Bowling

[Slipstream]

Points gained/lost after 5th Test

Batting
Brook +25(9)
Duckett +23 (28)
Crawley +22 (29)
Ali +20 (98)
Bairstow +10 (17)
Root +7 (2)
Stokes -12 (19)

Bowling
Woakes +52 (23)
Wood +12 (21)
Ali +9 (52)
Broad +5 (4)
Stokes -15 (46)
Anderson -28 (8)

[Slipstream]

Overs bowled 2023 (all forms)

Broad 423.0
Potts 376.0
Anderson 358.2
Robinson 291.2
Woakes 270.0
Tongue 268.1
Overton 224.1
Curran 222.4
Stone 115.1
Mahmood 104.0
Wood 101.4
Archer 92.0
Stokes 38.0

[Slipstream]

It seems quite quickly we have got 90mph bowlers

Wood
Archer
Atkinson
Tongue
Carse
Stone
Turner

The first three have reached 95mph. The thing is injuries. All 7 have been injured this year. How many can stay fit?

Woakes and Curran have been chosen for Tests because they can bat but Carse has also a f/c batting average in the 30s. I can see him overtaking Woakes and Curran in the Test team, Woakes poor overseas and Curran 80mph. The big problem is Stokes who might or might not bowl.

[Slipstream]

With the WC coming up I was looking at the taking of wickets in the powerplay. Percentage of wickets of batsmen 1-3.

Caddick 58.0
Willey 53.9
Anderson 49.1
Wood 47.9
Harmison 47.4
Woakes 47.2
Broad 45.1
Gough 44.7
Curran 42.9
Topley 39.5
Archer 28.6

Who will get the new ball? Woakes and ? Probably Curran or Topley. Willey has excellent figures with the new ball. Wood and Archer are usually first change. Archer probably the best ODI bowler with an average of 21.73 and next Flintoff 23.22.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Trouble with Willey is he's been used as just a new ball bowler, and often hasn't bowled out because Stokes bowled his late overs.

[Slipstream]

Trouble with Willey is he's been used as just a new ball bowler, and often hasn't bowled out because Stokes bowled his late overs.

At one stage Willey only bowled early and never completed his overs and didn't bowl at the death but just before he was dropped he did have some success bowling at the death. It all depends whether England bowl 3 or 4 fast bowlers. Certainly will have lots of spin Rashid, Ali, Livingstone, Root.

[Slipstream]

Looking at the differences at grounds for Anderson Tests/ODIs

Lords 25.16/40.37
Brisbane 75.14/15.22
Kennington Oval 33.88/19.27
Melbourne 20.47/108.50
WACA 40.70/16.63
Wanderers 86.50/18.25
Kensington Oval 44.60/20.40

Wanderers and Newlands Tests
Anderson 86.50 and 18.81
Broad 18.08 and 50.33

[Arthur Crabtree]

I thought Wanderers was a good swing bowlers' wicket.

[Slipstream]

I thought Wanderers was a good swing bowlers' wicket.

Yes Hoggard and Broad loved it there but I remember when Anderson first played there in 2005 he was changing his bowling action and he couldn't land the ball on the cut strip and that must have stuck with him. His bowling from 2003 - 2007 (when he went back to his old action), his figures were 18 Tests 54 wickets at 37.92 and that should have been the end of him but ODIs kept him in the mix, 69 matches 99 wickets at 27.88.

[Slipstream]

10 April 2023 - Charles Davis
Dropped Catches in Tests: 2023

Compiling of dropped catch reports has continued into 2023. This dataset stretches back to 2001 for all Tests, and much further back for some selected Tests, particularly in England. The percentage of chances missed has been decreasing – i.e., catching is improving – gradually but slowly in this century. Does the 2023 data add anything new?

Overall, 22.3 per cent of chances (catches and stumpings) were missed in 2023, down from 24.4 per cent in 2022. This is the lowest annual miss rate recorded so far, the previous low being 22.8 per cent in 2018.

The most surprising thing to me is seeing Australia with the worst drop rate of any country. It’s the first year that this has happened. It seems strange, yet the impression during the 2023 Ashes was that Australia was dropping a lot of catches and England doing not much better.

Among individuals, Alastair Cook retains his position as both the leading beneficiary of dropped catches (78) in the 21st Century and, as a fielder, the leading perpetrator (81). It must be noted that Cook spent a lot of time in his early career fielding at short leg, the position with the highest general drop rate.

There has been some movement in the stats of bowlers. Stuart Broad finished his career with more dropped catches than anyone else (144). He moved ahead of Jimmy Anderson, who had 135 at the cutoff date, and has probably registered a few more so far in 2024. Also still in full stride is Nathan Lyon, also on 135, and likely to pass Broad at some point. Lyon has seen 28 per cent of chances missed off his bowling, as against 26 per cent for Broad and 23 per cent for Anderson. For other countries, Ravi Ashwin on 102 (27%) is the only bowler with more than 100 chances missed.

Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins had the most chances dropped off their bowling in 2023, with ten each. Steve Smith was the most sinful fielder, with eleven misses (Bairstow and Root next, with nine and seven respectively), although Smith also took the most (non-keeper) catches with 22. The luckiest batsman was Ben Stokes with nine misses, followed by Usman Khawaja on eight. Rohit Sharma took five catches in 2023 without registering a miss.