The Waugh that raged during crises

Perhaps numbers do never reveal the full story, but they tell a large part of it fairly well. Every Friday, The Numbers Game will take a look at statistics from the present and the past, busting myths and revealing hidden truths.

Waugh to the rescue
Sachin Tendulkar steals a march over him in terms of technical perfection and allround strokeplay, Brian Lara's genius is far more exhilarating to watch, but ask anyone to name a batsman most likely to bail his team out of trouble, and chances are the name will be Steve Waugh. As the table below shows, Waugh saved his best for times when his side was in trouble: of his 32 centuries, nine came in back-to-the-wall situations when Australia had lost early wickets. Significantly, Australia went on to win five out of those eight matches. (Two of those nine hundreds came in the same match, against England at Manchester in 1997.)

Eight out of these nine were first-innings efforts, though. For all of Waugh's ability to turn it on at the crunch, his second-innings stats are surprisingly ordinary - just two hundreds and an average of less than 31.

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Better than the Don
And here's one stat where Waugh outperforms even Don Bradman: in the 32 innings in which Waugh has scored a hundred, he averages more than 255, which is the highest among batsmen with at least 20 centuries. Bradman is in fourth place while Sachin Tendulkar just makes it to the top eight. Waugh's staggering average is, admittedly, a result of a disproportionately high number of not-outs: 15 out of his 32 centuries have been unbeaten ones. Disregard those, and his average comes down to a more earthy 135.

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The dead-rubber master
Waugh's incredible record as captain has much to do with the fact that he was handed a champion side by Mark Taylor, but Waugh has undoubtedly taken the team to an even higher level. He has instilled in them the hard-nosed and ruthless approach that characterises his own game. Nowhere is this new steel more apparent than in Australia's tendency to show no mercy even when their opponent has been well and truly beaten. During Taylor's days, Australia recorded some historic wins, but would tend to slip up once the main task at hand - winning the series - was completed. As the table below shows, under Waugh the Australians have significantly improved their record in dead rubbers: despite recent defeats against England and West Indies, their win-loss record in dead Tests is an impressive 11-3.

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The motivator
A captain is recognised not only by the ability to lift his own game, but also by the ability to inspire his team-mates to excel. Since Waugh had a team which was largely unchanged from the players whom Taylor led, it becomes possible to compare how the players performed under those two captains. Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting have done considerably better under Waugh, but it's interesting to note that Mark Waugh was at his best when playing under Taylor.

Among the bowlers, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have played plenty of matches under both captains, and their performances have remained more or less constant. With players as accomplished as them, though, chances are that they would have performed just as well even in a team without a captain.

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The final target
With an average of 51.25 from 164 Tests and only four more matches to play at most, Waugh has virtually ensured that he ends his career with a 50-plus average. If he plays four more innings in the four Tests, Waugh will end up with an average of 50.28 even if he doesn't add a run to his current tally; if he bats six times, he needs to add just 40, while in eight the corresponding figure is 140. Given India's feeble bowling attack, a realistic challenge is Allan Border's record of 11174 Test runs: Waugh needs 514 more to become Test cricket's highest run-getter. Now that would be a fitting finale to a glittering career.

S Rajesh is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo.