Australia - and India and England, to a lesser extent - have found a much better blend of attack and caution against him. Australia have the lowest dot-ball percent, and a lower boundary percent than West Indies, Zimbabwe and India, indicating that they have adopted a relatively risk-free approach and yet managed to score at a reasonable rate.
Among Australian batsmen, Ricky Ponting best exemplifies that approach: in 220 deliveries that he has faced from Murali in ODIs since 2002, he has allowed just 99 dot-balls, worked 87 singles, 15 twos, seven threes, 11 fours, and a six, which means just 50 of his 188 runs have been scored in boundaries. Sachin Tendulkar hasn't been dismissed in the 82 balls he has faced from Murali during this period, but he has relied more on boundaries to get his runs, with six fours and a six among the 69 runs he has scored off him.
The batsman who has impressed most against Murali in the CB Series has been Gautam Gambhir: in 39 balls he has scored 42 runs, but only 16 of them came in boundaries. Overall, Gambhir has scored 53 at a run a ball, with a superb dot-ball percentage of just 43%.
| Batsman | Runs | Balls | Dismissals | Average | Runs per over |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gautam Gambhir | 53 | 53 | 0 | - | 6.00 |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | 61 | 69 | 0 | - | 5.30 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 69 | 82 | 0 | - | 5.04 |
| Brian Lara | 54 | 79 | 0 | - | 4.10 |
| Chris Gayle | 25 | 64 | 0 | - | 2.34 |
| Ricky Ponting | 188 | 217 | 2 | 94.00 | 5.19 |
| Mohammad Yousuf | 91 | 143 | 1 | 91.00 | 3.81 |
| Mahendra Singh Dhoni | 67 | 85 | 1 | 67.00 | 4.72 |
| Boeta Dippenaar | 56 | 82 | 1 | 56.00 | 4.09 |
| Michael Clarke | 107 | 116 | 2 | 53.50 | 5.53 |
| Adam Gilchrist | 107 | 133 | 2 | 53.50 | 4.82 |
| Khaled Mashud | 51 | 133 | 1 | 51.00 | 2.30 |
| Simon Katich | 93 | 126 | 2 | 46.50 | 4.42 |
| Rahul Dravid | 88 | 164 | 2 | 44.00 | 3.21 |
| Andrew Symonds | 160 | 175 | 5 | 32.00 | 5.48 |
| Damien Martyn | 93 | 150 | 3 | 31.00 | 3.72 |
No comments:
Post a Comment