Batting in the 4th innings – a tough nut to crack even for the best.

There are  some parameters by which a test batsman is judged, whether he is  good, very good or indeed falls in the category of  all time great batsmen. The word ‘great’is somehow used very loosely in today’s context.  It is often a misused adjective to describe a test batsman. While it is a known fact that bowlers win test matches while batsmen save them, there are indeed some occasions when a batsman can help win a near improbable match by scoring a well constructed  innings  in the 4^th innings of a test match.  For a batsman to succeed in the 4^th innings  the batsmen need to be mentally tough  and must have the technique to survive the wear and tear caused on the pitch and not only survive, but score runs  which would help take the pressure off his team and transfer it on the opposition.  This article aims to recognize some of the top batsmen who scored runs when their team needed it the most. The following table illustrates the top batting averages of test batsmen in 4^th innings chases. (minimum qualification 1000 runs )

PLAYER	MTS	INNGS	NO	RUNS	HS	AVG	100'S	50'S
G BOYCOTT	36	34	13	1234	128*	58.76	3	7
S M GAVASKAR	34	33	9	1398	221	58.25	4	8
R T PONTING	51	39	9	1362	156	54.48	4	5
G C SMITH	33	32	14	1358	154*	54.32	3	8
G GRENIDGE	41	38	7	1383	214*	53.19	3	6
JAYAWARDHENE	38	29	12	1006	123	50.3	3	5
M HAYDEN	39	39	9	1287	101*	49.5	1	9
G A GOOCH	30	29	13	1121	133	44.84	3	5
J KALLIS	50	42	4	1229	101	43.89	1	10
D HAYNES	45	45	14	1092	112*	43.68	2	4
VVS LAXMAN	48	35	20	1028	103*	42.83	1	7
S CHANDERPAUL	51	43	11	1406	116*	42.6	2	10
R DRAVID	62	54	10	1507	103*	41.86	1	9
M A ATHERTON	39	39	18	1375	185*	41.66	2	9
J LANGER	37	33	6	1053	127	40.5	2	6
S TENDULKAR	66	53	7	1515	136	39.86	3	7
C GAYLE	36	35	15	1184	82	39.46	0	11
R SARWAN	39	36	5	1241	128	37.6	4	4
B C LARA	52	46	3	1440	153*	35.12	2	7
A STEWART	45	39	6	1134	119	34.36	1	6

 It is amply clear from the table above that majority of these batsmen who have succeeded in the 4^th innings  have had decent techniques and some of them have been  truly  great batsmen of all time.   Batsmen like Gavaskar,Younis Khan, Graeme Smith and Ricky Ponting have in fact scored 4 centuries each in the 4^th innings of a test match, quite mind boggling stats. 

And........ a few surprises  .- However, the most shocking statistic is perhaps the fact that the batsmen considered by many to be the greatest of recent times - Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid - average much lower than their career averages when they came out to bat in the fourth innings of the match. Tendulkar who averages around 53 in Tests and was in fact the holder of the record for the most runs ever scored in the fourth innings of a match averages just under 40, and comes sixteenth in the list, below even the likes of Chanderpaul, Dravid, Laxman, Langer and Gooch. No, this is not an indictment of his greatness - scoring runs in the first innings is important as well and the man is unmatched in terms of sheer run scoring – but  the stats do indeed tell a story .Interestingly, the figures also show that in the fourth innings, VVS Laxman is the most likely of all Indian batsmen to live up to his career average - he averages 46 overall and close to 43 in the fourth innings. Dravid averages well below his career average, and although they do not make this list because they did not aggregate a thousand runs in their career, so did Ganguly (37.56), Sehwag (31.04), although Gautam Gambhir's average of 44 in the fourth innings is close to his career figure of 47. Even legends of the recent past seem to have very bad fourth innings records - GR Vishwanath averages 33.40, Dilip Vengsarkar a very lowly 29.19, Mohinder Amarnath a mediocre 34 All of which might go a long way towards explaining why India have often underperformed in crunch situations, even though they have made some of the most dramatic run chases in Test history. Mind you, this is not a uniquely Indian phenomenon - even batsmen who had a reputation for batting well when the going got tough have very modest records: Steve Waugh and Allan Border both average well below forty on this parameter.

