During the ongoing Oval Test I keep on listening how difficult The Oval pitch is for batting, which makes me wonder whether England were batting on a different wicket?.
Traditionally England bat slowly, and surprisingly they started this Ashes series in aggressive fashion…one saw their run-rate reach 4 in the first two Tests of this series.
However since 3rd Test (Old Trafford) Australia’s bowling improved immensely, as they reined English batters with accurate bowling, and manage to keep their run rate down to less than 3.
Australian bowlers should be credited for bowling better and keeping English batsmen in leash which was not the case against India in their last series (3.73)
Here is a list of run rate scored in this series.
| Ashes 2013 (Runs/Over) | Aus | Eng |
| Trent Bridge(I) | 4.34 | 3.64 |
| Trent Bridge (II) | 2.68 | 2.51 |
| Lord’s (I) | 2.40 | 3.61 |
| Lord’s (II) | 2.60 | 3.06 |
| Old Trafford (I) | 3.61 | 2.64 |
| Old Trafford( II) | 4.78 | 1.82 |
| Chester le Street(I) | 3.02 | 2.59 |
| Chester le Street (II) | 3.28 | 3.47 |
| The Oval (I) | 3.83 | 2.12 |
| Total | 3.33 | 2.84 |
Interestingly this year’s the run rate at English county(1st class matches) games has increased dramatically. Teams have been scoring 4 runs/over
England had their run rate under 3 in last two Test series (v/s NZ )@ 2.60 & 3.05 respectively.
All data processed & updated till England’s score 247-4(116)overs
