Numbers Game

Masters of the chase, and the most meaty strikers

Why England would prefer to bat first in the NatWest Series final, and Kevin Pietersen's outstanding one-day record

S Rajesh
S Rajesh
01-Jul-2005
Perhaps numbers never do reveal the full story, but they tell a large part of it. Every Friday, The Numbers Game will take a look at statistics from the present and the past, busting myths and revealing hidden truths:


Kevin Pietersen: the answer to England's lower-order woes © Getty Images
When Michael Vaughan goes out for the toss with Ricky Ponting on Saturday, he'll be hoping the coin falls his way, and he is allowed the option of batting second - that'll significantly improve England's chances of pulling off a morale-boosting win in the NatWest Series before the Ashes get underway. Two factors suggest that England will stand a much better chance if they put Australia in - under Vaughan, England have an outstanding record chasing, and a poor one setting a target; plus, ODIs in England go the way of the chaser by a 2:1 ratio. Their most recent win against Australia, the result of an astonishing onslaught from Kevin Pietersen, was the latest example of England's proficiency on the chase: at one stage, they needed they needed 93 off 72 balls, with only four wickets in hand. Most teams would have been daunted by the task; England, masterminded by Pietersen, achieved the target with plenty to spare.
England under Vaughan
in ODIs
Matches Win/ Loss Win %
Batting first 21 7/12 33.33
Batting second 22 17/ 3 77.27
ODIs in ... Won by team batting first Won by team chasing
England 23 49
Australia 54 35
Bangladesh 22 13
India 24 25
New Zealand 19 33
Pakistan 19 16
South Africa 55 53
Sri Lanka 39 35
West Indies 20 28
Zimbabwe 27 28
(All numbers since January 2000)
England's head-to-head against Australia is further reason to believe in their chances when they bat second - when they've set a target, England have only won 13 out of 37 matches, a win percentage of 36; when chasing, that number zooms up to 48 (20 out of 44). (Click here for a summary of all ODIs between England and Australia.)
Australia's performance in the tournament so far has been anything but awe-inspiring, but they'll be drawing encouragement from their outstanding record in finals - 17 wins and only one defeat in their last 19 finals, dating back to February 1999. The only team which turned the tables on them in a decider was Sri Lanka, who used the slow conditions in Colombo to perfection. Of those 17 Australian wins, four have come at the expense of England, all of them in triangular series in Australia. As the table below indicates, the Australian batsmen and bowlers have both consistently lifted their games in finals, something none of the other teams barring Sri Lanka have been able to manage.
RR in all ODIs/ only finals RR conceded in all ODIs/ only finals
Australia 5.29/ 5.43 4.55/ 4.34
England 4.30/ 4.78 4.63/ 4.69
India 5.05/ 4.48 5.02/ 5.50
New Zealand 4.78/ 4.72 4.83/ 4.38
Pakistan 4.91/ 4.38 4.70/ 4.60
South Africa 4.96/ 4.50 4.56/ 4.42
Sri Lanka 4.80/ 5.10 4.55/ 4.50
West Indies 4.76/ 4.53 4.77/ 4.67
(Numbers since January 1999)
England's saviour
There used to be a time when England used to struggle for runs in the final stages of their one-day innings. The advent of Andrew Flintoff changed that situation somewhat, but now England can't complain about the lack of firepower, thanks to Kevin Pietersen. It's been only seven months since Pietersen made his one-day international debut, but in that period, he has already slammed three centuries, one matchwinning unbeaten 91, and won the Man-of-the-Match award four times. The average of 115.16 is admittedly inflated by six not-outs in 12 innings, but even his runs per innings is an impressive 57.58, quite outstanding considering his position in the batting order.
In his short ODI career so far, Pietersen has already slammed 53 fours and 23 sixes - that's 350 out of his tally of 691 runs. In terms of percentage of runs scored in boundaries, Pietersen's 50.65% only puts him in 23rd place among batsmen with at least 500 runs (Shahid Afridi leads the way with 64.52%), but unlike Afridi, who has scored most of his ODI runs at the top of the order, Pietersen hasn't had the luxury of batting against bowlers handicapped by fielding restrictions. The more critical factor for analysis is strike-rate, and Pietersen's tally of 102.67 runs per 100 balls puts him in No. 3 position in the all-time list. In fact, England is the only team with two of their current players in the top ten.
Batsman Matches Runs Strike rate
Shahid Afridi 208 4659 108.25
Lance Cairns 78 987 104.89
Kevin Pietersen 17 691 102.67
Ian Smith 98 1054 99.06
Ricardo Powell 105 2070 95.46
Virender Sehwag 112 3370 96.26
Adam Gilchrist 212 7055 94.80
Kapil Dev 225 3782 94.41
Andrew Flintoff 85 2213 92.05
Viv Richards 187 6721 90.58
Pietersen's average after 12 innings is easily the highest of any batsman at that stage in their ODI career. The top five has some impressive names, but the exception is Dermot Reeve, who was not-out in nine of his first 12 innings, ensuring an average far above his capabilities as a batsman.
Top averages after
12 ODI innings
Runs Average 100s/ 50s
Kevin Pietersen 691 115.17 3/ 3
Glenn Turner 521 65.13 2/ 2
Dermot Reeve 183 61.00 0/ 0
Allan Lamb 596 59.60 2/ 2
Peter Kirsten 520 57.78 0/ 5

S Rajesh is assistant editor of Cricinfo. For some of the data, he was helped by Arun Gopalakrishnan, the operations manager in Cricinfo's Chennai office.