	114.2%	5	29.8	90	60.4%	108	65.5%
Zaheer Khan	146	127	87.0	89.7%	3	48.7	92	63.0%	72	56.7%
D Gough	134	131	97.8	100.8%	3	44.7	84	62.7%	92	70.2%
IK Pathan	127	132	103.9	107.2%	5	25.4	80	63.0%	88	66.7%
Mashrafe Mortaza	124	137	110.5	114.0%	3	41.3	72	58.1%	68	49.6%
Wasim Akram	115	96	83.5	86.1%	5	23.0	81	70.4%	64	66.7%
M Dillon	110	94	85.5	88.1%	1	110.0	68	61.8%	56	59.6%
A Flintoff	106	74	69.8	72.0%	4	26.5	76	71.7%	48	64.9%
CRD Fernando	95	116	122.1	126.0%	1	95.0	47	49.5%	60	51.7%
AB Agarkar	89	129	144.9	149.5%	2	44.5	43	48.3%	100	77.5%
S Sreesanth	71	83	116.9	120.6%	4	17.8	46	64.8%	68	81.9%
JEC Franklin	52	51	98.1	101.2%	4	13.0	31	59.6%	36	70.6%

Gilchrist took care of Ajit Agarkar, Dilhara Fernando and S Sreesanth very effectively. He was particularly severe on Agarkar. His boundary percentage against these two Indian bowlers was also quite high. Makhaya Ntini was also at sea against Gilchrist.

Shaun Pollock was Gilchrist's nemesis. He contained him and took his wicket often. Similarly Chaminda Vaas, Wasim Akram and Irfan Pathan bowled well to Gilchrist. Sreesanth, for all the mauling he took, struck often. Muralitharan was an enigma. He could not dismiss Gilchrist often, but conceded very few boundaries to him, butsurprisingly, he was not able to bowl too many dot balls at Gilchrist. This seems to be indicative of a planned strategy from Gilchrist of playing Muralitharan very carefully. Contrast this with Ntini.

RT Ponting (S/R: 80.4 BBD: 70.9%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
DL Vettori	381	249	65.4	81.3%	6	63.5	216	56.7%	68	27.3%
JH Kallis	255	243	95.3	118.5%	3	85.0	122	47.8%	88	36.2%
Harbhajan Singh	250	211	84.4	105.0%	2	125.0	124	49.6%	72	34.1%
SM Pollock	239	158	66.1	82.2%	2	119.5	144	60.3%	64	40.5%
KD Mills	217	166	76.5	95.2%	5	43.4	129	59.4%	84	50.6%
M Muralitharan	206	173	84.0	104.5%	2	103.0	99	48.1%	68	39.3%
JDP Oram	196	187	95.4	118.7%	0	196.0	110	56.1%	96	51.3%
M Ntini	191	191	100.0	124.4%	3	63.7	111	58.1%	100	52.4%
WPUJC Vaas	186	142	76.3	95.0%	5	37.2	127	68.3%	68	47.9%
Shahid Afridi	160	82	51.2	63.7%	6	26.7	102	63.8%	12	14.6%
IK Pathan	151	137	90.7	112.9%	4	37.8	89	58.9%	72	52.6%
PD Collingwood	150	130	86.7	107.8%	1	150.0	77	51.3%	60	46.2%
J Botha	123	84	68.3	84.9%	6	20.5	63	51.2%	24	28.6%
SE Bond	109	74	67.9	84.4%	7	15.6	81	74.3%	48	64.9%
P Kumar	75	41	54.7	68.0%	4	18.8	54	72.0%	8	19.5%
L Balaji	53	37	69.8	86.8%	4	13.2	33	62.3%	20	54.1%
JE Taylor	42	34	81.0	100.7%	5	8.4	30	71.4%	28	82.4%

For all the troubles that Ponting had against Harbhajan Singh in Tests, he took care of the offspinner very effectively in ODIs. He had a good strike rate and an effective strategy to prevent losing his wicket. Jacob Oram toiled long and hard for well over 30 overs and could not even dismiss Ponting once. Similarly Collingwood. There are quite a few bowlers with 100-plus Balls-per-Wicket (BpWI values against Ponting.

