The Very Best Batsmen Under Pressure

The West Indies tour of Australia in the southern summer of 2005 was the first time in a generation that the visitors had been relegated to playing a three-match series. Twenty years ago, during the glory years of the Lloyd led Caribbean marauders, such a fate would have been unimaginable. It reflected the shifting balance of power in world cricket. Just under a year ago, Ricky Ponting had taken over the stewardship of the side from Steve Waugh, but not much else had changed, it seemed, with the inexorable Australians.

They had cakewalked the first two Tests a zillion-nothing, and here, in the heat of the third and final Test, a few minutes into the opening day, it seemed to the worldwide audience, rubbing the sleep off their eyes over a midnight cuppa, that the match was over even before it had properly begun.

Brett Lee, steaming in from the Cathedral end at the picturesque Adelaide Oval under slightly overcast skies, had despatched Wavell Hinds without so much as an apology. Three runs later, Dwayne Smith fell in similar fashion, edging a thunderbolt of an outswinger to Hayden at gully. In walked Brian Lara, dogged by poor form and bad umpiring decisions all series.

Sarwan fell, hooking the insatiable Lee to Symonds, his Achilles heel cruelly exposed, and West Indies had barely passed 50. Lara battled on, doggedly moving to 27 off 67 balls at lunch.

The dam burst after lunch. Lara launched into the spinners, ravaging them for 88 off a mere 107 deliveries. McGrath and Lee were treated with scant respect, and with stumps dawning, the genius went to his 200 by pulling the latter twice in front of square.

It was a magnificent display of defiance in the face of almost insurmountable odds, against a bowling attack of the highest class on their own turf. They would later christen Adelaide Oval as Lara’s lair. He averaged 94 there.

The next highest contribution to Lara’s 226 had been from Dwyane Bravo, with 34.

It was the last Test match that this prince among batsmen would play in Australia.

That wasn’t the only time Lara had turned the tables on the world champions from a seemingly hopeless situation. Nearly seven years ago, on a balmy day in Sabina Park, Kingston, coming in at 5 for 2, Lara had pulled, driven and cut the Australians to distraction with an ethereal 213. West Indies had been 56 for 4 in that match. They ended up on 431, and eventually won.

Innings like these make you wonder- how do the true greats of the game deliver in situations that call for blood and guts? How do they stare defeat and dishonour in the face and not blink while the rest are falling around them?

I decided to find out. Or rather Bheem did.

I asked him to reveal the batsmen who had the highest averages, coming in at worse than 20/1, 40/2, 60/3, or 80/4. Here’s his list.

Table 1. The Best Batsmen at <20/1 (minimum 1000 runs)

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	100s	50s
Bradman	23	1726	86.30	6	2
Barrington	20	1390	81.76	7	3
Headley	17	1024	68.27	4	3
Hammond	16	1042	65.13	4	1
Graveney	20	1076	63.29	2	3
Ponting	42	2343	61.67	8	10
Kanhai	40	2307	59.15	9	3
Sangakkara	44	2383	58.12	5	13
IVA Richards	25	1388	57.83	4	7
N Hussain	26	1229	55.86	4	6
IM Chappell	40	2033	54.95	7	8
Dexter	23	1193	54.23	2	9
Dravid	73	3523	53.38	7	18
Younis Khan	27	1373	52.81	6	2
AH Jones	29	1394	49.79	3	7
Lara	30	1423	49.07	2	8

Reads like a who’s who of cricket, doesn’t it? Bradman…Barrington…Headley…Hammond. (Bradman’s average drops by fully 14 points- he could hardly handle pressure, could he? ;-)

Ricky Ponting emerges as the batsman from the modern era who handles the pressure of batting at number three best, but you have to feel for poor Rahul Dravid down the table- he’s done it fully 73 times- more than anybody else in that list. While it underlines the value of Dravid to this Indian team, it also highlights the fact that on the relatively rare occasions that the Australian opening stand fails, Ricky Ponting stands like an unshakeable rock between the opposition and the middle order bats below him.

Let’s move on to the glamorous number four batsmen then.

