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Stats Analysis

Pace domination, and Kettleborough's 100% success rate

South Africa outdid Australia in the fast bowling department, the lower middle-order contributions and the number of centuries scored

S Rajesh
S Rajesh
28-Nov-2016
South Africa's trio of fast bowlers won the pace battle against Australia  •  ESPNcricinfo Ltd

South Africa's trio of fast bowlers won the pace battle against Australia  •  ESPNcricinfo Ltd

21.64 The bowling average for South Africa's fast bowlers in the series, compared to 29.77 for Australia's pace attack. Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott and Vernon Philander accounted for 40 of those 42 wickets, at 20.30. Australia's pace attack had a combined average of 29.77. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, Australia's leading fast bowlers, had a combined tally of 31 wickets at 25.71. Each team's spinners took seven wickets collectively, at 50-plus averages (52.42 for Australia, and 58.14 for South Africa). Fast bowlers accounted for more than 85% of the total wickets for each team.
82 Total wickets taken by the fast bowlers in the series. There have been only three three-Test series in Australia in which fast bowlers have taken more wickets, and all of them were between 1979 and 1982; two of those featured West Indies.
Most wkts for fast bowlers in a three-Test series in Aus
Series Wickets Average Strike rate 5WI
 WI in Aus, 1979-80  89  27.41  56.2  2
 Eng in Aus, 1979-80  88  22.25  58.4  5
 WI in Aus, 1981-82  85  27.12  60.8  6
 SA in Aus, 2016-17  82  25.60  50.4  4
 NZ in Aus, 1980-81  80  21.61  53.1  5
 SA in Aus, 2008-09  80  35.55  68.8  4
5 Hundreds for South Africa, out of the six in the series. Australia's only centurion was Usman Khawaja, while five batsmen got hundreds for South Africa - Dean Elgar, JP Duminy, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Stephen Cook. (Click here for South Africa's batting and bowling stats, and here for Australia's.)
Series stats for South Africa and Australia
Team Runs scored Bat ave Run rate 100s
 South Africa  1617  34.40  3.32  5
 Australia  1361  25.67  3.06  1
41.25 The average partnership for South Africa's fifth to eighth wickets; for Australia, the average for those wickets was only 17.15. In 20 partnerships for these wickets, South Africa's batsmen scored 825 runs, with de Kock being the key contributor: he scored 281 from five innings, and received fine support from Temba Bavuma and Philander in these middle and lower-order partnerships. In contrast, Australia managed only 343 runs in 20 such partnerships. The difference in these partnership numbers was a key reason for South Africa's series triumph; for the first four wickets Australia had a marginally higher average - 37.82, to South Africa's 34.05.
Partnership stats for each wkt for South Africa and Australia
  South Africa Australia
Wicket Runs Average 100/50 stands Runs Average 100/50 stands
1st 91 18.20 0/ 0 295 49.16 1/ 2
2nd 121 24.20 0/ 1 106 17.66 0/ 1
3rd 324 64.80 1/ 0 347 57.83 1/ 3
4th 145 29.00 0/ 1 122 24.40 0/ 1
5th 185 37.00 0/ 1 68 13.60 0/ 1
6th 257 51.40 1/ 1 101 20.20 0/ 1
7th 174 34.80 1/ 0 89 17.80 0/ 0
8th 209 41.80 0/ 2 85 17.00 0/ 0
9th 28 7.00 0/ 0 99 19.80 0/ 1
10th 83 27.66 0/ 0 49 9.80 0/ 0
100% Success rate for Richard Kettleborough with DRS appeals made against his decisions in Hobart and Adelaide, the two Tests in which he was the on-field umpire in the series. In all, 11 of his decisions were challenged, but none of his calls were overturned. In contrast, the success rate was only 50% for Aleem Dar (six out of 12), and 68.75% for Nigel Llong (11 out of 16).
5 Number of times Hazlewood dismissed Hashim Amla in this series, the most times a bowler got a batsman out. The next highest was Starc's four dismissals of Cook, conceding only 43 from 134 balls. Elgar struggled against Starc as well. There were five instances of a bowler dismissing a batsman three or more times in the series, and they were all by Starc or Hazlewood.
97 Runs scored by de Kock against Nathan Lyon, the most by any batsman against a bowler in the series. Lyon didn't dismiss de Kock even once, though he had him in some trouble in Adelaide. There were only two other instances of a batsman scoring 50-plus runs against a bowler without being dismissed - Warner against Rabada, and Bavuma against Starc.
Key head-to-head numbers from the series
Batsman Bowler Runs Balls Dismissals Average
 Hashim Amla  Josh Hazlewood  29  52  5  5.80
 Stephen Cook  Mitchell Starc  43  134  4  10.75
 Dean Elgar  Mitchell Starc  38  97  3  12.66
 Quinton de Kock  Josh Hazlewood  60  99  3  20.00
 Faf du Plessis  Mitchell Starc  87  106  3  29.00
 JP Duminy  Josh Hazlewood  61  105  1  61.00
 JP Duminy  Mitchell Starc  52  67  1  52.00
 Usman Khawaja  Kyle Abbott  48  116  1  48.00
 Usman Khawaja  Kagiso Rabada  57  126  1  57.00
 Steven Smith  Kyle Abbott  55  77  1  55.00
 David Warner  Vernon Philander  63  105  1  63.00
 Temba Bavuma  Mitchell Starc  63  106  0  -
 Quinton de Kock  Nathan Lyon  97  115  0  -
 Quinton de Kock  Mitchell Starc  40  72  0  -
 David Warner  Kagiso Rabada  67  60  0  -

S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats