Warne's winning ways, and Strauss's stunning start

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

Warne on a roll
In the midst of all the comments about Glenn McGrath's incredible bowling performance and Pakistan's abject batting display, one significant stat after the Perth Test went almost unnoticed: Shane Warne became the first bowler in Test cricket to take 400 wickets in matches won by Australia.

It's an awesome achievement, and says as much about the bowler as it does about the team he plays in. Of the 118 matches Warne has played so far, he has ended up on the winning side 71 times, and his performances in those games have been outstanding.

The table below shows just how far ahead of the pack he is: apart from Glenn McGrath, who has 338 wickets in wins, the next best is Muttiah Muralitharan, with 257. Murali may go past Warne - and any other contender, for that matter - in the overall wickets tally, but unless Sri Lanka suddenly conjure up an all-conquering side, beating Warne in the wickets-in-wins category might be beyond even Murali.

Warne has so far taken 72% of his 555 wickets in matches won by Australia. McGrath's percentage is almost as good, but apart from Malcolm Marshall, none of the other bowlers with at least 300 Test wickets come close to that figure. Only 40% of Richard Hadlee's victims were in wins, but the unluckiest of them all was Kapil Dev, for whom that number was a ridiculously low 20.74%.

Strauss's dream start
How good a batsman is Andrew Strauss? After his matchwinning performance at Port Elizabeth, comparisons are being drawn - not without justification - with Graham Thorpe. The two added 95 in the fourth innings and were undefeated at the end, turning a tense run-chase into a canter. More than the sheer number of runs he scored, it was the situation in which Strauss scored them, and his demeanour at the crease, that tempts the comparison. Both are technically excellent, have a wide range of strokes, are completely unflappable and bring out their best in a crisis. In fact, Thorpe and Strauss have been at the forefront of two of England's last three fourth-innings run-chases: Thorpe had made an unbeaten 104 in the third Test against New Zealand earlier this year.

And there are a couple of statistical similarities too: both made centuries on debut, with Strauss being the first Englishman to achieve that feat since Thorpe had made an unbeaten 114 against Australia 11 seasons ago at Nottingham. Both ended their first series with very similar averages, but since then, Strauss has pulled away - after eight Tests, Strauss already has three hundreds to his credit, Thorpe didn't manage his second till his 13th Test, which was also against Australia, at Perth. And of course, Thorpe had only one win to celebrate after his first eight Tests, while Strauss hasn't tasted a defeat or even a draw.

However, eight of Thorpe's first 15 Tests were against the Australians, and he came through that baptism with flying colours, scoring 674 runs at 48.14, with two hundreds. Strauss faces his test next summer, but if his current performances are any indicator, you wouldn't bet against him achieving similar success.

Australia's Boxing Day punch
The Boxing Day Test is always a special occasion in Australia, but this time it could be extra special: the win at Perth against Pakistan was their 299th Test victory, and given the manner in which that was achieved, there is every indication that they will record their 300th win before the year is done. The table below shows just how far ahead of the rest of the pack they are - and also the amazing rate at which they have notched their last 50 wins.

S Rajesh is assistant editor of Cricinfo.