Table 2. The Best Batsmen at < 40/2 (minimum 1000 runs)

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	100s	50s
Weekes	20	1205	63.42	5	5
Border	28	1579	63.16	6	6
Kallis	29	1351	54.04	5	5
Jayawardane	30	1387	53.35	4	4
Lara	67	3548	52.96	12	12
GS Chappell	30	1311	50.42	4	7
Tendulkar	62	2900	48.33	9	13
Inzamam	31	1453	46.87	6	6
MD Crowe	46	1958	46.62	8	6
N Hussain	25	1091	45.46	5	4

Again, an all time great shows the way- you don’t become one without being resolute. Look at the runner up though. When I published my decade-leaders, there was some dissent about how Border had got in ahead of the likes of Viv. That average of 63.2, coming in at the fall of two wickets for next to nothing, tells you why. A heart forged from steel, if ever there was one.

Kallis’ position at 3 is not unexpected. South Africa have him to thank for pulling them out of numerous tight spots. Jayawardane crops up rather unexpectedly at number four, but the rest of the table is ordinated entirely as expected.

A special mention for Nasser Hussain, the doughty ex-captain of England, who popped up on the last list as well. That’s over 50 innings he has played when his team was in crisis, and his average of around 50, fully 13 runs above his career mean, speaks volumes of the man’s determination and courage.

Much to the chagrin of Inzamam’s fans, he is roundly pipped by the rather unfairly maligned Tendulkar, who has had to deal with such situations twice as often as the Pakistani legend. Who handles pressure better? The stats tell their own story, and they rarely lie. By the same token, Brian Lara outshines his legend-in-arms, having played even more innings in strife, with a superior average to boot.

Let’s look at the number fives.

Table 3. The Best Batsmen at <60/3 (minimum 1000 runs)

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	100s	50s
S Waugh	37	1775	52.21	7	6
CL Hooper	25	1145	52.05	2	5
A Flower	36	1596	51.48	4	7
GP Thorpe	24	1028	51.40	5	4

Out of hundreds of batsmen that have steadied the rudder of their ship at three-down, only four emerge with distinction. Steve Waugh, Flower and Thorpe were all known for their nuggetyness, respected the world over for their love of battle, but the presence of Carl Hooper in that list is a real eye opener, this a man who was the epitome of wilting when the heat was on, despite his enormous, almost unbounded talent. How revealing can statistics be! What heady myths they shatter in such stark, unembellished figures!

Look how Waugh and Flower are united in the pantheon of greats- two men from teams at the opposite ends of the table. Would you commit the cardinal sin of over-analysing their merits, and disenfranchising one at the expense of the other on some contrived grounds because of the relative strength or weakness of the sides they featured in?

I hope not. Do take the table at its face value.

Let’s examine the four-downs.

Table 4. The Best Batsmen at <80/4 (minimum 500 runs)

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	100s	50s
Ponting	10	808	80.80	4	2
Chanderpaul	10	506	56.22	1	4
Greig	22	1074	51.14	4	4
JV Coney	16	571	47.58	1	3
Ranatunga	20	847	47.06	1	7
Botham	21	876	41.71	2	4
Border	18	556	37.07	1	4
McMillan	15	543	36.20	1	3

A pattern emerges. A list populated by street fighters- Chanderpaul, Greig, Coney, Ranatunga, Botham, Border, McMillan, raging against the dying of the light. Ponting, though, outshines them all at the head of the table, in the days when he batted down the order, with an average that towers over the rest, an astonishing four tons and two half centuries scored in ten innings.

Those are the figures. They show that the weakness or strength of your team is no bar to men appearing on such lists. It is fallacious to contend that if you play for a strong team such as Australia, you experience less pressure than say, if you turned out for India. Isn’t it instructive that three Australian captains- Bradman, Waugh and Ponting, appear at the head of those tables, and another, Border, is second only to the great Everton Weekes in the remaining one? These are men who shaped an entire side in their own image, inspired a generation, delivered their wards from self doubt through their own fearlessness when it came to the crunch. Let nobody doubt that those men made Australia the team they are today, and not the converse.

Neither did Nasser Hussain appear in two of those tables due to a statistical aberration. Remember the side he lifted from mediocrity with his sheer cussedness?

I apologize for not being able to choose between these men. I truly cannot separate the all-timers, the Bradman from the Weekes or Waugh. There is no doubt in my mind however that Ricky Ponting can stake his claim to the sobriquet of the greatest batsman of the modern era when it comes to performing under pressure. To head one list is tough, but to appear ahead of his contemporaries on two of them, one by a proverbial country mile, is a phenomenal achievement, one that doesn’t deserve to be belittled by fence sitting.

