WACA stats

Highest scores batting first
AUS 5/343 v NZ 2007
NZ 7/318 v ENG 2007
WI 6/309 v SL 1985 (That's correct, way back in 1985)
PAK 8/307 v WI 2005
AUS 5/305 v SL 2002


Highest Individual Scores
D Martyn (AUS) 144*
M Waugh (AUS) 130
D Jones (AUS) 121
S Carlisle (ZIM) 119
D Lehmann (AUS 119

Australia's average score batting first. (Last 10 years)
268.8

Australia's Run-rate (at WACA -all-time)
4.68

Pakistan's run-rate (at WACA - all-time)
4.47

Winnings the toss and batting
won 19 - Lost 21

Best bowling
R Shastri (IND) 5/15
A Dedemaide (AUS) 5/21
I Bishop (WI) 5/27
M Ealham (ENG)
R Hadlee (NZ) 5/32

Mitchell Marsh 'excited' as he poses with the World Cup trophy.

Australian under-19 captain poses with the Under-19 world cup ahead of the final on saturday. Is it just me or does he seem a bit too 'excited?'

Highest run chases at the SCG.

Pakistan will be chasing 268 to win in the 2nd ODI agaisnt Australia at the SCG. Let's take a look at the highest 2nd innings scores. The highest 2nd innings score is 299, the highest to win is 7/270. The 2nd highest to win is 2/260.

India 299 v Australia 2008 - Lost
SA 6/287 v Australia 2006 - Lost
Australia 6/275 v England 1999 - Lost
SA 7/270 v Australia 2009 - Won
NZ 269 v Australia 2009 - Lost
Australia 264 v Sri Lanka 2003 - Lost
Australia 2/260 v Sri Lanka 1999 - Won

Ponting and Clarke break records.

Let's take a look at some stats and records from this massive partnership currently going between Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting.

Clarke is currently on 163* his highest test score. His previous best was 151 he scored on debut. I beleieve this is the longest a proper batsmen has taken to better their debut score.


Clarke's average is up to 50.80, the highest it has been since his 7th match.


Ponting's highest score on his home gorund.


The partnership is now the highest of all time for Australia v Pakistan

Currently 7th highest Australian partnership of all time.


Highest 4th wicket partnership for Australia in Australia.

46 runs away from Australia's highest ever 4th wicket partship which is 388 set by Ponsford and Bradman in 1934

The Partnership ended up the 6th highest Australian partnership of all time.


Ponting has scored the first ever double century at Bellrieve and now joins an exclusive club of batsmen who have scored 5 double centuries.
Stats and records will be updated throughout the partnership.

Ponting and Clarke score centuries. Strauss gone first ball against SA.

Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke have both scored centuries to leave Australia in a commanding position at stumps on day 1 of the 3rd test dead rubber against Pakistan. Ponting and Clarke came together with Australian in a little bit of trouble at 3/71 before a 231 run unbeaten partnership took them to 3/302 at stumps. This partnership is the highest ever 4th wicket partnership at Bellrieve and the highest of all time for any wicket. Ponting scored his 39th test century and was 137 not out at stumps. While Clarke's unbeaten 111 has seen his career average rise above 50 again.


In the series deciding match at Johannesburg England won the toss and chose to bat but were reeling at 2/7 after just 2 overs. Strauss became the first Englishman since 1936 to be out first ball of a test match. It could have been worse for the visitors with Cook being dropped by Amla in the 5th over.

Ponting voted Player of the Decade.

Ricky Ponting has been voted Player of the Decade by a jury over at Cricinfo. I was hoping he would win it as he was the highest run-scorer in both forms of the game during the previous decade.Congratulations to Ponting, he thoroughly deserves it.

Ricky Ponting has been voted Player of the Decade by an overwhelming majority by a jury comprising former and current players and cricket writers.

Ponting got 60 points (a first-place vote fetched three points, a second place two, and third place one), 23 more than second-placed Jacques Kallis. Adam Gilchrist was ranked third (29 points), while positions four to seven went to Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath, Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne.

Marus North's catching stats compared to Aussie fielders.

