A graphical view of Australia vs. Sri Lanka, 2nd Test Match, Cairns, played 9-13 July, 2004 by Jack Solock

---

Scorecard:

Australia v Sri Lanka

---

Lost in the glare of Shane Warne's ultimately unsuccessful bid to become the most prolific wicket taker in Test match history was an epic rearguard by Sri Lanka, which, after their meek capitulation in the previous four games against Australia (two of which they had legitimate chances to win), finally showed a side with some backbone. A good deal of that backbone was named Sangakkara, but a tail named Vaas-Zoysa, which refused to break for 31 minutes against the tide of history in the making, also must be commended.

 

 

The first graph shows the progress of the entire game. Immediately illustrated in linear form is the power of an opening partnership to set a platform for an innings. The Justin Langer-Matthew Hayden 255 run partnership, their sixth in Tests, along with the Langer-Damien Martyn 102 run third wicket partnership, accounted for well over 60 percent of the Australian total, putting a great deal of pressure on Sri Lanka, in spite of the collapse that occurred after the 3rd wicket.

 

When Jason Gillespie removed the out of form Sanath Jayasuria with just 18 runs on the board, Sri Lanka were at a crossroads. They had collapsed three times in their last four first innings against Australia. At this point Kumar Sangakkara partnered with "all or nothing at all" man Marvan Attapatu for a vital 138 runs, consuming 2 hours and 40 minutes. This was followed by another vital partnership between Attapatu and Mahela Jayawardene (124 runs) for the third wicket. The two partnerships laid a foundation for the rest of the innings, insuring that Sri Lanka were less than 100 runs behind after the 1st innings. And the Lankans did it very carefully, taking over 140 overs to do so. With almost 40 overs lost to rain and bad light on days three and four, Australia would be hard pressed to force a result.

 

But press they did, putting up almost 300 runs in just over 66 overs, setting Sri Lanka an imposing 355 in 85 overs. As Australia's 2nd innings line shows, Ricky Ponting might have been better off declaring earlier. Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20.

 

The Sri Lanka 4th innings looks rather innocuous on the graph, a gently sloping line to 8 wickets and a match drawn. But that doesn't tell half the story, because wicket/run graphs do not really allow the reader to visualise time very well. To see the real story of the Sri Lankan 4th innings, look at the closeup graph.

 

 

Here we can see the nature of the fighting rearguard that the entire innings was. And here also, is the story of Shane Warne's magnificent 37 over on the trot effort to not only win the match, but pass Muttiah Muralithuran for the most wickets in the history of Test cricket. The name that does not appear on the graph is Sangakkara, but it was he who helped put the distance between the second and seventh wickets, anchoring six partnerships. More importantly, he also battled the world's best attack, including the rampant Shane Warne, for 4 hours and 23 minutes before finally falling. But there was one more twist left in this tale. When Upul Chandana fell to Warne's record tying 527th wicket in the 76th over, there were still more than 9 overs to go! Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa saw out those overs, denying Warne the record and Australia the match. Not exactly your garden variety "boring draw".

 

Just a word on the Warne-Muralitharan rivalry. These are the two pre-eminent spin bowlers of our time, and perhaps all time. At this juncture, it might be interesting to see some simple breakdowns of their records. Is Warne disadvantaged because he hasn't bowled at all against Zimbabwe? Is Muralitharan disadvantaged because Warne doesn't have to bowl against Australia? Is Warne disadvantaged because his home tracks don't particularly help him? These two simple bar charts give the breakdowns for each bowler against each country, and at home and abroad. Of course, these graphs don't tell much, because of many other confounding factors when trying to analyze who is better than whom. And a final thought. In Test matches Warne has bowled for Australia, his team is 65 wins, 22 losses, 24 draws. In matches bowled by Muralitharan for Sri Lanka, his team is 32 wins, 26 losses, 30 draws. This may say more about Muralitharan than Warne. What do you think?

 

 

 

Sources for this article:
Chloe Saltau--Sydney Morning Herald
Christian Ryan—Cricinfo
Sa'adi Thaufeeq--Sri Lanka Daily News and Sunday Observer (Colombo)
Cricinfo Stats Guru

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Jack Solock)