Thank you all for reading, and Bheem, as ever, for your sorcery with numbers.

©2007 - Indian Cricket Fans

[Bye Bye Madraasis]

Really good one. Ponting really does stand out in the last list. Hussain also comes across as a surprise and the 73 innings of Dravid really goes to show the torrid time he has been given by his team's openers.

Would be fun to see a similar list for 5 and 6 down as well, to see where some of the best counterattacking wicketkeepers and allrounders stand. There are many instances replete with games being turned on their heads by the likes of Gilchrist, Kapil, and Botham.

[King]

Thanks guys that was a real eye opener. I'm not a statistics buff and go with what I see but the statistics when presented this way rather than just throw some silly averages that vary in 1 or 2 points makes a lot of sense to me.

Something I want to bring to fore is the number of times Lara has played an innings of character. Although Rahul Dravid has done it 73 times Lara has in fact done it 97 times. 30 at no.3 and 67 at no.4

I think an article on the best ever opener (on similar lines i.e who carried the bat longer often and has the best average when the chips were down) and the best all rounder ever is in the order. I hope you guys can present that too. Thanks for enlightening us folks Dhondy and Bheem.

[Bumper]

Great read, will post my comments later. Completely agree with your conclusion on Punter.

[BossBhai]

Would be fun to see a similar list for 5 and 6 down as well, to see where some of the best counterattacking wicketkeepers and allrounders stand. There are many instances replete with games being turned on their heads by the likes of Gilchrist, Kapil, and Botham.

Name your criterian Proff ... or hold your peace

[yoda]

Finally a good list with Dravid there.

[veer]

jeee Bheem.. how you doing all these?

[Ram]

Excellent set of stats , presented in a VERY easy manner. I have never come across such diverse stat analysis before.

If i may add, since this entire article is about batsman handling pressure , I would be really interested in knowing the 1st innings- 2nd innings break up of the averages under same pre-conditions ( 20-1 , 40-2, 60-3). That will give us an idea of how well these batsman performed under even more higher levels of pressure, batting either setting up 4th innings target , or chasing a 4th innings target.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Inzamam might actually pip Sachin in the 2nd innings average, while Lara increases his lead even more.

And as pointed out in the article , Dravid deserves special mention for having delivered under pressure so often. Among the modern day batsman , he is as good as they come.

[Ram]

That we can do such a variety of stat analysis , from the best bowlers , to th best batsman , to who delivered when is just tribute to the great game of cricket. Its not merely a game between bat and ball , where only the skill of the player matters. It is so much a mind sport that many times , raw stats can give us the not-so-right picture about who belongs where. In this case , an analysis of best no.3s in world cricket merely on the basis of their cumulative career averages might have thrown an entirely different looking list.

But , it is pointed analysis like these that really help us put things in perspective , differentiating the men from the boys. I really appreciate Doc's inquisitiveness in coming up with such ideas and ofcourse , BB's massive help in providing these stats to him.

[chanakya]

request to the moderators. These sorts of stats are awesome and very hard to come by. However keeping them in the cricket discussion threads means they will get lost pretty soon. Couldn't there be a forum for just stats related articles? It would be easy to remember like the articles.

[Bye Bye Madraasis]

chanakya, there is a stats articles link from the home page :

http://indiancricketfans.com/index.php?sid=11

[BossBhai]

request to the moderators. These sorts of stats are awesome and very hard to come by. However keeping them in the cricket discussion threads means they will get lost pretty soon. Couldn't there be a forum for just stats related articles? It would be easy to remember like the articles.

you can also find these articles from the home page ... use the options under the Filter Articles section to filter by author, popularity or date ...

[simba28]

Nobel Prize>>> Bheem & Dhondy

brilliant stats there mate... very informative

[Anakin]

Great stats. Ponting has surpassed my expectation, but then again he's playing for the best team, is under less pressure since he knows there are way too many matchwinners in his team imo.

BB is it possible to break down lara and srt's stats a bit more, home and away, pre and post 02, even with against great bowlers >25-30?