Daniel Vettori bowled a huge number of overs at Ponting and kept him quiet, aided by a low boundary %. Look at the way Ponting struggled against Afridi, Shane Bond and Johan Botha, so also against the Indian duo of Praveen Kumar and L Balaji. Barring Bond, these are bowlers in the eminently forgettable middle echelons.

SR Tendulkar (S/R: 86.2 BBD: 47.7%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
B Lee	296	199	67.2	78.0%	7	42.3	215	72.6%	120	60.3%
WPUJC Vaas	219	186	84.9	98.5%	3	73.0	135	61.6%	112	60.2%
MG Johnson	218	178	81.7	94.7%	3	72.7	145	66.5%	112	62.9%
JM Anderson	194	140	72.2	83.7%	3	64.7	142	73.2%	100	71.4%
KMDN Kulasekara	183	137	74.9	86.8%	5	36.6	124	67.8%	92	67.2%
Shoaib Akhtar	178	147	82.6	95.8%	4	44.5	123	69.1%	88	59.9%
M Ntini	175	102	58.3	67.6%	2	87.5	127	72.6%	56	54.9%
Shahid Afridi	172	197	114.5	132.8%	0	172.0	74	43.0%	96	48.7%
SL Malinga	170	147	86.5	100.3%	4	42.5	108	63.5%	84	57.1%
CRD Fernando	166	136	81.9	95.0%	5	33.2	102	61.4%	48	35.3%
A Flintoff	161	126	78.3	90.8%	4	40.2	95	59.0%	72	57.1%
A Nel	157	130	82.8	96.0%	2	78.5	102	65.0%	82	63.1%
SM Pollock	150	59	39.3	45.6%	5	30.0	119	79.3%	28	47.5%
DNT Zoysa	101	85	84.2	97.6%	4	25.2	67	66.3%	64	75.3%

Let us keep in mind that this data for Tendulkar pertains to the less productive second half of Tendulkar's career. Please do not rush off with irrelevant questions. The one bowler Tendulkar really mastered was Afridi, who was quite difficult to face. He achieved a strike rate of well over 110 and faced nearly 30 overs without losing his wicket. This was total dominance. He did not dominate anyone to this extent but scored quickly against Malinga, Vaas, Shoaib Akhtar and Mitchell Johnson.

Not surprisingly Brett Lee and Pollock, and quite surprisingly, Nuwan Zoysa had the measure of Tendulkar. Lee kept Tendulkar quiet and dismissed him seven times. Pollock was still more difficult to score off and Tendulkar was dismissed five times. Understandable, since these are excellent bowlers. But Zoysa, not necessarily in the upper echelons, dismissed Tendulkar four times in 101 balls but was attacked quite effectively, it must be said.