There is a debate curently taking place on Twitter about Marus North and whether he deserves his place in the Australian side. Most people are saying he can't catch after dropping a pretty easy catch in Pakistan's first innings. I thought I would take a look at his stats compared to other players.

Player	Innings	Catches	CPI
North	22	8	0.363
M. Waugh	245	181	0.738
Warne	281	125	0.444
Ponting	275	162	0.589
Clarke	111	52	0.468

Post a comment if you would like to see any other players added to the table.

Australia in trouble.

UPDATE: Australia all out for 127. Johnson top scored with 38. Asif took 6/41, the 31st best figures in the SCG's 128 year history.

Currently 7/62.

Australia 1st innings		R	B	4s	6s	SR
	SR Watson	c †Kamran Akmal b Mohammad Sami	6	24	1	0	25.00
	7.6 caught behind! back to a good length delivery, Watson is playing it awkwardly from the crease, gets an outside edge high on the bat as the ball swings and the ball is collected cleanly by the wicket-keeper 10/3
	PJ Hughes	c Faisal Iqbal b Mohammad Sami	0	10	0	0	0.00
	3.4 caught! drives at a full of a length delivery, gets a thick outside edge that carries to second slip where a very smart catch is taken by Faisal Iqbal on his knees low to the ground. The end of a very unconvincing innings by Hughes. 2/1
	RT Ponting*	c Umar Gul b Mohammad Sami	0	1	0	0	0.00
	3.5 caught! short ball, Ponting hooks it out in the air out to deep square leg, but there's a fielder out there in place for the hook shot and it's duly collected by Umar Gul diving forward to take an excellent catch. 2/2
	MEK Hussey	c Misbah-ul-Haq b Mohammad Asif	28	52	4	0	53.84
	21.5 another wicket falls, short of a length angled across and Hussey goes for the pull and gets the top edge high in the air over the slips and Misbah moves back and judges it well and takes a good catch. Australia 5 down for 51. Asif picks up his second wicket, extra effort from him. 51/5
	MJ Clarke	b Mohammad Asif	3	30	0	0	10.00
	17.2 fuller length delivery outside the off stump and cuts back in as Clarke pushes forward for the drive, gets beaten and knocks the top of the middle stump. Excellent delivery to get Clarke. 36/4
	MJ North	c †Kamran Akmal b Mohammad Asif	10	17	2	0	58.82
	21.6 two in two for Asif, good ball from short of a length and angled across and North feels for it and gets the edge through to Akmal. Asif picks up his third wicket, and he is on a hat-trick next over. 51/6
	BJ Haddin†	c Mohammad Yousuf b Mohammad Asif	6	9	0	0	66.66
	25.1 132.1 km/h, on a good length and Haddin looking to go down the ground, gets a leading edge and the ball goes in the air to the left of Yousuf at mid-off, who takes the catch. 62/7
	MG Johnson	not out	4	10	1	0	40.00
	Extras	(b 1, lb 2, w 1, nb 1)	5
	Total	(7 wickets; 25.1 overs)	62	(2.46 runs per over)

To bat NM Hauritz, DE Bollinger, PM Siddle

Fall of wickets1-2 (Hughes, 3.4 ov), 2-2 (Ponting, 3.5 ov), 3-10 (Watson, 7.6 ov), 4-36 (Clarke, 17.2 ov), 5-51 (Hussey, 21.5 ov), 6-51 (North, 21.6 ov), 7-62 (Haddin, 25.1 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Mohammad Asif	10.1	3	16	4	1.57
	17.2 to Clarke, fuller length delivery outside the off stump and cuts back in as Clarke pushes forward for the drive, gets beaten and knocks the top of the middle stump. Excellent delivery to get Clarke. 36/4 21.5 to Hussey, another wicket falls, short of a length angled across and Hussey goes for the pull and gets the top edge high in the air over the slips and Misbah moves back and judges it well and takes a good catch. Australia 5 down for 51. Asif picks up his second wicket, extra effort from him. 51/5 21.6 to North, two in two for Asif, good ball from short of a length and angled across and North feels for it and gets the edge through to Akmal. Asif picks up his third wicket, and he is on a hat-trick next over. 51/6 25.1 to Haddin, 132.1 km/h, on a good length and Haddin looking to go down the ground, gets a leading edge and the ball goes in the air to the left of Yousuf at mid-off, who takes the catch. 62/7
	Mohammad Sami	9	4	18	3	2.00	(1nb)
	3.4 to Hughes, caught! drives at a full of a length delivery, gets a thick outside edge that carries to second slip where a very smart catch is taken by Faisal Iqbal on his knees low to the ground. The end of a very unconvincing innings by Hughes. 2/1 3.5 to Ponting, caught! short ball, Ponting hooks it out in the air out to deep square leg, but there's a fielder out there in place for the hook shot and it's duly collected by Umar Gul diving forward to take an excellent catch. 2/2 7.6 to Watson, caught behind! back to a good length delivery, Watson is playing it awkwardly from the crease, gets an outside edge high on the bat as the ball swings and the ball is collected cleanly by the wicket-keeper 10/3
	Umar Gul	6	0	25	0	4.16	(1w)

