Undaunted by ducks

Following last week's column, which featured batsmen with the best and worst averages in innings immediately after scoring a century, we had another request: for a list of players with the highest and lowest averages in innings immediately following a duck. Don Bradman had one of the best averages in innings right after a hundred, and surprise, surprise, his average in innings immediately after a duck is by far the highest.

Bradman made seven ducks in his 80 Test innings and he bounced back hard from each of them. His first zero was against West Indies at the SCG in February 1931. That failure was a distant memory when he scored 226 in his next innings, against South Africa at the Gabba nine months later. Bradman's second duck was a first-baller, bowled by Bill Bowes in the first innings at the MCG during the Bodyline series. He scored a match-winning 103 not out in the second. He was out for no score in consecutive innings against England in Brisbane and Sydney in 1936 before he made 82. Bradman's other scores after ducks were 56 not out and 38, giving him a total of 505 runs at an average of 126.25.

Kepler Wessels abhorred being dismissed for a duck. He was never dismissed for zero in 109 ODIs (105 innings), which is a record, and when he was out for no score in Tests, he came back strongly most times. Wessels followed his five ducks in Tests with scores of 0, 61, 173, 95 not out and 34, giving him an average of 90.75.

Adam Gilchrist and Virender Sehwag had poor averages in ODI innings soon after scoring a century but both have high Test averages in innings immediately after a duck. Gilchrist averages over 85, with four hundreds and five half-centuries, in 14 innings after scoring zeroes. Sehwag averages nearly 58 in 10 innings after ducks. His scores include 155 against Australia in Chennai in 2004, and 254 against Pakistan in Lahore 2006.

Highest average in innings following a duck - Tests (at least five ducks)

Player	Span

Inns NO Runs HS Ave 100

50 0 Career Diff

DG Bradman (Aus) 1928-1948 6 2 505

226 126.25 2 2 1

99.94 26.30 Younis Khan (Pak) 2000-2009 11

0 1084 313 98.54 5 1

0 51.80 46.73 KC Wessels (Aus/SA)

1982-1994 5 1 363 173 90.75

1 2 1 41.00 49.75

Saeed Anwar (Pak) 1990-2001 8 1 635

188* 90.71 2 3 1

45.52 45.18 AC Gilchrist (Aus) 1999-2008 14

3 940 144 85.45 4 5

2 47.60 37.84 RB McCosker (Aus)

1975-1980 5 1 340 105 85.00

1 3 0 39.56 45.43

Yuvraj Singh (India) 2003-2009 6 3 251

77* 83.66 0 3 0

35.56 48.10 R Dravid (ICC/India) 1996-2009 8

0 632 270 79.00 2 2

0 52.53 26.46 TW Graveney (Eng)

1951-1969 8 1 513 258 73.28

2 1 0 44.38 28.90

JH Kallis (ICC/SA) 1995-2009 10 1 638

160 70.88 3 3 0

54.66 16.22 MP Vaughan (Eng) 1999-2008 9

1 565 183 70.62 3 0

0 41.44 29.18 IR Redpath (Aus)

1964-1976 9 2 486 132 69.42

2 1 0 43.45 25.96

IR Bell (Eng) 2004-2009 7 0 484

199 69.14 1 4 1

40.59 28.54 SR Waugh (Aus) 1985-2004 22

5 1162 160 68.35 4 7

1 51.06 17.29 KG Viljoen (SA)

1930-1949 5 0 330 111 66.00

1 3 0 28.43 37.56

AJ Strauss (Eng) 2004-2009 9 1 492

177 61.50 1 3 0

44.26 17.23 Mohammad Yousuf (Pak) 1998-2007 8

0 490 159 61.25 2 2

0 55.49 5.75 GR Viswanath (India)

1969-1983 10 1 550 222 61.11

2 1 0 41.93 19.18

IVA Richards (WI) 1974-1991 10 1 529

182* 58.77 2 1 0

50.23 8.54 DB Vengsarkar (India) 1976-1992 15

3 698 109 58.16 2 4

1 42.13 16.03 V Sehwag (ICC/India)

2001-2009 10 0 579 254 57.90

2 0 0 50.06 7.83

It didn't make sense to simply look at the lowest averages in innings immediately after a duck - Mohammad Asif has 0.25, Chris Martin has 0.85 - so we looked at the largest differences between a batsman's average in innings immediately after a duck and his career average.

