The year of the No. 3
Perhaps numbers never do reveal the full story, but they tell a large part of it
Perhaps the most common lament in cricket today is the absence of quality strike bowlers, making the job of scoring runs far easier for today's batsman. The year 2003 reflected the batsman's domination over the bowler quite clearly: the average runs per wicket over 44 Tests in the year was 34, three-and-a-half runs more than the average in 2002. In fact, the runs-per-wicket figure in 2003 was the highest in the last 14 years. The highest average in one series was 42.6, in the four-Test encounter between West Indies and Australia.
Year | Tests | Runs | Dismissals | Average |
2003 | 44 | 45811 | 1347 | 34.01 |
2002 | 54 | 50831 | 1666 | 30.51 |
2001 | 55 | 52035 | 1644 | 31.65 |
2000 | 46 | 38441 | 1398 | 27.5 |
1999 | 43 | 38349 | 1312 | 29.23 |
1998 | 45 | 40256 | 1431 | 28.13 |
1997 | 44 | 39898 | 1314 | 30.36 |
1996 | 28 | 25564 | 895 | 28.56 |
1995 | 40 | 33920 | 1209 | 28.06 |
1994 | 38 | 36337 | 1191 | 30.51 |
1993 | 36 | 31654 | 1027 | 30.82 |
1992 | 26 | 23507 | 801 | 29.35 |
1991 | 21 | 19088 | 617 | 30.94 |
1990 | 26 | 22591 | 767 | 29.45 |
2003 was also the year of the No. 3 batsman. Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid were the most prominent ones, but there were plenty of others who came in at that position and made merry - Stephen Fleming, Gary Kirsten, Jacques Rudolph and Yasir Hameed all had more than their fair share of success. And then there were others whose overall stats for the year weren't exceptional, but who had spectacular success at one-down. Nasser Hussain averaged a modest 37.42 through the year, but in the two innings he played at No. 3 he scored 95 and 23 not out - an average of 118. The story repeats itself for Scott Styris: an average of 32.18 through the year, but in his only innings at three - against India at Mohali - he scored 119.
Position | Runs | Ave | 100s | 50s | 0s | Leading scorer |
# 1/2 | 12566 | 40.80 | 31 | 56 | 24 | Hayden |
# 3 | 8131 | 55.69 | 26 | 32 | 8 | Ponting |
# 4 | 6299 | 44.36 | 17 | 27 | 7 | Lara |
# 5 | 4975 | 36.85 | 11 | 24 | 14 | Waugh |
# 6 | 4142 | 31.38 | 7 | 20 | 15 | Chanderpaul |
# 7 | 3676 | 30.38 | 5 | 18 | 14 | Flintoff |
Tests
|
Runs
|
Avg
|
100s
|
50s
|
|
Ponting |
11
|
1492
|
106.57
|
6
|
4
|
Dravid |
5
|
803
|
100.38
|
2
|
3
|
Fleming |
5
|
524
|
74.86
|
2
|
-
|
Kirsten |
6
|
534
|
66.75
|
2
|
3
|
Rudolph |
5
|
390
|
65.00
|
1
|
1
|
Yasir Hameed |
7
|
589
|
53.55
|
2
|
2
|
Butcher |
13
|
937
|
44.62
|
3
|
5
|
Bashar |
9
|
801
|
44.5
|
1
|
7
|
Muttiah Muralitharan and Stuart MacGill may have got a bagful of wickets in 2003, but overall, the plight of spinners wasn't very encouraging - they managed to take just under 30% of the total wickets which fell in the year, at a rather high average of nearly 40. Together, Murali and MacGill scalped 105 wickets in 18 matches at 24.1, nearly 30% of the total wickets taken by spinners over the year.
Pace | Spin | |||||
Year | Total wkts | Wkts | Avg | Wkts | Avg |
% wickets by seamers
|
2003 | 1214 | 851 | 33.23 | 363 | 39.91 |
70.1
|
2002 | 1544 | 1059 | 32.04 | 485 | 30.04 |
68.6
|
2001 | 1534 | 1022 | 32.69 | 512 | 33.29 |
66.6
|
2000 | 1355 | 951 | 27.13 | 404 | 34.25 |
70.2
|
1999 | 1273 | 868 | 30.88 | 405 | 33.11 |
68.2
|