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Jacques Kallis retires from international cricket: Statistical comparison with other all-rounders

Jacques Kallis will be sorely missed by the cricket fraternity.

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Jacques Kallis was unarguably one of the best all rounders ever © Getty Images
Jacques Kallis was unarguably one of the best all rounders ever © Getty Images

 

Jacques Kallis was said to be second to only Garry Sobers. As Kallis retires from cricket, Nishad Pai Vaidya looks at a very interesting statistic.

 

Jacques Kallis was said to be second to only Garry Sobers, arguably the greatest all-rounder the world has seen. While it is fallacious to compare the two, as they played cricket in different eras, one can say that statistics do show that they tower above the rest if their all-round records are concerned. Kallis’ numbers are far superior, but that is because he played many more games and also turned up in the two younger formats of cricket. As he bids good bye to the game, cricket loses an all-round marvel and he would be sorely missed by the fraternity.

 

If one looks at the statistics of players with over 200 wickets in international wickets and 5,000 runs, then Sobers and Kallis have the best difference between their batting and bowling averages. They have the greatest difference between batting and bowling averages if one considers their records across the different formats of the game:

 

Player

M*

R

Ave

100s

HS

W

Bowl. Ave

BBI

5WI

AD**

Garry Sobers

94

8032

57.37

26

365*

236

34.02

6/73

6

23.34

Jacques Kallis

519

25534

49.1

62

224

577

32.14

6/54

7

16.95

Imran Khan

263

7516

35.45

7

136

544

24.08

8/58

24

11.36

Shane Watson

270

9738

37.16

13

185*

271

24.08

6/33

3

7.34

Steve Waugh

493

18496

41.65

35

200

287

35.56

5/28

3

6.09

 

*includes Tests, ODIs and T20 internationals. **Difference between batting and bowling average.

 

Remember one fact: Sobers played only one One-Day International (ODI), in which he was dismissed for a duck. When compared to other players in this list, he has only 94 games. If one leaves Sobers out, Kallis is easily the greatest modern all-rounder in terms of the numbers. A difference of 16.95 between the batting and bowling average is proof of that.

 

(Nishad Pai Vaidya is a Correspondent with CricketCountry and anchor for the site’s YouTube Channel. His Twitter handle is @nishad_45)

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