Australia’s batting woes were well documented this summer, and on the face of it, that seemed pretty fair.
Across the seven tests played from December to March, only three centuries were scored by Australian batters.
But in a world of decreasing team totals and generally meagre Sheffield Shield batting returns, maybe it’s time to move past our obsession with the ‘big score’.
Somewhat pleasingly, Australia’s three tons were distributed evenly across the summer’s opponents.
David Warner, at the beginning of the final leg of his farewell tour, peeled off 164 in mid December against Pakistan, and a month later, Travis Head blustered and bludgeoned his way to 119 against the West Indies on his home deck in Adelaide.
But of course, the season’s finest knock came in its penultimate test. On a green top in Wellington, Cam Green made 174*, in an innings in which the next highest score was 40.
A coming of age innings, as every newspaper and his dog dubbed it.
Over the last 25 years, during summers in which at least five test matches took place, an Australian team has never combined for fewer hundreds, and only twice did they equal this season’s return of three.
During the ‘birthday hat trick’ summer of 2010/11, Brad Haddin and Mike Hussey (x2) scored the solitary centuries in a disastrous 3-1 series loss to England, and in 2000/01 Mark and Steve Waugh (x2) combined for the three tons in a five test whitewash of the Windies.
Over that 25 year period, Australia averaged just over eight centuries per summer, with an Adam Voges inspired high of 15 in 2015/16 over a six test summer against New Zealand and, again, The West Indies.
So why, despite the fact that the Australian’s both played and won more tests this summer than they did in any of the previous 25, have the centuries dried up – and does it actually matter?
A century is a pretty arbitrary milestone, really, and it goes without saying that the amount of runs scored in an individual innings does not always correlate with the importance or the quality of it.
Take Warner’s 164 against Pakistan, for instance. A very fine knock though it was, he had the very best of the conditions, and even if he had fallen for a duck, Australia’s eventual margin of victory would still have been 196.
David Warner celebrates after scoring a century. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Compare that to Alex Carey’s 98* in the fourth innings against New Zealand in Christchurch. Coming in at five for next to nothing, Carey batted with Mitch Marsh, and then the tail, to lead his team to what at one point looked like a very improbable victory.
However, that day, it wasn’t Carey that scored the winning runs for Australia. It was captain Pat Cummins, whose slash through the off-side found the rope and ended the game.
Carey was stranded on 98* and the summer’s honours board left untouched.
Speaking after the game, Cummins admitted he didn’t know Carey was so close to his milestone, and Carey seemed much more relieved to have the Test won than disappointed to have not reached three figures.
Either way, it is clear that this Australian team has developed a ruthlessness that privileges results over personal milestones.
However, you can’t help but feel, due to the absence of those two final runs, that Carey’s contribution might not assume it’s rightful position in the pantheon of great Aussie knocks.
In a sport so obsessed with statistics and milestones, the actual content and quality of any given innings can so easily be lost amongst career batting averages and scorecards of summer’s gone by.
In the first innings of that same game in Christchurch, Marnus Labuschagne made his way to 90 before being sensationally caught by a flying Glenn Phillips. With wickets tumbling around him, Labuschagne’s contribution was as vital as any made throughout the summer.
But unable to pass 100, the public were left without an enduring image of the innings, and his time at the crease felt cult short in the same way that Carey’s felt unfinished.
Across the summer, over the 28 innings batted by all teams, Australia’s first innings of the first test match against Pakistan was the only time a team scored over 400 runs.
In the 497 innings batted during Australian summers in the 25 years preceding this season, there were 120 instances of teams posting 400 runs or more. This equates to just over 24% of the time and clearly dwarfs this summer’s return of one out of 28, or 3.6%.
This, as well as the global decrease in test batting averages since the mid 2010s, the increasing rarity of the five-day test and this Sheffield Shield season’s generally meagre batting returns point to what could be a new normal for Australian batters.
Gone are the days of first innings par scores of 400+ and gone are the wickets that facilitated such expectations.
So, with the traditional ‘big score’ growing rarer across both international and domestic cricket, it may be time to re-evaluate what constitutes a quality innings or a good series for a batter.
Telling contributions in key moments are what wins matches, and this group of Australian batters continue to produce them.