V Sehwag (S/R: 104.3 BBD: 100.0%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
KD Mills	280	270	96.4	92.4%	5	56.0	171	61.1%	172	63.7%
WPUJC Vaas	238	235	98.7	94.6%	6	39.7	140	58.8%	148	63.0%
CRD Fernando	190	156	82.1	78.7%	2	95.0	112	58.9%	88	56.4%
KMDN Kulasekara	188	218	116.0	111.1%	5	37.6	111	59.0%	144	66.1%
DR Tuffey	172	156	90.7	86.9%	0	172.0	116	67.4%	96	61.5%
A Flintoff	167	111	66.5	63.7%	2	83.5	108	64.7%	64	57.7%
SL Malinga	151	160	106.0	101.6%	3	50.3	84	55.6%	110	68.8%
Naved-ul-Hasan	141	139	98.6	94.5%	6	23.5	84	59.6%	76	54.7%
JM Anderson	132	140	106.1	101.7%	3	44.0	84	63.6%	100	71.4%
SM Pollock	126	98	77.8	74.5%	5	25.2	89	70.6%	68	69.4%
Iftikhar Anjum	126	115	91.3	87.5%	0	126.0	66	52.4%	52	45.2%
JDP Oram	126	148	117.5	112.6%	2	63.0	62	49.2%	66	44.6%
Mohammad Sami	117	128	109.4	104.9%	1	117.0	72	61.5%	88	68.8%
Shahid Afridi	117	125	106.8	102.4%	4	29.2	52	44.4%	32	25.6%
D Gough	97	65	67.0	64.2%	4	24.2	65	67.0%	32	49.2%
M Dillon	94	77	81.9	78.5%	5	18.8	68	72.3%	44	57.1%
UWMBCA Welegedara	70	91	130.0	124.6%	4	17.5	38	54.3%	76	83.5%
M Muralitharan	66	54	81.8	78.4%	5	13.2	33	50.0%	20	37.0%
NW Bracken	52	30	57.7	55.3%	5	10.4	41	78.8%	20	66.7%
MG Johnson	52	65	125.0	119.8%	4	13.0	33	63.5%	44	67.7%
Shabbir Ahmed	51	55	107.8	103.4%	4	12.8	32	62.7%	40	72.7%

Sehwag's batting style of treating all bowlers similarly is clearly seen in the numbers. There are no outliers either way. Barring couple of bowlers, all bowlers have gone for strike rates just either side of 100. Sehwag has attacked the Sri Lankan pace bowlers, led by Malinga, quite consistently. Also Anderson. His best performance has been against Daryl Tuffey - 172 balls, 156 runs and no dismissal.

Sehwag has also rewarded the bowlers by giving up his wicket quite often. Many of the bowlers are below 50. Andrew Flintoff, Darren Gough, Mervyn Dillon, Murali and Johnson have had fair amount of success. But the bowler to really have a measure of him was Nathan Bracken.

MS Dhoni (S/R: 89.2 BBD: 100.0%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
M Muralitharan	317	268	84.5	94.7%	2	158.5	152	47.9%	92	34.3%
Shahid Afridi	250	207	82.8	92.8%	2	125.0	128	51.2%	60	29.0%
ST Jayasuriya	200	185	92.5	103.7%	3	66.7	71	35.5%	20	10.8%
BAW Mendis	196	123	62.8	70.3%	2	98.0	111	56.6%	24	19.5%
SL Malinga	159	172	108.2	121.2%	3	53.0	63	39.6%	76	44.2%
MG Johnson	136	123	90.4	101.3%	3	45.3	73	53.7%	68	55.3%
Saeed Ajmal	135	81	60.0	67.2%	0	135.0	74	54.8%	12	14.8%
GP Swann	135	101	74.8	83.8%	1	135.0	74	54.8%	8	7.9%
S Randiv	133	94	70.7	79.2%	2	66.5	73	54.9%	28	29.8%
Abdul Razzaq	124	117	94.4	105.7%	0	124.0	61	49.2%	64	54.7%
MF Maharoof	121	127	105.0	117.6%	1	121.0	59	48.8%	44	34.6%
CRD Fernando	119	102	85.7	96.0%	4	29.8	64	53.8%	36	35.3%
Shoaib Malik	101	94	93.1	104.3%	4	25.2	50	49.5%	24	25.5%
TT Bresnan	96	111	115.6	129.6%	4	24.0	43	44.8%	52	46.8%
B Lee	91	71	78.0	87.4%	5	18.2	58	63.7%	28	39.4%

Dhoni handled quality spinners like Murali and Afridi quite well. Murali, the best of all. Low boundary percentage but an excellent strike rate. He attacked Malinga and Johnson. Also played Saeed Ajmal and Graeme Swann very carefully.

