Trescothick's nemesis, and how to dismiss Vaughan

Among the Australian batsmen, the captain is the one who won't like the looks of the numbers below. In 25 innings against England, Ricky Ponting only averages 41.72, almost 19 runs lesser than average against the other teams.

The table reveals something else - Vaughan is far happier facing any of the other bowlers than McGrath. He has scored 136 against Gillespie without being dismissed, while Shane Warne and Lee have only got him once each: against the three of them, he has a combined average of 89.33; against McGrath, who has nailed his man four times, it drops to 33. Vaughan did have his moments against McGrath on that tour in 2003-04, but on balance McGrath got his own back. Plus, he pulled off that magnificent catch at deep square leg to end Vaughan's knock at Adelaide.

McGrath versus	Runs/ Balls	Dismissals	Ave/ SR
Michael Vaughan	132/ 222	4	33.00/ 59.46
Marcus Trescothick	114/ 183	4	28.50/ 62.30

Gillespie versus	Runs/ Balls	Dismissals	Ave/ SR
Michael Vaughan	136/ 224	0	-/ 60.71
Marcus Trescothick	223/ 346	7	31.86/ 64.45

Lee versus	Runs/ Balls	Dismissals	Ave/ SR
Michael Vaughan	79/ 139	1	79.00/ 56.83
Marcus Trescothick	114/ 151	4	28.50/ 75.50

Warne versus	Runs/ Balls	Dismissals	Ave/ SR
Michael Vaughan	53/ 126	1	53.00/ 42.06
Marcus Trescothick	62/ 107	3	20.67/ 57.94

(stats includes the last two Ashes series - in 2001 and in 2003-04)

A comparison between the stats for Hayden and Vaughan is interesting: both bat high up in the order, at the time when the ball is quite often new, and hence you'd expect both to nick it to the wicketkeeper and the slips quite often. Not so. Only 17 of Hayden's 73 dismissals have been as a result of edges behind the wicket - that's less than 25%. For Vaughan, though, that figure goes up to a whopping 54.67% - 41 out of 75. McGrath and co. should have a simple plan for Vaughan - keep it on or outside off, and wait for Vaughan to commit the fatal error. Shaun Pollock worked Vaughan out superbly in their last two series, and it's highly unlikely that John Buchanan wouldn't have noticed Vaughan's tendency to often make good balls appear unplayable when they pitch in the corridor.

For Hayden, on the other hand, the plan could well be to fortify the on side and bowl that sucker short ball - ten times he has been caught in the arc between midwicket and fine leg. A similar plan might work for Adam Gilchrist too (though there's no knowing how much it would cost England in terms of runs) - 11 out of his 37 dismissals have been in the midwicket-fine-leg region. In fact, the distribution of dismissals says a lot about the Australians' aggressive attitude towards batting.

The other interesting comparison is between Justin Langer and Trescothick. Both have been out 76 times during this period, but their spread of dismissals indicates just how differently they bat. Langer, with his tendency to shuffle across his stumps, is a ripe lbw candidate, and has fallen in that manner nearly 20% of the time (15 out of 76 dismissals), the highest among all the batsmen studied in the list. Trescothick, with his tendency to stay on side and play with minimal footwork, has been bowled exactly that many times, but has seldom been trapped in front (5 out of 76).

Batsman	Bowled (%)	Lbw	Caught behind wkt	Caught elsewhere
Marcus Trescothick	15 (19.74)	4 (5.26)	30 (39.47)	24 (31.58)
Andrew Strauss	2 (8.33)	4 (16.67)	10 (41.67)	7 (29.17)
Michael Vaughan	8 (10.67)	9 (12.00)	41 (54.67)	14 (18.67)
Andrew Flintoff	7 (12.73)	8 (14.55)	15 (27.27)	23 (41.82)
Adam Gilchrist	11 (20.37)	2 (3.70)	14 (25.93)	23 (42.59)

(Stats since September 2001)