A batsman extraordinary
Virender Sehwag’s batting feats are truly mindboggling. Let’s look at some numbers that define this astonishing cricketer’s scoring prowess.
Most batsmen start their Test innings slowly, speed up a little but invariably finish their innings on a slow note. Even attacking batsmen like Richards, Lara, Hayden could maintain a good scoring rate (0.75 and above) for, say, 100 runs but found it difficult to maintain such rates consistently for big innings. Only one batsman, Virender Sehwag, has done it consistently throughout his career. A casual glance at his big innings gave me the feeling that he has scored faster in his big innings than the smaller innings. Now that is astounding and I set out to do a complete analysis.
First I created a table of all innings, created an Excel sheet, ordered the same by runs scored and then did a cumulative scoring rate calculation for all innings. Lo and behold, the results are truly amazing. First, let us look at the top part of the table consisting of his 17 centuries.
Sehwag 100s: in decreasing order and related strike rates
| Mtld | Year | Vs | Runs (Balls) | <—-Cumulative—-> | <—-Inns Below—> | Ratio |
| Runs(Balls) S/R | Runs(Balls) S/R | |||||
| 1870 | 2008 | Saf | 319 (304) | 319 ( 304) 1.049 |
5929 (7464) 0.794 | 1.321 |
| 1693 | 2004 | Pak | 309 (375) | 628 ( 679) 0.925 | 5620 (7089) 0.793 | 1.167 |
| 1937 | 2009 | Slk | 293 (254) | 921 ( 933) 0.987 | 5327 (6835) 0.779 | 1.267 |
| 1781 | 2006 | Pak | 254 (247) | 1175 (1180) 0.996 | 5073 (6588) 0.77 | 1.293 |
| 1743 | 2005 | Pak | 201 (262) | 1376 (1442) 0.954 | 4872 (6326) 0.77 | 1.239 |
| 1884 | 2008 | Slk | 201 (231) | 1577 (1673) 0.943 | 4671 (6095) 0.766 | 1.23 |
| 1678 | 2003 | Aus | 195 (233) | 1772 (1906) 0.93 | 4476 (5862) 0.764 | 1.218 |
| 1806 | 2006 | Win | 180 (190) | 1952 (2096) 0.931 | 4296 (5672) 0.757 | 1.23 |
| 1738 | 2005 | Pak | 173 (244) | 2125 (2340) 0.908 | 4123 (5428) 0.76 | 1.196 |
| 1722 | 2004 | Saf | 164 (228) | 2289 (2568) 0.891 | 3959 (5200) 0.761 | 1.171 |
| 1714 | 2004 | Aus | 155 (221) | 2444 (2789) 0.876 | 3804 (4979) 0.764 | 1.147 |
| 1863 | 2008 | Aus | 151 (236) | 2595 (3025) 0.858 | 3653 (4743) 0.77 | 1.114 |
| 1616 | 2002 | Win | 147 (206) | 2742 (3231) 0.849 | 3506 (4537) 0.773 | 1.098 |
| 1935 | 2009 | Slk | 131 (122) | 2873 (3353) 0.857 | 3375 (4415) 0.764 | 1.121 |
| 1662 | 2003 | Nzl | 130 (225) | 3003 (3578) 0.839 | 3245 (4190) 0.774 | 1.084 |
| 1612 | 2002 | Eng | 106 (183) | 3109 (3761) 0.827 | 3139 (4007) 0.783 | 1.055 |
| 1564 | 2001 | Saf | 105 (173) | 3214 (3934) 0.817 | 3034 (3834) 0.791 | 1.032 |
| ... | ||||||
| 1697 | 2004 | Pak | 0 ( 1) | 6248 (7768) 0.804 |
The table is self-explanatory. For each innings I have determined the cumulative scoring rate and the scoring rate for all innings below that. For the first innings (304-ball 319), the cumulative scoring rate is 1.049 and the scoring rate for all innings below 319 is 0.794 and the ratio 1.321. For the second triple-century, the respective values are 0.925, 0.793 and 1.167. And so on.
It can be seen that the ratio is a very high 1.230 for the six double centuries. That is something which is totally inexplicable. That means that Sehwag has scored his double centuries at a rate 23% higher than his other innings. In a perplexing manner, the scoring rate drops off for his 11 other hundreds so much so, at the 100 mark, the strike rates are 0.817 and 0.791 and the ratio only 1.032.
The other interesting fact is that, at no innings does the ratio go below 1.00. The closest is at 47 where the ratio is 1.006 (0.805 against 0.801).
That is Sehwag. The most destructive Test batsman the world has ever seen. One in a billion.
Subscribe to RSS