Surprisingly Suraj Randiv kept Dhoni quiet. And he lost his wicket to the pace bowlers, led by Lee, quite a few times. However his best strike rate was against Tim Bresnan.

JH Kallis (S/R: 72.9 BBD: 63.5%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
ST Jayasuriya	201	127	63.2	86.6%	3	67.0	111	55.2%	12	9.4%
Abdul Razzaq	170	131	77.1	105.6%	2	85.0	102	60.0%	44	33.6%
DL Vettori	165	98	59.4	81.4%	5	33.0	99	60.0%	20	20.4%
CH Gayle	163	146	89.6	122.8%	3	54.3	64	39.3%	20	13.7%
Harbhajan Singh	159	100	62.9	86.2%	1	159.0	84	52.8%	28	28.0%
Shahid Afridi	136	74	54.4	74.6%	4	34.0	75	55.1%	8	10.8%
AB Agarkar	136	119	87.5	119.9%	2	68.0	79	58.1%	68	57.1%
KD Mills	136	97	71.3	97.8%	5	27.2	88	64.7%	48	49.5%
AF Giles	134	107	79.9	109.5%	1	134.0	69	51.5%	32	29.9%
DJ Bravo	125	126	100.8	138.2%	4	31.2	55	44.0%	48	38.1%
Shoaib Akhtar	124	75	60.5	82.9%	4	31.0	89	71.8%	38	50.7%
CD Collymore	122	106	86.9	119.1%	2	61.0	67	54.9%	48	45.3%
WPUJC Vaas	121	84	69.4	95.2%	0	121.0	77	63.6%	46	54.8%
JN Gillespie	69	37	53.6	73.5%	4	17.2	45	65.2%	12	32.4%

Kallis was quite comfortable against Harbhajan Singh and played him very carefully. Similarly, Ashley Giles and Vaas. He dominated Dwayne Bravo.

All top bowlers have contained Kallis. Harbhajan, Vettori, Jayasuriya and Afridi all kept Kallis to below 65%. Kallis had no answer for Jason Gillespie. He also found Vettori and Afridi difficult to handle.

AB de Villiers (S/R: 93.8 BBD: 100.0%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
Shahid Afridi	260	212	81.5	86.9%	5	52.0	110	42.3%	44	20.8%
Saeed Ajmal	204	174	85.3	90.9%	6	34.0	104	51.0%	64	36.8%
Mohammad Hafeez	160	151	94.4	100.6%	1	160.0	64	40.0%	32	21.2%
P Utseya	116	133	114.7	122.2%	0	116.0	43	37.1%	28	21.1%
DJ Bravo	105	107	101.9	108.6%	0	105.0	43	41.0%	40	37.4%
Wahab Riaz	105	91	86.7	92.3%	0	105.0	49	46.7%	32	35.2%
DJG Sammy	103	78	75.7	80.7%	1	103.0	45	43.7%	12	15.4%
NW Bracken	102	73	71.6	76.3%	2	51.0	57	55.9%	28	38.4%
HMRKB Herath	101	82	81.2	86.5%	1	101.0	44	43.6%	20	24.4%
Mohammad Irfan	97	68	70.1	74.7%	1	97.0	50	51.5%	24	35.3%
MG Johnson	91	85	93.4	99.5%	3	30.3	49	53.8%	42	49.4%
Mohammad Asif	90	59	65.6	69.9%	0	90.0	66	73.3%	44	74.6%
Sohail Tanvir	75	91	121.3	129.3%	0	75.0	38	50.7%	62	68.1%

de Villiers is consistent like Sehwag. Overall low boundary percentage and quite low dot ball percentage against most bowlers. Look at his high BpW figures against most bowlers. Also the consistently high strike rates, barring Mohammad Asif.

Ajmal really dominated de Villiers. Johnson was also very effective and had the lowest BpW value against him. Afridi also dismissed de Villiers often. One feature of de Villiers is that he seems to have faced more bowlers than other batsmen in this group.

