Wednesday, June 18, 2008

more stats - calm yourself

Nothing too surprising about the result in the recently-completed West Indies v Australia test series; 2-0 to the Australians. What was slightly more surprising was the relatively competitive nature of the matches, given the relative strengths of the teams. Hard to say whether this is due to the Australians not being quite as good as they once were, particularly in the bowling department after the departure of McGrath and Warne, or the West Indies improving. Probably a bit of both.

Nice to see another player responding to being bigged up on this blog by producing the goods on the pitch, though, in this case the mighty Shiv Chanderpaul, who, in the course of becoming by far the highest run-scorer on either side with 442 at an average of of 147.33, clocked up a run of 1115 minutes (18 hours and 35 minutes) of batting without being dismissed, during which time he faced 689 balls and scored 313 runs (107 not out, 77 not out, 79 not out and 50). He's clocked up over 1000 minutes between dismissals at least twice before: while scoring 101 not out against Bangladesh and then 128 not out, 97 not out and 45 against England in 2004, and while scoring 116 not out, 136 not out and 70 against England in 2007 (this is the sequence that prompted my previous post). I have no idea whether this is a record or not. If you find out, let me know.

Chanderpaul also became only the fourth West Indian to pass 8000 Test runs - consider that the previous three were Sobers, Richards and Lara and you get the idea of the sort of company he now finds himself in.

On a less Stattoesque note, the recent influx of players from beyond the usual West Indian strongholds of Jamaica and Barbados (Chanderpaul is from Guyana) has resulted in a fascinating array of entertaining names. Only one of the following list of players is made up - see if you can spot it:
  • Dwayne Bravo
  • Sulieman Benn
  • Mahendra Nagamootoo
  • Prepostera Dogidoodoo
  • Sewnarine Chattergoon
  • Brenton Parchment
  • Amit Jaggernauth
  • Rangy Nanan
  • Dinanath Ramnarine

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