[BossBhai]

Great stats. Ponting has surpassed my expectation, but then again he's playing for the best team, is under less pressure since he knows there are way too many matchwinners in his team imo.

BB is it possible to break down lara and srt's stats a bit more, home and away, pre and post 02, even with against great bowlers >25-30?

Kal tak mill jayega

[Anakin]

Thanks

[THX_1138]

i think these stats are a bit absurd. especially in the matter of contemporary batsmen who have made it to the list. for instance, for every inning that ponting has flourished when his side is in torrid circumstances, there has been a michael hussey or an adam gilchrist to support him. whereas, lara except for a rare occassion or two has also had the services of a morton, hooper, chanderpaul or jacobs.

it seems absurd to try and rate test batsmen. i feel in a test match, batsmen or batting line ups deserve a more collective rating and jugement as rarely ever can the maverick sole batsman impact a match so signficantly that he alone is able to surge his team to victory.

its better to examine the more successful partenerships rather than individual batsmen. for instance, azhar, has often played second findle to a tendulkar or gaguly to tendulkar or dravid. yet if azhar or ganguly are dismissed cheap, they lose out the glorry of such numbers.

and finally, what about the countless innings when batsmen have played merculian innings when the side is at 200-6 but still a good 200 odd away from avoiding a follow on?

[BossBhai]

Yes THX this list doesnt take all those scenario's into consideration .... its a very simple list based on a simple idea.

[Chandan]

How did you like the stats that I sent you BB??

Can you complete it from 2002 till now for those 3 batsmen and also include Ponting under such criteria?

[BossBhai]

havent had a chance to convert them into code .... but those are waaay too complicated .... This game of cricket .. not simple is it ... ? Will crunch them one of these days ... Chandan ...

[BossBhai]

BB is it possible to break down lara and srt's stats a bit more, home and away, pre and post 02, even with against great bowlers >25-30?

BCL & SRT comming at 4 with Team score < 40

 
 
Away
 
Batsman                   Runs  I No  Avg
SR Tendulkar              1979 39 1 52.08
BC Lara                   1903 42 0 45.31
 
Home :
 
BC Lara                   1645 25 0 65.80
SR Tendulkar               921 23 1 41.86

SRT is Better Away while BCL is very good at home.

[Bumper]

I dont think the list tells us the whole story, but it does tell us a partial story on batting under pressure.

I dont think a batsman like Lara who has been playing for an eternally losing team like WI faces any pressure walking into bat, 90% of the time. This may sound ridiculous at first, but if you think about it, pressure goes up, only when the stakes go up, the expectations of the fans go up. No one expects WI to win anything. So where is the pressure ? For that matter, WI never puts itself in a situation to salvage a draw or a win in most tests. To me Tendulkar of the 90s & Lara post Amby-Walsh, knew before they walked in, that the match is a goner, esp, in foreign conditions. They just went on to play their normal cricket. However when the stakes and/or expectations were high, both of them have failed more often than not.

[BossBhai]

To me Tendulkar of the 90s & Lara post Amby-Walsh, knew before they walked in, that the match is a goner, esp, in foreign conditions. They just went on to play their normal cricket.

Naaah that is sooo not true (or is a bit of exaggeration) .... India has a decent test record in the 90s .... especially at home .. and although we didnt win anything noteworthy away we definitely did not lose tests in heap ...

[Bye Bye Madraasis]

Bumper is right. Pressure is when you have your entire batting lineup upto 7 averaging more than 45 and have bowlers like McGrath, Warne, and Gillespie to bowl out the opposition. It's when you perform in those circumstances that your mettle shines through.

[BossBhai]

Pressure is when you have your entire batting lineup upto 7 averaging more than 45 and have bowlers like McGrath, Warne, and Gillespie to bowl out the opposition. It's when you perform in those circumstances that your mettle shines through.

[Anakin]

Bumper is right. Pressure is when you have your entire batting lineup upto 7 averaging more than 45 and have bowlers like McGrath, Warne, and Gillespie to bowl out the opposition. It's when you perform in those circumstances that your mettle shines through.

[Anakin]

BCL & SRT comming at 4 with Team score < 40

 
 
Away
 
Batsman                   Runs  I No  Avg
SR Tendulkar              1979 39 1 52.08
BC Lara                   1903 42 0 45.31
 
Home :
 
BC Lara                   1645 25 0 65.80
SR Tendulkar               921 23 1 41.86

SRT is Better Away while BCL is very good at home.

