The first Ashes Test match of 2019 was won by Australia by 251 Runs.
However Australia lost 4 wickets(of 17) in the first 10 overs of both innings. There was lot of movement for the bowlers and at times it was unplayable, especially with new ball. There were lot of plays and misses in that match. Interestingly England lost only 2 wickets in first 10 overs (both inns), which is very low compared to Australia 23.50%.
The biggest problem for a batter who has just arrived at the wicket is the moving ball. It is never easy to play the moving ball, when there are several slips and a gully in place. Indeed nicking to slips or misreading the line seems almost inevitable. Hence you would see common form of early dismissals- i.e bowled, caught behind wicket and L B W.
Sir Donald Bradman had this to say ” When in form i like to feel in playing back defensively that i was hitting the ball towards the bowler or mid-on rather than towards cover!.
Steve Smith is no different from what Bradman was saying, although his method seems unorthodox, and at times funny and weird – but currently he is the best batsman to leave the ball. His method is the safest.
(337)Batting skill: Safest way to leave the ball is to go the opposite way
Hence I thought would go back to Ashes 2015 played in UK and analyse how many were dismissed inside 10th over. Remarkably both teams lost same(11) amount of wickets in first 10 overs!.
Here is a brief list of last Ashes (2015)in England.
Australia overall lost 80 wickets in Ashes 2015, of which 11(13.75%) were dismissed inside 10th over.
These are the batsmen who were dismissed inside the 10th over with their runs in bracket.
Chris Rogers batting at No.1 was dismissed thrice –
Caught (10)
Caught (0)
L B W (6)
David Warner batting at No.2 was dismissed twice
LBW (2)
Keeper (0)
Steve Smith batting at No.3 was dismissed twice
Caught (1)
Caught (1)
Sean Marsh batting at No.4 was dismissed once
Caught (0)
Michael Clarke batting at No.5 was dismissed once
Caught (10)
Adam Voges batting at No.6 was dismissed once
Caught (1)
Peter Nevill batting at No.7 was dismissed once
Bowled (2)
Interestingly these batsmen were the top score of that series.
S Smith leading the runs tally with 508 Runs in 9 Inns.
Followed by C Rogers 480 runs in 9 Inns, Warner 418 in 9 inns –
However Voges( 201/8) and Clarke(132/9) had a miserable series
England overall lost 81 wickets in 2015 Ashes, of which 11(13.60%) were dismissed inside 10th over.
These are the batsmen who were dismissed inside the 10th over
Adam Lyth batting at No.1 was dismissed four times
Caught (6)
Keeper (0)
Keeper (7)
Caught (10)
Sir Alastair Cook batting at No.2 was dismissed four times
Caught (12)
Keeper (11)
Bowled (7)
Bowled (22)
Garry Balance batting at No.3 was dismissed twice
Keeper (0)
Bowled (23)
Ian Bell batting at No.4 was dismissed once
Bowled (1)
Their overall performance in the series-
Adam Lyth scored 115 in 9 Inns
Cook scored 300 runs in 9 inns
Balance scored 98 runs in 4 inns
Bell scored 215 runs in 9 inns
Now so far in the ongoing Ashes 2019- at Lord’s 2nd Test three batsmen (Roy, Root and Warner) were dismissed inside 10th over. This takes the series tally to 9 wickets (Australia 5, England 4) inside 10th over
Total wickets 51/9 = 17.60% .
Australia have lost 23.80% of their total wickets inside 10 overs
England have lost 13.33 % of their total wickets inside 10 overs
To conclude this small analysis, extraordinary this year only 11.20% of wickets fell inside 10 overs which is far less than Ashes series (current and 2015 in UK).
Here is a list of those series played this year(2019)
India in Australia – one Test (17 /1) = 5.90 %
Pak in South Africa- 2 Tests (71 /8) = 11.30 %
Sri Lanka in South Africa – 2 Tests (71/10) = 14. 10 %
England in West Indies – 3 Tests (101 /6) = 5.90 %
Sri Lanka in Australia – 2 Tests (56/9) = 16.10 %
Bangladesh in New Zealand – 2 Tests (52/ 4) = 7.70%
Afghanistan v/s Ireland in India – only Test (33/ 4) = 12.10%
Ireland in England – only Tests (40/6) = 15.00%
New Zealand in Sri Lanka- 1st ongoing Test (27/1) = 3.70 %
