Ashes series - Interesting stats

Interesting statistics shared on various Australian sites

18.50 - Michael Clarke's average in the 12 matches since he moved up to number four [courtesy Courier Mail] He made up for it today but fell off the last ball of the day to bring the English bowlers back in contention.
17 - Number of Tests since Australian selectors dropped a batsman [courtesy The Australian] When are they going to drop Marcus North, who clearly does not fit the bill? Worse still, who will they bring in to replace North? Cameron White? David Hussey? Brad Hodge?
4 - Number of batsmen on the four-man selection panel [courtesy The Australian] No wonder the bowlers dont know whether they are coming into the team or going out.
22 - Number of years since Australia has gone four Tests without a victory [courtesy The Australian] Gone are the days when the Aussie team dominated world attacks. They had forgotten how things were in the pre-Border era.
8.29 - Marcus North's average when called upon to bat before Australia have made 150 [courtesy SMH] Do we need to say anything here?
54.79 - North's average when going in with 150+ on the board [courtesy SMH]
1 - Number of players to make a 'diamond duck' in an Ashes Test before yesterday [Rodney Hogg run out by Dennis Lillee, 1981 - courtesy SMH] Diamond and Golden ducks on the first day of the test match - what a setback for the Aussies!!
2 - Matches with four century partnerships in a test innings

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RCB needs to get its batting order right

Image via Wikipedia

RCB failed against Deccan Charges on 10th April - 4 losses in the last 5 matches.

This is mostly due to the fact that the bowlers did not defend the score but more importantly, the strip was so good that Deccan batsmen could chase the score easily.

The top-order of RCB seems to be very heavy - especially if you have Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid in the Top3. Manish Pandey and Kallis seem to be the right opening pair for the team but Rahul is not the right No.3.

The Team Management would do good to give a chance to Srivats Goswami - he can do the role of a wicket-keeper (though Uthappa is doing a fairly good job in his role). He scored heavily in the recent ODI matches and hence would give a better balance to the team than Dravid. Though I hold Dravid in high esteem, he seems to be out of sorts in this format - it is better that he is rested for the remaining matches.

Of the four foreign players in the playing eleven, Kallis, Steyn, Ross Taylor and Cameron White would be the ideal players in the Top seven. Manish, Uthappa and Goswami will finish the remaining slots in batting. The bowling will be taken care by the captain Kumble, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar and Appanna. This will be a good balanced squad for RCB - containing the dashers as well as the steady batsmen. Of course, Virat Kohli is missing - maybe he might be swapped for Appanna.

This eleven will give a better chance to win the match against Kolkata and in the future games.

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