Thought so. Not Lara's fault though when you have pitches like highways at home. Thanks a lot for the stats

[Bumper]

Bumper is right. Pressure is when you have your entire batting lineup upto 7 averaging more than 45 and have bowlers like McGrath, Warne, and Gillespie to bowl out the opposition. It's when you perform in those circumstances that your mettle shines through.

Thats an oversimplistic conclusion though. Sarcastic as you may sound, there is MORE pressure on the Aussies to win just about everything (as expectations are high), than WI/BD!

Pressure is when u have something at stake. Is Ashraful under pressure to deliver against the Aussies when his team is 34/3 ? Will the morning newspapers write an obituary of him, if he fails ? Or is a Dravid or a Tendulkar under pressure when their team is 34/3 vs Pakistan, with the series on the line ? Pressure is high when the stakes are high, when expectations are high.

With nothing to lose, we have seen many batsmen react a whole lot differently. Didnt you bring up Yuvraj singh the other day as a test batsman who only plays well in lost causes ? Didnt u dismiss Yuvraj's 100 in Karachi the other day, as one that came in a lost cause ?

[Bye Bye Madraasis]

With nothing to lose, we have seen many batsmen react a whole lot differently. Didnt you bring up Yuvraj singh the other day as a test batsman who only plays well in lost causes ? Didnt u dismiss Yuvraj's 100 in Karachi the other day, as one that came in a lost cause ?

And in the same post I mentioned that there is a difference between a losing cause and a lost cause.

[Bumper]

And in the same post I mentioned that there is a difference between a losing cause and a lost cause.

Not sure why or how the difference matters. Runs made in losing or lost causes are both same to me. In reality playing for weak teams, almost always ensures that the losing cause will end up being a lost cause. I dont see any intense pressure making runs in the so called "losing causes", when there is virtually nothing at stake.

[Bye Bye Madraasis]

Runs made in losing or lost causes are both same to me

Fair enough, that's your opinion. For me a century scored while chasing 600 runs on the last two days is no where near a century scored while chasing a 300 run target even though the end result turns out to be a loss in both cases.

[Predator_05]

What are Gilchrist's figures at <150/5 ?

[BossBhai]

Gilly batting at 7 ... comming in when score < 150

[Edit: These are the Stats for Gilchrist scoring < 40 when coming in at number 7]

Batsman       Runs  Inngs  NotOut   Avrg    SR     100s    50s     Ducks       
AC Gilchrist   488    14    2      17.33    82.29    0        0        1

[Edit: Correct Stats for Gilchrist at 7 with score < 150]

Batsman       Runs  Inngs  NotOut   Avrg    SR     100s    50s     Ducks      
AC Gilchrist   1204    21    3      43.56    --    2        4        1

[Chandan]

Gilly batting at 7 ... comming in when score < 150

Batsman        Runs    Inngs  NotOut    Avrg    SR     100s    50s     Ducks       
AC Gilchrist   488    14    2    17.33    82.29    0    0    1

Shocking!!

I thought he was very good under pressure!!

Remember the match against Pak in Australia in '99 when Aussies had chased 369 runs in the 4th inning?? Gilly was the main man then along with Langer.

[Gambit]

Gilly batting at 7 ... comming in when score < 150

Batsman        Runs    Inngs  NotOut    Avrg    SR     100s    50s     Ducks       
AC Gilchrist   488    14    2    17.33    82.29    0    0    1

I don't think that is correct. Gilly scored a 100 at Mumbai against India in the first test in 2001. He came in when Australia were 99/5.

[Bye Bye Madraasis]

^ His first hundred was also from around 110/5. There seems to be a mistake in the above stats.

[BossBhai]

Yeah guys its a mistake ... will correct it laters ... thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[BossBhai]

Ok the correct numbers foir Gilly batting at 7 comming in when score < 150

1204 Runs at 43.56 Avg in 21 inngs with 3 not outs. 2 x 100s and 4 x 50s and 1 x Duck

[BossBhai]

and the stat that I put up earlier in post # 34 was when Gilly fails Batting at # 7 (Failure is when he scores < 40 runs in those situations )