England v Pakistan 2020.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Looks like Buttler's getting stuck in. Creates a bit of a dilemma.

[Durhamfootman]

someone on crapinfo making the point that Root used to get criticised for not going to 100 often enough after passing 50, but now he struggles to get to 50 after passing 20

[Durhamfootman]

Looks like Buttler's getting stuck in. Creates a bit of a dilemma.

he seems to find a positive approach to the spinner helpful

[Arthur Crabtree]

Should be Crawley's first Test ton.

[Durhamfootman]

Shhhh!

[Durhamfootman]

there it is

well done, sir!

[Arthur Crabtree]

Made in pretty smart time too.

[alfie]

Have really enjoyed watching Crawley bat today. Looked good right from first ball and hasn't looked in any sort of trouble at any stage , despite some good and varied bowling.

He's been patient when they've tried to bore him out , defended when he's had to , and generally kept looking to score whenever possible. Some nice strokes but it's the overall confident control I've most admired.

Guess that "centre wicket net" he got in last week did him a lot of good

201/4 . This stand lifting England ; and with 17 overs to the new ball Pakistan might be wishing they had a proper fifth bowler...

[sussexpob]

A few more stats on Root.

In the history of the game, 60 players have 50 x 50 in test cricket. Root is ranked as 20th on this list, but only 54th place in terms of tests. His ratio of tests to 50s is the best out of all to achieve it, bar Steve Smith, who has 70% percent ratio of scoring 50s to test played while Root has 69% percent. But with Smith having played far less, in order to match Roots tally at his approaching 100 tests, he would still have to maintain record pace to do it. Sangakarra was third at 67%, and after that most settle to around 50-60 percent. Tendulkars record 50s came at a 59 percent ratio.

Out of all the players in the history of the game, not just those that managed the 50 x 50, only Bradman, Barrington, Hobbs, Weekes and Sutcliffe have better ratios. Four of these players are in the top 5 highest completed career test match averages of all time for players over 25 games. The fifth hovers aorund 7th place. Actually if you take innings to 50s (most sources to matches, the only one gives it in innings played), Root actually comes out ahead of Smith by 1 percent.

Root conversion is 25% from fifties to hundreds. To put that into perspective, out of all specialist batsman who have scored more than 10 hundreds, only Misbah and Laxman have worse conversion rates (21 and 23 percent). Of course a lot of average batters might convert so poorly, they dont make that mark. And obviously also, there will be batsman with conversion rates of 0, even with a significant amount of runs or 50s.

Looking at the all time worst converter list, Warne tops it with 12 x 50s, 3000 plus runs and no hundred. Its necessary maybe to filter these results off because the list is full of lower order bowlers who could bat a bit and had long careers with multiple 50s. Hadlee, Broad, Kumble, Harbi, Mitchell Johnson, Vaas and Coney are all here. Number 7s to 10s arent going to convert 50s to 100s so its not relevant.

Filtering it with an appropriate amount of 100s thins the list out, but you are still left looking at Dwayne Bravos, Frank Wooley, Flintoff, Pollock, Watson, Cairns, Knott, Boucher, Dhoni, Shakib and so on..... a lot of wicketkeepers batting at 7, or batsman who wouldnt have been picked if they couldnt bowl. The list ends up boiling down to Steve Fleming, Sherwin Campbell, Jonty Rhodes, Martin Guptil, Habibul Bashar and a few others. All around the 15-18 percent type mark. Ranatunga is under 10 percent, but he batted a lot at 7 and Id say hes all rounder territory.

So its not very favourable. If the handful of proper specialist batsman with the worst conversion rates are in the 18 percent range, then it puts into perspective that 25 percent as being pretty historically poor. And none of these players are anywhere near Roots quality. Fleming at about 8 runs less on the average is the closest to Root, Guptil and Campbell nearly 20 runs away.

The shocking thing is though, I think Root when he first came into the team had a conversation ratio of 1:1 for his first 5 odd hundreds. What you actually find then is not only is his general rate bad, but its been even worse for a long period of time. Just looking, in April 2015 he hit his 6th century with 7 unconverted. Which means in the last 5 years, its 12 centuries with 42 unconverted. This pushes him to 22 percent.

In the last 3 calendar years, he has scored 4 hundreds with 20 x 50. Thats a ratio of 20 percent.... which would gain him entry onto that all time list of all players, regardless of amount of hundreds or role in the team. And in an elite list of specialist batsman with over 2000 runs with the worst conversion rations in history. Considering the list only has about 10 max batsman who is specialist, thats how bad its got.

[sussexpob]

Many people defend his throwing away of starts and his decline on being a threee format player who captains; out of those still playing, the top ratios are all players who are either captains, vice captains, and accomplished three format players who play significant T20 domestic cricket. Historically, many of these batsman also captained their side and guys like Tendulkar played masses of games. The excuse really doesnt wash.

He needs to face it, he is throwing away starts with crap concentration. And has declined into a pretty average cricketer. He does the hard work and gives it away...... all batsman fail a lot, Root is one of the best batsman in the history of the game in getting in to an innings. Most batsman pass 20 and thats where they do their business. As those averages early suggest, passing 20 is on average a ticket to another 60-80 runs for most people.

Which also makes you think is his average of 47 that true? It contains little high scores to boost it, but little failures. In comparison to others and their match winning ability, youd expect that average to speak volumes of that ability. Does it with Root?

[sussexpob]

Worth noting Buttlers conversion rate of 5 percent is 4th worst all time. With 3 players with a minimum of 120 wickets only besting that

[alfie]

I don't think we need a mountain of stats to conclude that Root's concentration tends to let him down.

Has certainly got worse under the extra pressure of captaincy.

Though today was hardly typical : that ball would have probably removed anyone.

Fifty for Buttler

He fancies this Pakistan bowling , I think.

[Durhamfootman]

Worth noting Buttlers conversion rate of 5 percent is 4th worst all time. With 3 players with a minimum of 120 wickets only besting that

just improved, with back to back 50's (I'm ignoring his 0*)

[Durhamfootman]

Crawley brings up his 150 and Shah brings up his gallon

[Durhamfootman]

Afridi intent on ruining his own figures