Hanif Mohammad was not the sort of batsman who'd bounce back immediately from a duck. He made five in his 55-Test career and scored 19, 5, 5, 3 and 2 in the innings that immediately followed. The difference of -37 between his post-duck average of 6.80 and career average of nearly 44 is the highest in our table.

Brian Lara never scored a century immediately after making a duck. He averages less than 28 in 17 such innings, with an aggregate of 474 and only five half-centuries.

Player Span Inns NO Runs

HS Ave 100 50 0

Career Diff Hanif Mohammad (Pak) 1952-1969

5 0 34 19 6.80 0

0 0 43.98 -37.18

L Hutton (Eng) 1937-1955 5 0 102 39

20.40 0 0 0 56.67

-36.27 VT Trumper (Aus) 1899-1912 7 1

61 16 10.16 0 0 2

39.04 -28.88 RN Harvey (Aus) 1948-1963

7 0 141 71 20.14 0

1 1 48.41 -28.27

RT Robinson (Eng) 1984-1989 5 0 41 19

8.20 0 0 0 36.38

-28.18 PJP Burge (Aus) 1955-1966 5 0

50 15 10.00 0 0 0

38.16 -28.16 LEG Ames (Eng) 1929-1939

5 1 57 19 14.25 0

0 0 40.56 -26.31

SL Campbell (WI) 1995-2002 7 0 48 24

6.85 0 0 2 32.38

-25.52 DPMD Jayawardene (SL) 1997-2009 10 0

281 57 28.10 0 2 1

53.23 -25.13 BC Lara (ICC/WI) 1990-2006

17 0 474 83 27.88 0

5 1 52.88 -25.00

MTG Elliott (Aus) 1996-2004 4 0 38 21

9.50 0 0 1 33.48

-23.98 GS Chappell (Aus) 1970-1984 12 2

299 65 29.90 0 3 1

53.86 -23.96 Majid Khan (Pak) 1964-1983

8 0 129 40 16.12 0

0 1 38.92 -22.79

TE Bailey (Eng) 1949-1959 6 0 42 18

7.00 0 0 1 29.74

-22.74 KR Stackpole (Aus) 1966-1974 4 0

60 33 15.00 0 0 1

37.42 -22.42 DL Amiss (Eng) 1966-1977

10 0 239 99 23.90 0

2 3 46.30 -22.40

TW Hayward (Eng) 1896-1909 7 0 88 28

12.57 0 0 0 34.46

-21.89 MC Cowdrey (Eng) 1954-1975 9 0

200 80 22.22 0 1 0

44.06 -21.84 KD Mackay (Aus) 1956-1963

6 0 70 29 11.66 0

0 2 33.48 -21.82

WW Hinds (WI) 2000-2005 6 0 71 28

11.83 0 0 1 33.01

-21.17

MS Dhoni began his ODI career with a duck - run out off his first ball - against Bangladesh in December 2004, and made 12 in his next innings. His scores after his next four ducks, however, were 80, 29, 91 not out, and 14 not out, giving him an average of 75 in five innings. Lance Klusener averaged 66.50 in his 13 innings after scoring a duck, largely because he remained not out in seven of them.

