Relentless Kallis, and Lara's Aussie exploits

Perhaps numbers never do reveal the full story, but they tell a large part of it. Every Friday, The Numbers Game will take a look at statistics from the present and the past, busting myths and revealing hidden truths:

Kallis marches on
Jacques Kallis has been having an amazing run in Test cricket. For most players, a good phase would last a year, perhaps two; for Kallis, the run-fest has continued for a phenomenal six years - since 1999, the lowest he has averaged in a calendar year is 48.75, in 2000. Four times he has averaged in excess of 64, while in 2003, he was only two runs short of the 50 mark (698 in 14 innings at 49.85).

It wasn't quite like that when he started his Test career, though. In his first 22 Tests, stretching over four years, Kallis went past fifty just seven times, and managed only 1019 runs at less than 31. The scores in his first seven innings read 1, 7, 6, 39, 0, 2, 2 - there were few signs there of what would follow.

Contrast that with his outstanding performances in his last 25 innings, dating back to the first Test West Indies at Johannesburg in 2003-04 - 16 fifty-plus knocks, half of which he went on to convert into hundreds. Of the remaining nine innings during this period, five were scores of ten or less. The message has been clear for opposition teams - dismiss Kallis really early in the piece, or prepare for a leatherhunt.

His career stats bear a remarkable similarity with an Australian batsman who played his first Test innings on December 9, 1995, just five days before Kallis made his debut. Ricky Ponting's first two innings fetched him a total of 167 runs, 21 times Kallis's returns from his first two tries, but nine years later, the numbers for the two bear an uncanny resemblance - both have played 85 Tests, Ponting has scored a run more, and averages 0.01 more per innings. It can't possibly get closer than this.

Despite those outstanding numbers, though, there is one area Kallis will want to improve on: he scores only 33 runs per innings in the 12 Tests he has played against Australia, while his averages against Pakistan and Sri Lanka are in the 30s too. Couple that with an incredible average of 390.50 in six Tests against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and you can see why there's still the occasional whisper of Kallis being a bully of bad bowling. (Anyone who saw his masterful century against England at Durban last month would know how unfair that statement is.) Ponting, on the other hand, averages below 40 against only one team - Bangladesh. Kallis has an opportunity to set right his slightly skewed record, though: South Africa visit Australia at the end of this year. (Click here for Kallis's career summary.)

Lara's Aussie exploits
West Indies' disappointing performances in the lead-up games to the VB Series only confirmed how much they rely on Brian Lara to lift them up - he almost single-handedly took them to victory with a sparkling 116 not out in the first match against Australia. In the two other matches, with Lara not playing, West Indies floundered badly. The correlation between Lara's success and West Indian victories in ODIs in Australia is significant - when he gets a fifty, West Indies' success rate goes up to more than 73%; when he doesn't make a half-century, it drops almost by half to 38%.

Lara has already played four triangular tournaments in Australia, but he achieved maximum success in 1996-97, when, like on this occasion, Pakistan were the third side. From nine games, he thrashed 424 runs at more than 60, and had a sequence of 48, 102, 103* and 90 in four successive matches. Another similar run-fest can't be ruled out in the ongoing edition of the tournament, but what seems more unlikely is a repeat of the results from that competition - Australia were shut out in the league stage itself, and Pakistan went on to thrash West Indies 2-0 in the finals. (Click here for a series-wise look at Lara in ODIs in Australia.)

S Rajesh is assistant editor of Cricinfo.