ST Jayasuriya (S/R: 91.2 BBD: 51.7%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
Zaheer Khan	291	243	83.5	91.6%	8	36.4	200	68.7%	144	59.3%
SM Pollock	225	153	68.0	74.6%	4	56.2	147	65.3%	76	49.7%
Syed Rasel	167	130	77.8	85.4%	2	83.5	116	69.5%	84	64.6%
Wasim Akram	161	107	66.5	72.9%	2	80.5	120	74.5%	68	63.6%
IK Pathan	153	151	98.7	108.2%	5	30.6	92	60.1%	92	60.9%
A Nehra	148	125	84.5	92.6%	3	49.3	91	61.5%	72	57.6%
B Lee	147	123	83.7	91.7%	4	36.8	103	70.1%	72	58.5%
Harbhajan Singh	146	108	74.0	81.1%	6	24.3	84	57.5%	48	44.4%
Mashrafe Mortaza	140	112	80.0	87.7%	3	46.7	101	72.1%	60	53.6%
DR Tuffey	139	93	66.9	73.4%	4	34.8	103	74.1%	72	77.4%
JM Anderson	138	127	92.0	100.9%	3	46.0	93	67.4%	64	50.4%
Waqar Younis	135	140	103.7	113.7%	1	135.0	78	57.8%	92	65.7%
SJ Harmison	122	132	108.2	118.6%	3	40.7	77	63.1%	76	57.6%
KD Mills	94	77	81.9	89.8%	4	23.5	66	70.2%	62	80.5%
AB Agarkar	72	62	86.1	94.4%	6	12.0	48	66.7%	44	71.0%
NW Bracken	71	38	53.5	58.7%	5	14.2	50	70.4%	20	52.6%
HH Streak	52	44	84.6	92.8%	4	13.0	34	65.4%	24	54.5%
Umar Gul	50	43	86.0	94.3%	4	12.5	29	58.0%	28	65.1%

Based on these figures one has to conclude that Jayasuriya handled the fearsome pace the best of all batsmen in this group. A strike rate exceeding 100 and a BpW figure of 135 against Waqar Younis. He also attacked Steve Harmison but lost his wicket often. Look at the high boundary % against most bowlers.

Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan, Umar Gul and Heath Streak mastered the irrepressible Jayasuriya. Possibly, Harbhajan was the most difficult of the bowlers he faced.

KC Sangakkara (S/R: 77.3 BBD: 96.5%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
Zaheer Khan	339	266	78.5	101.5%	5	67.8	213	62.8%	154	57.9%
Harbhajan Singh	324	243	75.0	97.0%	7	46.3	173	53.4%	92	37.9%
Shahid Afridi	294	245	83.3	107.8%	8	36.8	117	39.8%	72	29.4%
IK Pathan	284	210	73.9	95.6%	5	56.8	188	66.2%	124	59.0%
GB Hogg	236	182	77.1	99.7%	4	59.0	118	50.0%	48	26.4%
Mohammad Hafeez	231	138	59.7	77.3%	2	115.5	116	50.2%	24	17.4%
V Sehwag	224	197	87.9	113.7%	5	44.8	89	39.7%	44	22.3%
Umar Gul	224	161	71.9	92.9%	1	224.0	151	67.4%	76	47.2%
B Lee	223	192	86.1	111.3%	5	44.6	132	59.2%	120	62.5%
Abdul Razzaq	196	129	65.8	85.1%	5	39.2	111	56.6%	44	34.1%
I Sharma	185	174	94.1	121.6%	2	92.5	108	58.4%	112	64.4%
Saeed Ajmal	179	126	70.4	91.0%	4	44.8	95	53.1%	40	31.7%
P Kumar	164	122	74.4	96.2%	5	32.8	95	57.9%	52	42.6%
MM Patel	130	85	65.4	84.6%	4	32.5	89	68.5%	48	56.5%
A Nehra	96	67	69.8	90.2%	5	19.2	61	63.5%	32	47.8%
Mohammad Rafique	88	94	106.8	138.1%	4	22.0	31	35.2%	40	42.6%
RP Singh	47	33	70.2	90.8%	4	11.8	38	80.9%	24	72.7%

Sangakkara absolutely dominated Gul. He faced 224 balls and lost his wicket only once. He also attacked Ishant Sharma very effectively. And Lee too, although he lost his wicket a few times to the bowler. He handled the innocuous spin of Mohammad Hafeez quite effectively.

