Great stats analysis. One of things I always do when looking at a players career is look at their stats via the Cricinfo ‘career summary’ option – very often you’ll find a place or an opponent against which they didn’t do so well. If it turns out that a batsman averaged 70 against Zimbabwe and 30 against Australia, that overall 50 average doesn’t start to look so clever. Unsurprisingly for recent players you’ll often find those averages suffering against Oz and maybe SA. The very best players maintain or even improve against the best (think: Imran vs West Indies).
So who among modern bowlers has been most consistent against all opposition in all countries? I smugly admit here I got the answer right š See the article for a few tables of deeper analysis…
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The sub-30 bowling machines
Cricinfo (Travis Basevi and George Binoy)
August 25, 2010
Bowlers with averages of less than 30 against every team they played, and in all countries they played in
Which bowler has come closest to averaging less than 30 against all nine other Test nations and in all 10 of them? If you’re thinking Muttiah Muralitharan, the taker of 800 wickets, with an average of 22.72 in 133 Tests, you’d be wrong. He conceded more than 30 per wicket against, and in, Australia and India. Shaun Pollock is a better guess, but he missed out in Australia and against them overall as well. The right answer is Glenn McGrath.
Slower Ball 