Span Inns NO Runs HS Ave

100 50 0 Career Diff

DM Jones (Aus) 1984-1994 6 2

318 84 79.50 0 4 1

44.61 34.88 MS Dhoni (Asia/India) 2004-2009

5 2 226 91* 75.33 0

2 0 49.26 26.06

L Klusener (SA) 1996-2004 13 7 399 103*

66.50 1 1 2 41.10

25.39 ALF de Mel (SL) 1982-1987 5 4

65 23* 65.00 0 0 1

14.56 50.43 WJ Cronje (SA) 1992-2000

8 3 312 112 62.40 1

2 1 38.64 23.75

NS Sidhu (India) 1987-1998 6 1 309 104*

61.80 1 1 0 37.08

24.71 DR Martyn (Aus) 1992-2006 10 4

355 68* 59.16 0 5 0

40.80 18.35 DB Vengsarkar (India) 1976-1991

7 2 295 54 59.00 0

2 0 34.73 24.26

DL Haynes (WI) 1978-1994 13 2 595 142*

54.09 1 5 0 41.37

12.71 GW Flower (Zim) 1992-2004 18 3

798 142* 53.20 2 5 1

33.69 19.50 Imran Nazir (Pak) 1999-2007

10 2 415 105* 51.87 1

2 0 24.77 27.09

BB McCullum (NZ) 2002-2009 10 3 355 96

50.71 0 2 0 28.44

22.26 Mohammad Yousuf (Asia/Pak) 1998-2008 15 1

706 141* 50.42 2 5 1

43.18 7.24 DL Houghton (Zim) 1983-1997

5 0 251 142 50.20 1

1 0 26.37 23.82

RR Singh (India) 1989-2001 5 1 197 75

49.25 0 1 0 25.95

23.29 IA Healy (Aus) 1988-1997 9 4

237 51 47.40 0 2 0

21.00 26.40 WW Hinds (WI) 1999-2006

8 3 236 54 47.20 0

1 0 28.92 18.27

SC Ganguly (Asia/India) 1992-2007 16 1 691 107*

46.06 1 5 0 41.02

5.04 MV Boucher (Afr/SA) 1998-2009 16 5

502 76 45.63 0 3 0

29.11 16.52 A Flower (Zim) 1992-2003

13 2 485 99* 44.09 0

5 1 35.34 8.74

Sachin Tendulkar has the second largest difference (-22) between his average in innings immediately after a duck and his career average. Tendulkar's been out for a duck 20 times in one-day internationals and his aggregate in innings immediately after is only 424 at an average of 22.31, with one century and two fifties, compared to his career figure of 44.37.

Player Span Inns NO Runs

HS Ave 100 50 0

Career Diff M Kaif (India) 2002-2006

8 0 74 32 9.25 0

0 2 32.01 -22.76

SR Tendulkar (India) 1989-2009 20 1 424 101

22.31 1 2 3 44.37

-22.05 RB Richardson (WI) 1983-1996 8 0

96 50 12.00 0 1 1

33.41 -21.41 CL Hooper (WI) 1987-2003

7 2 75 34 15.00 0

0 0 35.34 -20.34

MJ Clarke (Aus) 2003-2009 9 1 175 48

21.87 0 0 2 41.19

-19.31 GS Chappell (Aus) 1971-1983 7 1

130 35 21.66 0 0 1

40.18 -18.52 AJ Lamb (Eng) 1982-1992

8 0 168 52 21.00 0

1 0 39.31 -18.31

S Chanderpaul (WI) 1994-2009 5 1 94 27

23.50 0 0 0 41.54

-18.04 IVA Richards (WI) 1975-1991 7 0

206 62 29.42 0 1 0

47.00 -17.57 HH Streak (Afr/Zim) 1993-2005

6 1 54 19* 10.80 0

0 0 28.29 -17.49

LPC Silva (SL) 1999-2008 5 0 68 35

13.60 0 0 1 30.09

-16.49 A Symonds (Aus) 1998-2008 15 3

287 103* 23.91 1 0 3

40.37 -16.45 AL Logie (WI) 1981-1993

13 2 144 45* 13.09 0

0 5 28.95 -15.86

A Flintoff (Eng/ICC) 1999-2009 9 0 147 43

16.33 0 0 2 32.01

-15.68 R Dravid (Asia/ICC/India) 1996-2007 13 0

312 99 24.00 0 2 0

39.49 -15.49 PA Strang (Zim) 1994-2001

5 1 29 16 7.25 0

0 1 22.24 -14.99

TM Moody (Aus) 1987-1999 6 0 50 19

8.33 0 0 2 23.28

-14.95 CM Spearman (NZ) 1995-2001 6 0

25 11 4.16 0 0 1

18.72 -14.55 Shoaib Mohammad (Pak) 1984-1993

8 0 80 43 10.00 0

0 3 24.40 -14.40

DPMD Jayawardene (Asia/SL) 1998-2009 23 1 401 101

18.22 1 1 6 32.03

-13.81