Afridi really troubled Sangakkara and dismissed him most often. Hafeez kept him quiet. Mohammad Rafique and RP Singh dismissed Sangakkara at low BpW values.

CH Gayle (S/R: 84.2 BBD: 93.2%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
SM Pollock	238	158	66.4	78.8%	5	47.6	166	69.7%	72	45.6%
JM Anderson	221	179	81.0	96.2%	6	36.8	155	70.1%	72	40.2%
B Lee	191	172	90.1	106.9%	6	31.8	121	63.4%	112	65.1%
D Gough	185	116	62.7	74.4%	2	92.5	144	77.8%	72	62.1%
AB Agarkar	172	146	84.9	100.8%	7	24.6	115	66.9%	88	60.3%
Harbhajan Singh	161	119	73.9	87.8%	5	32.2	94	58.4%	32	26.9%
RW Price	160	93	58.1	69.0%	0	160.0	97	60.6%	24	25.8%
WPUJC Vaas	158	55	34.8	41.3%	3	52.7	129	81.6%	24	43.6%
KD Mills	154	116	75.3	89.4%	6	25.7	102	66.2%	24	20.7%
Naved-ul-Hasan	125	105	84.0	99.7%	6	20.8	86	68.8%	80	76.2%
Umar Gul	75	62	82.7	98.1%	4	18.8	48	64.0%	28	45.2%
SR Watson	38	37	97.4	115.6%	4	9.5	21	55.3%	16	43.2%
DE Bollinger	26	33	126.9	150.7%	4	6.5	18	69.2%	12	36.4%

For some obscure reason Gayle played Raymond Price very carefully, with a strike rate of 58 but no wicket lost in 160 balls. He attacked Lee but also got out often.

There are many bowlers who got Gayle out a number of times and had very low sub-25 BpW figures: Gul, Naved-ul-Hasan, Doug Bollinger, Shane Watson and Kyle Mills.

Shahid Afridi (S/R: 115.6 BBD: 59.9%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
SL Malinga	83	96	115.7	100.0%	5	16.6	38	45.8%	40	41.7%
M Muralitharan	76	86	113.2	97.9%	6	12.7	43	56.6%	24	27.9%
Zaheer Khan	71	110	154.9	134.0%	0	71.0	32	45.1%	60	54.5%
M Ntini	71	108	152.1	131.6%	4	17.8	31	43.7%	48	44.4%
DR Tuffey	66	41	62.1	53.7%	1	66.0	49	74.2%	24	58.5%
A Nehra	64	86	134.4	116.2%	3	21.3	34	53.1%	52	60.5%
HH Streak	62	51	82.3	71.1%	1	62.0	40	64.5%	8	15.7%
Shakib Al Hasan	62	77	124.2	107.4%	3	20.7	31	50.0%	32	41.6%
IK Pathan	60	71	118.3	102.4%	7	8.6	28	46.7%	24	33.8%
SM Pollock	53	77	145.3	125.7%	4	13.2	28	52.8%	40	51.9%
JH Kallis	50	81	162.0	140.1%	3	16.7	25	50.0%	32	39.5%
JDP Oram	46	64	139.1	120.3%	5	9.2	20	43.5%	20	31.2%
L Balaji	45	73	162.2	140.3%	1	45.0	26	57.8%	44	60.3%
GP Swann	45	61	135.6	117.2%	1	45.0	16	35.6%	16	26.2%
Abdur Razzak	43	74	172.1	148.9%	0	43.0	13	30.2%	24	32.4%
LL Tsotsobe	35	66	188.6	163.1%	3	11.7	12	34.3%	28	42.4%
NLTC Perera	35	50	142.9	123.6%	4	8.8	13	37.1%	24	48.0%
JM Anderson	32	16	50.0	43.2%	5	6.4	18	56.2%	0	0.0%
JN Gillespie	27	10	37.0	32.0%	4	6.8	21	77.8%	4	40.0%
Shafiul Islam	27	62	229.6	198.6%	2	13.5	10	37.0%	36	58.1%

