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When Joe Root made 254 against Pakistan earlier this year, there was much talk of how he’d cracked it; how he’d responded to the move to number three by adopting a newfound merciless approach. The responsibility of batting at three had firmed Root’s desire to eradicate errors and from now on he would transform all those fifties into daddy hundreds.
Even at the time, we thought: ‘Joe Root’s hit a double hundred before.’
Before that innings, Root was a batsman capable of double hundreds who made a lot of fifties – and he’s been much the same since. Today saw his seventh fifty in that period to go with one hundred.
It’s hard to say whether this ‘conversion’ thing is a problem or not. There are plenty who will say that Root should be reaching three figures more often, but maybe that’s not the freakish bit. Maybe Joe Root is an otherwise average batsman who is just uncommonly good at reaching double figures.
His average is distinctly two-digit. In fact, his average is only two short of the average of all two-digit averages. Obviously, when I say average in this case, I mean mean. So what I mean is that the mean of all two digit averages is not far from his average, which means that he’s far from average, rather he’s a mean player.
This averages stuff: what do you mean?
Sometimes modes and medians mean more than means
I’m enjoying the range of this discussion…
Cricketing averages aren’t strictly the mean of scores, though, so when Bert says he means mean, I’m not sure that ‘mean’ means what he thinks mean means.
Bert’s comments are usually spot on, but this one’s missed the mark. Nothing extraordinary, just a standard deviation.
Don’t be so mean on Bert. He’s only (approximately) human, and besides he’s busy getting ready for Halloween next Sunday.
If Root has been not out 12 times then this has to skew his average in his favour. Ispso facto, going up the order might hinder his mean score which conversely gave Phil Tufnell a reasonable ODI average.
I think Root is not being selfish enough like Pietersen who was able to convert higher percentage of his fifties to hundreds.
If England were allowed to field composite players, I think Kevoe Pieteroot would be a particularly awesome batsman and amusing-to-watch spinner.
Though England could really do with Graeen Swali.
One mean innings:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/1072767.html
Epic scorecard, Mike, thanks.
But too many unknowns. Who were the umpires? Who were the captains? Who were the keepers?
More importantly, who was awarded man of the match?
Player of the match, Ged.
I was the player of the match?
That’s wonderful news, Sam.
You are being really sarcastic to Sam lately Ged. His point was fair.
If one can’t be sarcastic on an online cricket forum, in which one doesn’t even use one’s real name, we truly are lost.
Merely a wordplay, Gareth, not intentional sarcasm and certainly not meant in any way to sound snide.
I just like the idea of Ged being the top-ranked “player” of two teams of South African teenage girls. I’m not sure Daisy would approve of such behaviour.