Batting Average

Every once in a while, I'm gonna try and take a look at a cricket stat that intrigues me.  This post it'll be batting average.

Being a newbie to cricket, Don Bradman was one of the first people I found to read about.  It mainly came about through reading about different cricket stats, and seing just how insanely far he was ahead of everyone else in 'batting average.'

Coming from a baseball backgound, the term 'batting average' was very familiar to me.  It's the number of hits you get divided by the number of at-bats you have.  As time went on, I saw that batting average has its flaws.  The formula for cricket batting average is just as simple.  The number of runs you score divided by the number of times you get out.  But the cricket version didn't seem quite as flawed. 

Of course using it in a small sample size could give mixed up results.  But the players that have batting averages in the high 40s and 50s, over years of playing, are generally considered great players.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize it does have some flaws.  Bradman's 99.94 technically means he should score 99 or 100 every innings, but he never actually scored 99 or 100 runs in an innings.  His average is exaclty that, an average.  Scores way above that raised it, but scores below it lowered that.  In fact, he only has 3 scores within 10 runs of his average, one 102 and a pair of 103s.

Sachin Tendulkar averages 56.95 in tests, and does have a bunch of scores right around that number, but there are far more scores below that, and far more above that.

That got me thinking.  If the averages of an entire team were added up, how close could their score from an innings match up to it.



I decided to take 5 recent fully completed test innings at random.  5 innings is a really small sample, but I'm not about to go through all 2000 test matches.

A * indicates using a combination of Test and First-Class averages, due to a small amount of tests played.

Sri Lanka 2nd Innings v. England, Cardiff 2011
-Thangara Paranavitana AVG: 36.21 Actual score: 0
-Tillakaratne Dilshan AVG: 43.74 Actual Score: 10
-Kumar Sangakkara AVG: 56.18 Actual Score: 14
-Mahela Jayawardene AVG: 56.62 Actual Score: 15
-Thilan Samaraweera AVG: 54.08 Actual Score: 0
-Prasanna Jayawardene AVG: 32.27 Actual Score: 3
-Farveez Maharoof AVG: 18.53 Actual Score: 0
-*Thisara Perera AVG: 25.71 Actual Score: 20
-Rangana Herath AVG: 14.75 Actual Score: 3
-Ajantha Mendis AVG: 14.90 Actual Score: 12
-*Suranga Lakmal AVG: 4.38 Actual Score: 0
-5 extras in innings
-Average Score: 357.37=357+5 extras=362
-Actual Score: 82
-Difference of 280

India 2nd Innings v. South Africa, Centurion 2010
-Gautam Gambhir AVG: 53.10 Actual Score: 90
-Virender Sehwag AVG: 53.43 Actual Score: 63
-Rahul Dravid AVG: 52.40 Actual Score: 43
-Ishant Sharma(Came in at 4 as nightwatchman) AVG: 13.08 Actual Score: 23
-Sachin Tendulkar AVG: 56.94 Actual Score: 111
-VVS Laxman AVG: 47.36 Actual Score: 8
-Suresh Raina AVG: 37.81 Actual Score: 5
-MS Dhoni AVG: 38.74 Actual Score: 90
-Harbhajan Singh AVG: 18.80 Actual Score: 1
-Sreesanth AVG: 11.43 Actual Score: 3
-Jaidev Unadkat AVG: 4.30 Actual Score: 1
-31 extras in innings
-Average Score: 349.58=350+31 extras=381
-Actual Score: 459
-Difference of 78

Australian 1st Innings v. England, Brisbane 2010
-Shane Watson AVG: 41.55 Actual Score: 36
-Simon Katich AVG: 45.03 Actual Score: 50
-Ricky Ponting AVG: 53.51 Actual Score: 10
-Michael Clarke AVG: 46.49 Actual Score: 9
-Michael Hussey AVG: 51.09 Actual Score: 195
-Marcus North AVG: 35.48 Actual Score: 1
-Brad Haddin AVG: 39.68 Actual Score: 136
-Mitchell Johnson AVG: 22.15 Actual Score: 0
-*Xavier Doherty AVG: 11.54 Actual Score: 16
-Peter Siddle AVG: 17.08 Actual Score: 6
-Ben Hilfenhaus AVG: 15.12 Actual Score: 1
-21 extras
-Average Score: 378.72=379+21 extras=400
-Actual Score: 481
-Difference of 81

Pakistan 1st Innings v. West Indies, St. Kitts 2011
-Mohammad Hafeez AVG: 28.87 Actual Score: 8
-Taufeeq Umar AVG: 39.40 Actual Score: 11
-Azhar Ali AVG: 37.28 Actual Score: 67
-*Asad Shafiq AVG: 34.07 Actual Score: 0
-Misbah Ul-Haq AVG: 44.32 Actual Score: 25
-Umar Akmal AVG: 36.59 Actual Score: 56
-*Mohammad Salman AVG: 16.15 Actual Score: 13
-Abdur Rehman AVG: 22.12 Actual Score: 3
-*Tanvir Ahmed AVG: 24.97 Actual Score: 57
-Wahab Riaz AVG: 11.91 Actual Score: 0
-Saeed Ajaml AVG: 11.36 Actual Score: 23
-9 extras
-Average Score: 307.04=307+9 extras=316
-Actual Score: 272
-Difference of 44

New Zealand 1st Innings v. Pakistan, Wellington 2011
-Martin Guptill AVG: 34.96 Actual Score: 29
-Brendon McCullum AVG: 37.24 Actual Score: 2
-*Kane Williamson AVG: 37.18 Actual Score: 21
-Ross Taylor AVG: 41.12 Actual Score: 78
-Jesse Ryder AVG: 44.85 Actual Score: 0
-James Franklin AVG: 21.34 Actual Score: 33
-*Reece Young AVG: 28.38 Actual Score: 57
-Daniel Vettori AVG: 30.19 Actual Score: 110
-Tim Southee AVG: 21.38 Actual Score: 1
-*Brent Arnel AVG: 5.93 Actual Score: 1
-Chris Martin AVG: 2.53 Actual Score: 4
-20 extras
-Average Score: 305.1=305+20 extras=325
-Actual Score: 256
-Difference of 31

By no means am I trying to show something with this, and I picked these 5 innings randomly.  Obviously, crazy things can happen (such as the first innings I posted). 

But the one thing that does appear obvious to me is that average is a fine way of telling which players are good, but often not what they'll score.

/dork