Finally we come to Afridi. Quite difficult to analyse since 83 balls are the most that he has faced off a single bowler. It is also essential to only look at the strike rate since that was Afridi. Capturing his wicket after he scored 30 in 12 was nothing great. Afridi lorded over Zaheer, Ntini, Pollock, Kallis, Balaji, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Abdur Razzak: all with strike rates exceeding 150.

Tuffey kept Afridi quiet. Even though Anderson and Gillespie they bowled fewer balls, they kept him quiet and also dismissed him often. Irfan Pathan handled Afridi very well.

KP Pietersen (S/R: 86.6 BBD: 100.0%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
Yuvraj Singh	148	114	77.0	89.0%	4	37.0	80	54.1%	40	35.1%
A Nel	121	130	107.4	124.1%	2	60.5	59	48.8%	56	43.1%
Harbhajan Singh	119	85	71.4	82.5%	3	39.7	68	57.1%	24	28.2%
DL Vettori	107	62	57.9	66.9%	2	53.5	61	57.0%	12	19.4%
RP Singh	90	94	104.4	120.6%	0	90.0	52	57.8%	56	59.6%
Zaheer Khan	90	77	85.6	98.8%	1	90.0	48	53.3%	40	51.9%
RR Powar	87	57	65.5	75.7%	0	87.0	51	58.6%	20	35.1%
Shahid Afridi	85	58	68.2	78.8%	2	42.5	50	58.8%	16	27.6%
R Ashwin	85	81	95.3	110.1%	1	85.0	33	38.8%	28	34.6%
I Sharma	83	77	92.8	107.1%	3	27.7	48	57.8%	44	57.1%
RA Jadeja	83	59	71.1	82.1%	1	83.0	43	51.8%	8	13.6%
JDP Oram	81	52	64.2	74.1%	1	81.0	52	64.2%	24	46.2%
Mohammad Hafeez	79	46	58.2	67.3%	0	79.0	46	58.2%	8	17.4%
MG Johnson	78	53	67.9	78.5%	3	26.0	49	62.8%	24	45.3%
DE Bollinger	75	51	68.0	78.5%	1	75.0	48	64.0%	24	47.1%
N Boje	66	83	125.8	145.2%	1	66.0	31	47.0%	16	19.3%
JH Kallis	56	78	139.3	160.9%	1	56.0	20	35.7%	40	51.3%

Look at the number of left-arm spinners who have bowled to Pietersen. But Pietersen seems to have handled Yuvraj Singh well. He was effective against Andre Nel, Zaheer, RP Singh, Nicky Boje and Kallis.

Vettori and Hafeez kept KP quiet. Yuvraj, Ishant and Johnson struck often.

