Of boundaries, dots, and everything in between

Plenty has been written and said about Australia and their aggressive cricket over the last week, and while there are aspects that haven't gone down well with viewers, there's little doubt that Australia's aggression stands for much more than giving lip to the opposition. So much happened in Sydney that it's easy to forget their domination in Melbourne, but that game was the perfect example of how Australia have been controlling opposition line-ups over the last few years.

In the first Test, Australia strangled India so completely that almost 83% of the balls bowled to them were dots; India ran only 65 singles, and despite the size of the outfield, managed just 11 threes. When India were bowling, on the other hand, Australia stole 195 singles, and exposed the weak arms of the opposition, running 29 threes.

The table below looks at scoring patterns of teams since 2004, and it's clear that the Australians are ahead of the pack in almost all aspects: they play fewer dot-balls, and run more singles and threes than any of the other sides. The only aspect in which they have fallen behind is boundary-hitting, where the teams from the subcontinent lead the way. India have struck a four or a six from 7.34% of the deliveries they have faced, for Pakistan the corresponding percentage is 7.22, and both are marginally higher than Australia's 7.08. That can partially be explained by the venues at which these teams play. Outfields are much quicker and smaller in India and Pakistan than in Australia - but even with the quicker outfields, India will be hard pressed to explain why they have only taken 254 threes in 76 innings. Convert that figure into threes as a percentage of balls faced, and India, with 0.59%, are comfortably at the bottom of the pile.

Comparing the teams in the field brings out similar results: Australia are the tightest of the lot, bowling the most dot balls and conceding the least singles. The relatively greater number of threes they concede is probably a function of the bigger outfields in Australia and the attacking fields they usually set.

The difference between Australia and the rest has been especially stark at the MCG, a venue where the home team have won nine games in a row. The four teams that have played them here since 2000 have all struggled. Australia have played fewer dot balls and run a lot more singles than the opposition.

Australia have been equally impressive in the field as well. Pakistan, for instance, have conceded more than twice as many singles as Australia have.

Moving away from the teams and looking at individuals, the Australians again dominate the list of singles and threes. Twenty per cent of the deliveries faced by Adam Gilchrist go for singles, while the dot-ball percentage for him is also, as you'd expect, the lowest among batsmen who have scored at least 2000 runs since 2004.

The top six in the next table - the most threes, as a percentage of balls faced - are all Australians, though a significant reason for that is also the fact that they play most of their cricket on grounds which facilitate plenty of threes.

Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman lead the way among batsmen with the smallest percentage of threes. That might not be surprising, but at No. 6 is Herschelle Gibbs, who has only taken 25 threes in more than 4000 deliveries in Tests since 2004.