The Statistician in me - 3

This should be the most analyzed stat in the history of Indian cricket, the stat on Sachin's second innings performance. Well couldn't stop myself from digging this one out after Sachin remains unbeaten overnight against the English.

	Sachin	Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
	Career	1989-2011	181	14909	248*	56.26	51
	3rd Innings	1989-2011	168	2839	176	48.11	10
	4th Innings	1989-2011	117	1439	136	38.89	3
	Both 3rd and 4th	1989-2011	168	4278	176	44.56	13

Well the number on the 4th innings is really a cause of concern, for a batsman to have stayed in the international arena for more than 2 decades and still not reach an average of 40 is a bit of a disappointment. We are talking about a batsman with NO possible deficiency in technique and the best batsmen of our generation, on the other hand the average on the 3rd innings looks a lot better relatively. But when you take the entire second innings as factor, i would say it looks decent. I think both these numbers are best understood when compared against the other top batsmen at the same era.

	Lara	Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
	Career	1990-2006	131	11953	400*	52.88	34
	3rd Innings	1990-2006	125	2264	145	40.42	7
	4th Innings	1990-2006	95	1440	153*	35.12	2
	Both 3rd and 4th	1990-2006	125	3704	153*	38.18	9
	Ponting	Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
	Career	1995-2010	152	12363	257	53.51	39
	3rd Innings	1995-2010	150	2278	116	38.61	2
	4th Innings	1995-2010	115	1362	156	54.48	4
	Both 3rd and 4th	1995-2010	150	3640	156	43.33	6
	Dravid	Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
	Career	1996-2011	157	12775	270	53	35
	3rd Innings	1996-2011	149	2532	180	42.91	5
	4th Innings	1996-2011	110	1476	103*	42.17	1
	Both 3rd and 4th	1996-2011	149	4008	180	42.63	6

WOW! what was that? I least expected Dravid and Lara to fall behind Sachin. I think Sachin has performed a lot better than most of his contemporary batsmen of his era. The data looks a shade better when compared with his fellow performers. I think the numbers provide a better evidence of the player he is, also, maintaining an average of over 45 over 100 tests is in itself a great record.

But lets focus on Sachin's second innings and see where the runs have come from

The chart does seem to provide vital information as to Sachin's second innings performance on different conditions. Just considering the top teams, his performance at home, England and SriLanka are excellent, while his record in Australia, S.Africa and Pakistan are abysmal at best. There is a sharp contrast and this cannot be tied to the surfaces as in both ends of his performance spectrum we have very good pace and spin conditions. But one clear trend is, his performance during the second innings against the best of attacks is poor. But to conclude from just the average will be wrong, I think that analysis warrants a separate post on its own. Anyhow if tomorrow is to be considered, his record in England is great and I hope he will save the test for us.