Gilchrist's slump, and a year for the middle order

With the team in need of quick runs to force a declaration in the second innings at Melbourne, Adam Gilchrist did exactly what his captain would have wanted him to: he went for his strokes right from the outset. Unfortunately for him, his attempted pull off the first ball went straight to deep midwicket, and Gilchrist trudged off for his 11th Test duck. It mattered little in the context for the match, but on a personal front it was a significant score - for the first time since his 17th Test, Gilchrist's career average slipped below the 50-mark.

Since making his Test debut in 1999, Gilchrist has combined his thrill-a-minute batting style with amazing consistency: he scores his runs at 82 per 100 balls, yet has been managing to maintain an average of more than 50. After scoring 81 in his debut innings, Gilchrist saw his average drop to less than 50 when he managed just 6 in his next knock, at Hobart against Pakistan. Three days later, though, his average had leapt up to 118 following that magnificent unbeaten 149 in an astonishing run-chase, an innings with which he announced himself to the world.

His first major blip came on the tour to India, when, after smashing 122 of the finest runs in the first Test, he registered pin-code-like scores of 0,0,1,1 in his next four innings. That sequence brought his average plummeting from 58.35 to 47.33 - the drop being exaggerated due to the small sample of matches in his bag. Immediately after the Indian tour, though, normal service was restored when Gilchrist - in his 18th Test - hammered 152 off England at Edgbaston to take his average back to the dizzy heights of 52.09. A slump followed between Tests 51 and 60 - his average after 60 games was 50.72 - but he averted a further drop with some scintillating displays in his next ten games. The current lean trot is easily his worst - in 11 Tests since embarking on that wretched tour to England this summer, Gilchrist has managed a mere 380 runs at a miserable average of 22.35. To get back up to a 50 average, Gilchrist needs to score 68 if he bats once, and 118 in he gets a chance in both innings in the third Test against South Africa at Sydney. (Click here for Gilchrist's cumulative stats.)

When the middle order topped
With another year drawing to a close, it's time to look back at the numbers that 2005 threw up - was this more of a batsman's year than 2004, or did the bowlers have their say? Did the openers feast on a supposed lack of quality new-ball bowlers? Did the apparent improvement of lower-order batsmen manifest itself in more runs for the tail?

As it turns out, the bowlers did have a better time of it in 2005 than they had in the last two years - the runs per wicket in Tests dropped to 33.54, though in ODIs it improved when compared to the last two years.

It was also a fruitful year for the lower order - they came up with more meaty contributions in both forms of the game. Among the most successful were Daniel Vettori (381 runs at 63.50), Dwayne Bravo (351, 50.14) and Nicky Boje (325, 40.62)

In 2005, Nos.4 and 5 were the positions to bat in. Brian Lara's 1093 runs at 68.31 went a long way in propping up the cause of the No.4 slot, while Jacques Kallis scored fewer runs - 870 - but at a marginally better rate - 72.50. Pakistan's two middle-order giants, Inzamam-ul-Haq (335, 83.75) and Yousuf Youhana (536, 67.00) were the other major contributors. Michael Hussey started late, but he did his bit to bolster the No.5 stats, scoring 339 runs at 113, while Inzamam-ul-Haq - 664 runs at 110.66 - didn't do badly either. Among those who batted at that position on a consistent basis through the year, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (923 runs at 65.92) and Kevin Pietersen (649 runs at 49.92) were the stars. Despite Ricky Ponting's stunning year at No.3 - 1491 runs at 67.77 - that position only managed an overall average of 39.46, well below their 2003 stats, when Ponting had again led the charge.

Despite Gilchrist's rotten run for the better part of the year, he still ends up as the most prolific wicketkeeper, thanks to his superb run in the early part of 2005, when he notched up consecutive hundreds in three Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand.