When the lower order comes up tops

One of the outstanding features of the recent season of Test cricket in South Africa was the manner in which the lower-order of all teams came to the party and contributed significantly. India had Anil Kumble and Sreesanth doing their bit, Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Sami contributed handily for Pakistan, but neither team's lower order was quite as imposing as the South Africans'. With their specialist batsmen failing with shocking regularity, it was often left to the allrounders to bail the team out, and they did a magnificent job - Mark Boucher averaged 41 in the series, Shaun Pollock was only marginally behind him at 39.50, while even Andre Nel chipped in with a few.

For South Africa, though, this is hardly a recent phenomenon. Brian McMillan and Dave Richardson were immense with bat in hand in the 1990s, and the players who have taken over have been worthy successors. The table below compares the contributions of the lower order (numbers six to nine) with those of the entire team, and South Africa's numbers - a lower-order average of nearly 29 per wicket - is impressive.

Even those numbers pale, though, when compared to New Zealand's. Their brittle top order ensures the runs scored by the lower middle order gets accentuated even more, but as the table indicates, New Zealand's lower-order cast outperforms all the other sides, and by quite a distance.

It's hardly surprising, then, that among the top eight batsmen between positions six and nine, three have been taken by New Zealanders. Heading the list is none other than the 'poor man's Chris Cairns'. Since 2003, Jacob Oram has had rich returns of 1165 runs at 41.60, which is sufficient to just pip Adam Gilchrist to second place.

Brendon McCullum's name isn't much of a surprise, but have a look at the fourth name on the table. Daniel Vettori was, in the early years of his career, an occasionally competent batsman, but in the last four years he has done well enough to merit the tag of an allrounder - he averages 34.93 with the ball during this - and has even outbatted Nathan Astle and Scott Styris, two of New Zealand's specialist batsmen.

Apart from New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka are the only sides with more than one player in the top ten, while India and Pakistan go unrepresented. Kamran Akmal is Pakistan's best (1220 runs at 30.50) while Irfan Pathan's average of 27.44 is the highest that India have managed.

The table for lower-order partnerships further reinforces just how effective New Zealand have been - their average of 38 runs per dismissal (for wickets six to eight) is well clear of the second-placed Australia.

For the beleaguered England fans, the next table will be a reminder of more cheerful times, when Geraint Jones was the preferred wicketkeeper in Tests and justified that faith imposed in him with several crucial partnerships with Andrew Flintoff. Among pairs with the highest averages for the sixth, seventh or eighth wickets, the Flintoff-Jones combine are on top of the tree. It's hardly a surprise to see Oram and Vettori next in the list, but not many would have guessed that the No. 3 spot will be taken by a Bangladeshi pair: Rajin Saleh and Khaled Mashud average an impressive 41.63 per dismissal in their 12 partnerships. Among all Bangladeshi pairs who have batted together at least ten times, only one has done better - Hannan Sarkar, the now-forgotten opening batsman, and Habibul Bashar added 614 runs on the 11 occasions they batted together, for an average of 55.81.

Again, batsmen from New Zealand dominate the list, with four pairs. And the only one to make an appearance three times in the table is a name that was discussed at some length earlier in the column - Daniel Vettori's partnerships with Oram, James Franklin and McCullum all make it to the list.