The Disappearing Threes

It is hardly news that there has been a heavy hitting revolution in international cricket. A hit for six, once unusual or even rare, is now familiar fare. In the 1958/59 Ashes series, just one ball was hit for six; in 2006/07, there were 27. In Australia, boundary shots have never been more abundant (51 per cent of all runs since 2000), and hits for three have plummeted. Threes have become fours, fours have become sixes.

Looking at the Australian stats in detail, the change was sudden, and remarkably so. There was a first hint in 1995/96, with the introduction of boundary ropes at all grounds. Boundary hitting edged upwards. But nearly all the change occurred in the space of one season from 2000/01 to 2001/02. Sixes went from less than two per cent of runs to more than 3.5 per cent, and have remained elevated ever since. At the same time, the number of threes being hit dropped by more than one-third, and this change also appears to be permanent.

The best explanation is the introduction of high-technology bats. The numbers suggest that the innovation swept through Test cricket in a matter of months. By cricket’s historical standards, this is revolutionary change. More recently, the ICC has acted to limit further technical improvements in bats, so (I hope) perhaps this step change was a one-time thing.

What would players of earlier generations make of this? One intriguing innings that might look very different today is Bob Cowper’s 307 at the M.C.G. in 1966. The innings spanned more than four days, including a rest day and time lost – four days, twelve minutes to be exact – and is the longest innings in elapsed time (as opposed to batting time) by an Australian. It’s bare stats of 727 minutes and 589 balls make it sound like a dreary affair. Indeed, I thought so at the time (at the age of nine) watching it on TV thanks to the wonder of the “Coaxial Cable” to Sydney. It is my earliest memory of cricket on TV.

In reality, Cowper had to contend throughout with tight bowling, a pedestrian over rate, and an impossibly slow outfield. The boundary was barely reachable, for both sides. Even on the first day, the England batsmen hit ten threes before striking the first boundary. On the third day, Australia scored 234 runs for one wicket with only five shots reaching the boundary all day, the first of them coming more than halfway through the day as the outfield slowly dried; another five fours were all-run. Cowper hit no fewer than 26 threes in his innings, an all-time record. The nearest known tallies are 15 by Len Hutton his 364 in 1938, and by Bill Lawry in a score of just 205 at the M.C.G. in 1968/69. Cowper normally collected over 45 per cent of his runs in boundaries, well above average for his time, but in this Test he could hit only 18 boundary fours, or 23 per cent of his runs.

What a contrast when Matt Hayden, in the age of super bats and shorter boundaries, made 380 at the WACA in 2003 and smashed Cowper’s home Test record. Hayden hit 38 fours and 11 sixes, 57 per cent of his runs; even more remarkably, there was only one hit for three. There are even more extreme cases. Chris Gayle hit no threes at all in an innings of 333 at Galle in 2010, nor did Inzamam-ul-Haq in an innings of 329 at Lahore in 2002. The only player in the last 500 Test matches who has hit more than 10 threes in an innings was Justin Langer, with eleven in his 250 at the M.C.G. in 2002. It begs the question posed by the different conditions and the new generation of bats; is it possible to ‘normalise’ these differences to get a more realistic historical comparison?

One simple way is to simply tally the ‘power’ shots of these and other innings, the multi-run shots. These are the shots that are most affected by the changes in bats and grounds. If we total the hits for two, three four and six for major innings it produces an interesting list.

		Runs	Balls Faced	‘Power’ shots (2, 3, 4, 6)
M.L. Hayden	Perth (WACA), 2003/04	380	437	79
D.G. Bradman	Leeds (Headingley), 1930	334	449	78
B.C. Lara	Antigua (St John's), 2004	400*	582	77
I.V.A. Richards	The Oval, 1976	291	386	77
G.S. Sobers	Kingston, Jamaica, 1958	365*	575	75
R.M. Cowper	Melbourne (MCG), 1965/66	307	589	74
B.C. Lara	Antigua (St John's), 1994	375	538	73
D.P.M.D. Jayawardene	Colombo2 (SSC), 2006	374	572	72
R.E. Foster	Sydney (SCG), 1903/04	287	490	70
Zaheer Abbas	Birmingham (Edgbaston), 1971	274	467	70
W.R. Hammond	Auckland, 1932/33	336*	400	69
M.A. Taylor	Peshawar (Niaz), 1998/99	334*	564	69
L. Hutton	The Oval, 1938	364	858	68

Note: there are a handful of innings between 280 and 340 for which data is unavailable – however, these are unlikely to exceed Cowper’s tally.

Test cricket’s history is now so vast that Cowper’s innings ranks only twenty-second in runs scored, but it rises to sixth with its total of 74 multi-run hits. It still falls short of Hayden’s monolithic innings, though, and due credit must be offered to Hayden for that. Viv Richard’s place, equal to Brian Lara in the table, is also intriguing; Richards’ 291 contained only 50 singles, whereas Lara’s 400 not out had 139 singles.

Very few batsmen have had to work so hard for their runs as Cowper, who ran about 8,500 yards between the wickets during his innings, if you include runs hit by his batting partners and sundries (not counting any running for balls that did reach the boundary). Hayden would have run about 6,000 yards. None of the players in the table would have done more running than Cowper, with the exception of Hutton, who probably ran more than 10,000 yards in his innings.

Most Threes in a Test Innings (where known)

26	R.M. Cowper (307)	Melbourne (MCG) 1965/66
15	L. Hutton (364)	The Oval 1938
15	W.M. Lawry (205)	Melbourne (MCG) 1968/69
12	G. Kirsten (275)	Durban (Kingsmead) 1999/00
12	M.A. Taylor (219)	Nottingham (Trent Bridge) 1989
11	I.V.A. Richards (291)	The Oval 1976
11	J.L. Langer (250)	Melbourne (MCG) 2002/03

Note, an incomplete list: there are a number of innings in the range 250-340 runs for which number of threes is not known.

Most Running Between Wickets in a Test Innings

Running (Yards)
10500	L. Hutton (364)	The Oval 1938
9200	A. Sandham (325)	Kingston, Jamaica 1930
9200	Hanif Mohammad (337)	Bridgetown, Barbados 1958
9100	R.B. Simpson (311)	Manchester (Old Trafford) 1964
8900	R.M. Cowper (307)	Melbourne (MCG) 1965/66
8400	G.S. Sobers (365*)	Kingston, Jamaica 1958
8100	D.P.M.D. Jayawardene (374)	Colombo2 (SSC) 2006
8100	M.A. Taylor (334*)	Peshawar (Niaz) 1998/99
8000	D.G. Bradman (299*)	Adelaide Oval 1931/32

Includes runs hit by batting partners, and sundries, but not running for shots that reached the boundary.

Charles Davis

May 2011