Katich out, Hughes in. A stack of stats.

Update - 1:30pm. Pomting has won the toss. Australia will bat. Play to start at 2:00.  Playing sessions. 2:00-:3:40, tea 3:40-4:00, final session 4:00-7:00

(Update: Screenshot of weather radar, scroll down for stats)

Here is a screenshot of the Sydney weather radar. There is hardly any rain around. Surely they can play in drizzle? I have pointed out roughly where I think the SCG is.

Simon Katich has been ruled out of the 2nd test at Sydney with an elbow injury. Phillip Hughes will take his place and play his first test on home soil. Hughes was extremely unlucky to be dropped and I wish all the best. Let's hope he can walk in and score a century and show everyone how it's done.

Let's take a look at some stats:

Averages
Ricky Ponting averages 70.26 here with 1335 runs in 14 matches with a hige score of 207 and 5 centuries.
Hussey - 343 runs @ 85.75
Michael Clarke hasn't done so well on his home ground, only scorinf 270 runs @ 33.75 and being dismissed by spinners 6 times in 8 innings.

Average Innings scores
1st: 40.08
2nd: 41.81
3rd: 36.25
4th: 37.12

Top scores
Batsmen
R Foster (Eng) 287 - 1903
B Lara (WI) 277 - 1993
W Hammond (Eng) 251 - 1928
DWalters (Aus) 242 - 1969
S Tendulkar (Ind) 241*- 2004

Team
India 7d/705 - 2004
Australia 8d/659 - 1946
England 636 - 1928
Australia 619 - 1969
West Indies 606 -1993

Lowest scores
Australia 42 -1888 
England 45 - 1887
England 65 - 1895
England 77 - 1885 
West Indies 78 - 1952
The lowest score in the last 10 years is 144 by the World XI. Apart from that the lowest score lately is 147 by England in the 2006/2007 Ashes.



Best Bowling
Innings
G Lohmann(Eng) 8/35  - 1887
G Lohman (Eng) 8/58  - 1892
T Richardson (Eng) 8/94 - 1898
A Kumble (Ind) 8/141 - 2004
D Barlow (Eng) 7/40 - 1883

Nathan Hauritz vs Shane Warne

Nathan Hauritz, who got his first 5-wicket haul today had been challenged earlier in the week to stand up and take last innings wickets. there was even pressure by the PM Kevin Rudd on Warne to come back and play for Australia. While Warne is a legend and one of the best bowlers of all time he didn't start his test career bamboozling batsmen and taking tons of wickets. With that in mind, let's take a look at the stats for both Warne and Hauritz at the same point in their respective careers (11 Tests).

Player	Overs	Runs	Wickets	Average	Strike Rate	R.P.O
Warne	373.3	955	31	30.80	72.2	2.55
Hauritz	438.2	1295	41	31.58	64.1	2.95

We can see that Hauritz has bowled a lot more than Warne did in his first 11 games. This is because he has been bowled in 21 innings compared to 16 for Warne. We also see that while Warne got his wickets at 1 run less per each, Hauritz has so far taken his wickets 8 balls less per than Warne did. Hauritz has a long way to go but if he can keep improving as he has been recently and Australia's batsmen score enough runs to allow him to bowl with attacking fields he may just become a great.