Martin’s Blog

So Dave posted on my facebook wall

“I’ve just started running the code that will build me my Test match database – all Test scorecards. The code is hopefully the worst MATLAB/Octave code ever written by someone who passed PHYS3071 – 1100 ghastly lines that take over ten seconds to take a Cricinfo HTML file and strip it down to the scorecard data.

So the point is, if you have any ideas on what I should do with such a dataset, let me know.”

Well here they are. Feel free to suggest some more ideas in the comments.

• A bowling average weighted by the batting average of the batsman dismissed.
• Is there a statistical sense in which Shane Warne is such a great bowler? His average isn’t particularly good.
• Batsman’s averages against spin, pace, left handers …
• A list of times that 5 or 7 or 8 runs have been scored off a single ball.
• List of longest overs in test match cricket.
• Umpiring statistics: Was Dicky Bird really a not outer?
• Enforcing the follow on, good idea or not?
• What advantage is winning the toss? Overall? Per country? Per decade?
• Night Watchmen, do they score more runs than they would batting lower down? Is this good for the team?
• Players who have improved their batting over the years. Recently Vettori has averaged 40 batting at number 8. McGrath increased his average from 2.5 to over 5. Who has improved the most?
• Batsman who scored the most threes in test match cricket.
• Most injury prone cricketer? In terms of unfinished overs? Or proportion of games that they would have been picked for but missed out on?

Sourced from highly dubious internet sources (cricinfo, wikipedia, ask yahoo, some bloke on a forum somewhere …)

Will Jefferson 6′9.5”
Anthony Allom 6′ 9”
Joel Garner 6′ 8.5”
Bruce Reid 6′ 8”
Brett Dorey 6′ 8”
Curtly Ambrose 6′ 7”
Chris Tremlett 6′ 7”
Tony Greig 6′ 7”
Peter Fulton 6′ 6”
Tom Moody 6′ 6”
Michael Vandort 6′ 5”

A short cricketer

Parthiv Patel 5′ 3”

I don’t know.

Anyway, 5th day of the test has just started. So far the only difference in this post-Warne/McGrath era is that we’ll have 5 day tests instead of four.

I had a bit of a look at the highlights on youtube:

• That MacGill wicket was beautiful.
• Vandort is freakishly tall for a batsman.
• There’s been a few dropped catches/four byes. Haddin/Ronchi in for Gilchrist? Probably not yet.

So I come to the second day of test match cricket listening of the Australian summer. The days play is approximately 5pm until midnight for me which is fairly ideal.

This Australian batting lineup is still pretty amazing. They have all played safely so far and you would think that they should play themselves in and one of the next four will get a big score pushing them up towards 400 or 500. Sri Lanka needs Malinga – they’ve fallen into the trap of thinking that a green pitch and overcast skies means the ball will swing. That hasn’t happened in Australia for years.

But what I’m interested in is the Australian bowling lineup. If Jayasuriya and Jayawardene and so on can get some runs it’ll be interesting to see how the Australians react. The last time we were missing Warne and McGrath the Indians had some long innings. As much as I love MacGill he isn’t a great defensive spinner against set batsmen so it’s going to be interesting to see how we play this.

I’m also interested in the fielding lineup. The slips cordon is going to receive a bit of a shakeup: Jaques, Ponting, Hayden, Clarke, Hussey is hardly the Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh, Shane Warne standard of lineups Australian fans have become accustomed to. The outfielding is still strong though: Johnson, Lee, Symonds, Clarke are all brilliant on the ground.

Edit: Answer to the first quiz question: John Traicos.