SP Fleming (S/R: 71.5 BBD: 53.3%)

Bowler	Balls	Runs	HtH-S/R	S/R-%	Wkts	BpW	DBs	DB %	4s6s	4s6s %
SM Pollock	229	140	61.1	85.5%	2	114.5	155	67.7%	64	45.7%
M Ntini	225	163	72.4	101.3%	3	75.0	147	65.3%	98	60.1%
B Lee	166	106	63.9	89.3%	6	27.7	118	71.1%	56	52.8%
NW Bracken	160	90	56.2	78.7%	4	40.0	132	82.5%	52	57.8%
Zaheer Khan	156	110	70.5	98.6%	1	156.0	115	73.7%	76	69.1%
GD McGrath	155	85	54.8	76.7%	4	38.8	111	71.6%	44	51.8%
Mohammad Sami	154	110	71.4	99.9%	3	51.3	115	74.7%	72	65.5%
A Nehra	148	93	62.8	87.9%	4	37.0	109	73.6%	60	64.5%
JH Kallis	137	112	81.8	114.4%	3	45.7	77	56.2%	48	42.9%
J Srinath	125	41	32.8	45.9%	3	41.7	106	84.8%	20	48.8%
A Nel	120	111	92.5	129.4%	1	120.0	79	65.8%	64	57.7%
Azhar Mahmood	118	82	69.5	97.2%	3	39.3	70	59.3%	40	48.8%
AA Donald	114	91	79.8	111.7%	2	57.0	67	58.8%	48	52.7%
Abdul Razzaq	108	76	70.4	98.4%	2	54.0	66	61.1%	36	47.4%
L Klusener	101	97	96.0	134.3%	2	50.5	49	48.5%	44	45.4%
WPUJC Vaas	98	40	40.8	57.1%	6	16.3	77	78.6%	20	50.0%

Stephen Fleming handled Zaheer, Pollock and Nel very well. In general, he was reasonably free scoring but did not exceed 100 off any bowler.

Fleming struggled against Vaas, Glenn McGrath and Lee. Javagal Srinath and McGrath kept Fleming quiet. Vaas probably had the complete hold over Fleming.

Interesting insights from complete table (Highs and lows)

Afridi bowled 394 balls to Mahela Jayawardene.
Jayawardene scored 279 runs off Afridi.
Michael Hussey scored 140 runs in 80 balls off Mills at a strike rate of 166%.
Michael Bevan scored 1 run off 33 balls from Walsh: a strike rate of 3%.
Mohammad Yousuf scored at 186 (67 off 36) against Mluleki Nkala which is 247.8% of his career strike rate of 75.1%.
Paul Collingwood captured Fernando's wicket 9 times. As did Shakib Al Hasan the wicket of Elton Chigumbura.
Afridi bowled 248 deliveries to Michael Clarke and dismissed him only once. Oram bowled 196 balls to Ponting without dismissing the legend even once.
Bollinger to Dinesh Chandimal, McGrath to Ashwell Prince and Agarkar to Dwayne Smith all resulted in bowler-dominant 3-wickets-in-5-balls results. Umesh Yadav captured Denesh Ramdin's wicket 4 times in 8 deliveries.
Vettori bowled 210 dot balls to Ponting. Out of the 74 balls Pollock bowled to Otieno, 66 (89.2%) were dot balls. Gayle bowled 82 balls to Younis Khan and a mere 20 (24.4%) were dot balls.
Sehwag scored 184 runs in boundaries off Mills, 162 runs off Kulasekara and 158 runs off Vaas. These are the top three boundary accumulations.
Gayle scored 68 of the 73 runs he scored off James Franklin in boundaries (93.2%). At the other end, Clarke scored only 4 out of the 72 runs he scored off Michael Yardy (5.6%) in boundaries. The amazing fact is that Clarke conceded only 22 dot balls and had an excellent strike rate of 87.8 against Yardy. Singles and twos galore.

I have created a huge Excel sheet containing the 30+ balls head-to-head confrontations of all batsman-v-bowler confrontations. This file contains data for nearly 9000 such contests and is ordered by batsman. Interested readers can get many insights that I have not been able to highlight in this article. To download/view the Excel file, please CLICK HERE.

By some distance these are the toughest articles to write. The perusal of tables to look for exceptions amongst multiple measures and writing these down for player after player is one never-ending task. I hope the next article, the one on Test batsmen consistency, will be quite different.