Gibbo
Roar Pro
I appreciate the article, but I'll quibble on one point. You've pointed to diminishing returns in the Sheffield Shield. By and large, that's true, but it's not because the batting standard has gone down, T20 cricket, bad techniques or any of that stuff. No, the diminishing returns are largely due to the fact that most Shield games, especially this season, were played on lively tracks with a bit in it for the quicks early on. There were only two games in which, when the pitch flattened out, the batsmen could get in. Caleb Jewell made 200 in one of them and Cameron Bancroft and the aforementioned Cameron Green made tons in response. So, yeah, I'd just say that the wickets have been largely the cause of the lower scores in the Shield. I've just finished a series on the entire 10 rounds, so head over to the profile to check it out. For mine, Ben McDermott played a couple of the best innings in the Shield this season, but statistically, they were reasonably insignificant. Also, Marnus made 40-odd captaining QLD that got very few plaudits at the time, but like his 90 in NZ, was a defining innings.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Find me on facebook Chopster under the same name as author. Then we can PM.
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
Awww Bernie you say the sweetest things to a guy who isn't your fiance. And all the best for you and your bride later this year. Now fair notice to you: I have a LOT of questions after the first 100 pages. A lot (which, relatively, is as much or as many as Brian hates the Romans). But I'll reserve my queries for after said reading and you have postponed said honeymoon to explain some of the graphs, stats and stuff.
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
Bernie, I'm 30 pages in and....there's a lot of decimals and stats. Like a LOT. And there's even coloured pie charts. These are not conditions Choppy traditionally does well in. So it's going to be a tough few sessions in the face of so much data. I need to keep the head down, play each graph on its merit and keep the pages turning. It'll be much easier in the middle by days 3 and 4. I hope.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Thanks again for your kind interest Dwayne. I wrote it for his (Mark's) glory, rather than mine.
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Got mine. It’s big. lol. Yeehaw
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Listen Chopster, i have already expressed my love for you, even though I have stopped short of Clint Eastwood at the end of Paint your Wagon "I never like a man as much as I like you" .... even though I do seriously like you as a man and i can't think of a man I like more than you ... but hey ... oh goodness I had to scroll up to get back to my point which I wasn't sure I had but was sure I did .... let's leave our former spouses alone ... I only have one of them, and I shall be remarrying at the end of this year, God Willing ...
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
They use graphs when demonstrating career averages. Now that's ironic!
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN?!??! It will take me a year to read a page. Oh woe is Chop
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
It was actuallly my brother who strongly recommended using graphs rather than just tables - because graphs are so cool.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
You might have a point there Chopster ... it would certainly bring the cost of self-publishing down limiting to so few pages.
Redcap
Roar Guru
I'll leave that to the author to address, though I do note that one of the introductory chapters advises that the main thrust of the book is the first 427 pages, with the rest, presumably, addenda or reference material to further illustrate the main thrust. :happy:
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
Noooooooo!!! But do you know what that is, David? Padding. "When an author in their novel gets to 100 pages, the publisher needs, on average, for him to reach the 120-125 page range. Sometimes, more is needed, but mostly not. On most occasions, pages beyond this, and we’re talking mainly an author's first draft, are far more beneficial to the individual author's beloved precious advance than to the actual story needs at the time. Padding statistics and graphs in an author's second draft when they are either already bossing the manuscript or so far behind so as to already be doomed are completely meaningless to the ultimate outcome of the story"
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Would you believe there were powers that be who wouldn't let me?
Redcap
Roar Guru
Well, mine's just arrived in the post, Chopster - that was quick! I've only had a quick flick through, but certainly did notice plenty of graphs and tables - be afraid, very afraid. :shocked: :happy:
sedz
Roar Rookie
Why stress over milestones when you're clinching matches and series? True, it's crucial for batsmen to step up when it truly counts and put up big numbers. Double hundreds seem rarer these days. I reckon Bush is spot on. Cricket is not just about the numbers. We might give a bloke a hard time for scoring a ton in a losing effort, trying to chase down 350. But looking back, I'd take a player like Shubman Gill any day, setting the stage with his 91, so the likes of Pujara, Pant, Rahane, or Sundar can build on that and form a solid partnership. You don't know the context unless you watch the whole game some times not by looking at stats.
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Thanks Knight. I googled the title, it like 120 bucks. lol. I totally messed up there missing it.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
No, it does deal with comparisons with Mark's peers, of which Steve is obviously one of them - nothing to do with being twins, or even brothers. I hope they can understand that. Their father was very happy with the book.
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
Well I'm still cranky you didn't tell us about your Waughlock sooner. Why didn't you say anything sooner?!?! WHHHYYYY???
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, David. "Order #7981 Thank you, Choppy!" No, thank you oh Knight Who Says Ekke Ekke Ekke Ekke Ptang Zoo Boing,"