Wicket droughts

Last year there was this post about the batters who had managed to go the longest between losing a wicket. Last week, one player suggested that perhaps he was getting close to a record for the bowling equivalent - claiming he had taken no wicket for the last 3 games (which would make at least 6 overs, and probably more than 50 balls). That's what this week's stat is...

Xavier was the player who questioned his own lack of wickets*, but a quick look at the last few scorecards shows that it has only two matches without a wicket. That's not really close to any records.

(and in any case, I filled in for a double-header at Weston during this week and took 7/-21 and 3/8, so I'm no longer concerned with my own wicket-taking ability)

The list of "Most balls bowled between taking wickets" is dominated by 2 players - Andy and Julian. Until very recently, they were the only 2 Popped Collars players to get to 50 balls.

Here's the list

Player	Team	Balls	Runs	Streak broken
Andy	Popped Collars	72	124	20 Jun, 2011
Julian	Popped Collars	58	101	11 Jan 2010
Julian	Popped Collars	58	88	20 Sep 2010
Julian	Popped Collars	56	99	16 Nov 2009
Sanjit	Popped Collars	52*	78	(ongoing)
Sam	Boonies	52	76	24 May 2010
Andy	Popped Collars	50	88	7 Aug 2012
Joel	4Skins	48	92	14 Aug 2012
Frank	Jug Chasers	48	91	6 Dec 2010

Plenty of interesting things here. Andy is not a bowler I would think of as "rarely taking wickets". Even his delicious attempted leg-spin pies got plenty of people out. But there he is, twice breaking 50. His mammoth run of 72 balls (9 overs!) leads the field by a comfortable margin, and I think it would be tough to compete with even if you were trying to not take wickets!

Julian would be the first to admit that he was not a wicket-taker, and I'm pretty sure this was the reason he started bowling his famous super-extra-slower balls - often to begin the over (or the match).

Two of Julian's streaks actually came straight after each other. He became the first 50-ball bowler before finally taking a wicket on his second-last ball of 16 November 2009. Next game he took two wickets before setting off on another streak. A few matches and a New-Year-break later, he broke his own record with the first of his two 58-ball performances.

Sam, from the Boonies. That is definitely not a name I would thought to see here. The only bowler that we've managed to keep out for more than 50 balls. You may remember him as one of those jack-rabbit-on-the-back-net guys who bowled fast and scored runs equally quickly. Perhaps everyone was just cautious against him - certainly his runs-per-ball during the streak indicates that.

Turning now to Sanjit, who is currently on a streak of 52 balls. Could he break into Julian's domain...? He is just 7 balls away from taking outright second place! Hopefully this won't happen.

Sanjit, we'll be looking for a wicket off one of your first few balls this week! Fortunately, despite not taking a wicket, his bowling has obviously been good, given the low number of runs scored off him (more one that later).

So now, let's look at runs. Here is the table of most runs taken off a bowler between wickets.

Player	Team	Balls	Runs	Streak broken
Andy	Popped Collars	72	124	20 Jun, 2011
Phil	Can't Bat, Can't Bowl	37	115	5 Dec 2011
Lyndon	Boonies	43	102	19 Apr 2010
Julian	Popped Collars	58	101	11 Jan 2010
Gibbo	The Groms	28*	101	(ongoing)
Julian	Popped Collars	56	99	16 Nov 2009
Jake	NDC	36*	97	(ongoing)
Brad	Popped Collars	42	94	16 May 2011
Matt	Popped Collars	39	94	17 Apr 2012

Again, Andy tops the list with his record streak, but second place now goes to an unfortunate fellow called Phil, who lived up to his team's name. Only 37 balls, but a huge 115 runs taken from him.

But hopefully everyone spotted the true standout in the above table...!!

Paul "Gibbo" Gibson from The Groms has seen his last 28 balls smashed for a century. In their last match against us he bowled 3 overs for 72 runs (21, 21, 30), and in the game before that, his last 4 balls went for 29 runs, helped by Rian's infamous 22 runs in 2 balls (7+1 and 7*2).

Ironically, the 3 balls before his streak began were a hat-trick. Don't forget that Gibbo's streak is unfinished... for next time we take on our old mate!

Here's some other people that have a taken a hammering between wickets.

Highest runs per ball (RPB) between taking wickets (min 50 runs)

Player	Team	Balls	Runs	RPB
Steve	Pidge's Coupe	13	58	4.46
Tim	The Balbs	15*	63	4.20
Brandon	Cod Ends	13*	53	4.08
Russ	Can't Bat, Can't Bowl	14	51	3.64
Gibbo	The Groms	28*	101	3.61
Jason	Pidge's Coupe	14	50	3.57
Dean	Pidge's Coupe	18	63	3.50
Matt	Mild Heat	16*	56	3.50
Pete	Take That	16*	56	3.50

You have to go down to rank 17 on that list before you find a Popped Collars bowler (Brad: 21 balls, 64 runs, 3.05 rpb).

And what about those who have bowled best (lowest runs per ball), despite not taking wickets for some time?

Lowest runs-per-ball between wickets (min 25 balls)

Player	Team	Balls	Runs	RPB
Xavier	Popped Collars	29	30	1.03
Andy	Popped Collars	28	29	1.04
Xavier	Popped Collars	28	29	1.12
Dylan	4Skins	25	28	1.13
Xavier	Popped Collars	30	34	1.16
Rian	Popped Collars	32	37	1.17
Sanjit	Popped Collars	29	34	1.19

Most entries in that table are for quite short periods of time (i.e. close to the 25 ball cut-off).

But if we do the same stat for longer droughts, we can see that Sanjit's current economy rate is extremely good.

Lowest runs-per-ball between wickets (min 40 balls)

Player	Team	Balls	Runs	RPB
Sam	Boonies	52	76	1.46
Sanjit	Popped Collars	52*	78*	1.50
Julian	Popped Collars	58	88	1.52
Rian	Popped Collars	44	71	1.61
Sanjit	Popped Collars	46	76	1.65
Sanjit	Popped Collars	42	70	1.67
Andy	Popped Collars	72	124	1.72
Andy	Popped Collars	41	71	1.73
Julian	Popped Collars	58	101	1.74

With three entries in that table, I think we can confidently sum up Sanjit's overall bowling style as "not a big wicket taker, but extremely hard to get away for runs".