West Indies middle order woes
by dillinger10
cricketwindies.com staff
After another dismal batting performance, I thought I would take a deeper look to see how West Indies batsmen have fared recently. Spoiler Alert: Not good. Those that are squeamish, look away now.
Over the last two years, West Indies have a collective team batting average of 26.49. This is the second lowest in Test cricket. Only Zimbabwe (23.48) have a lower average.
In 31 innings, West Indies have more scores under 200 (10), than scores of 300+ (6). No team has a lower percentage of scores of 300+.
The middle order has been the biggest weakness with the Samuels, Bravo, Ramdin, Blackwood and Holder all being far below average. Chanderpaul (41.18) is the only middle order batsman with an average above 32.
Over this period, West Indies top order partnerships (1-3) have averaged 30.92 - the second lowest. The first three wickets have combined for 16 partnerships of 50+. Australia top the list with 42 fifty partnerships.
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The middle order (4-6) has been the worst in Test cricket, averaging 28.55 with 12 partnerships of 50+. Of the 89 partnerships, 34.83% have resulted in single-figure scores. A further 21.34% have resulted in partnerships under 20.
To help put their ineptitude into perspective, the collective middle order average partnerships of the other nine Test sides is 42.62.
Things get even worse when playing overseas, with the average middle order partnerships dropping all the way down 21.95 with just 3 partnerships of 50+ in 42 innings.
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Conversely, the tail (7-10) has performed admirably, averaging 20.77 - 5th best - and with as many 50+ partnerships (12) as the middle order.
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