This table however is the overall record in the 4^th innings. Some of these batsmen have scored big runs and helped the team to draw the test match when it seemed a lost cause.  If we take a look at Gavaskar’s  4^th innings record, most of his runs have come in a saving effort, but this does not in any way take the sheen off his impressive record. It must be remembered that gavaskar played in an era when his team did not have the required firepower  in the fast bowling  which could help set up the victory run chase. Gavaskar had to think of safety first and then if he had a realistic chance of pulling off a victory like he did when playing against England at the oval in 1979, chasing a mammoth target  of 438, Gavaskar scored 221 runs and almost pulled off a remarkable victory as India finished with 429 /8  agonisingly 9 runs short off the victory target. Current South African skipper Graeme smith despite his odd technique,  is the only batsman in world cricket to score 4 tons in  4^th innings in winning efforts. 3 out of those 4 centuries have come in away test matches. G smith is also the only batsman to score 1000+ runs in 4^th innings victories.

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Decade-wise fourth-innings batting stats in Tests since 1950
Decade	Innings	4TH Inngs Average	100s/ 50s	1st 3 inngs ave	Ave diff
1950s	691	25.42	11/ 55	27.61	2.19
1960s	923	28.84	13/ 107	31.08	2.24
1970s	1040	27.17	27/ 99	31.31	4.14
1980s	1040	26.22	21/ 68	30.92	4.70
1990s	1715	25.72	37/ 163	29.99	4.27
2000s	2315	29.36	53/ 277	32.40	3.04
2010s	554	28.67	13/ 62	32.65	3.98

If we have a look at  the  table above  which shows  the  decade wise 4^th innings batting statistics,Since the difference in averages between the first three and the fourth innings have been fairly constant since the 1970s, let's look at the stats for each team between 1970 and 1999 - which was also a period of much success for Pakistan's Test side. The fourth-innings averages for all sides are pretty similar for most teams, with only West Indies and Australia going beyond 26.20; for the others, it ranges between 23.79 and 26.15. The difference is more in the averages in the first three innings - the better batting sides averaged in the early 30s.

Pakistan's batsmen scored most of their runs in the first three innings, with fourth-innings runs at about 10% of the runs they scored in the first three. These stats, combined with their high win-loss ratio during this period - they won 37 Tests and lost 24 - indicates that Pakistan's batsmen did most of their work in the first three innings during this period.

In these 30 years, the only Pakistan batsman who scored more than 500 fourth-innings runs was Miandad - he scored 765 in 20 innings at an average of 51. The next-best run-getter was Moin Khan, with 493. (.) Zaheer Abbas, for instance, scored only 293 fourth-innings runs in his  which is a mere 6% of the runs he scored in the other three innings. His was an extreme case, however: he averaged more than 55 in the first innings, and only 22.53 in the fourth.

Fourth innings batting stats for all teams between 1970 and 1999
Team	Innings	Average	100s/ 50s	1st 3 inngs ave	Ave diff	% of runs
Zimbabwe	66	23.79	1/ 7	24.46	0.67	8.89
Sri Lanka	215	26.15	5/ 22	27.49	1.34	12.25
England	691	26.12	12/ 64	28.81	2.69	11.45
New Zealand	491	24.81	9/ 33	27.61	2.80	13.99
West Indies	568	29.07	13/ 62	31.87	2.80	13.16
Australia	676	27.03	19/ 54	32.35	5.32	11.05
India	489	25.72	13/ 40	32.64	6.92	11.37
Pakistan	443	24.98	10/ 32	32.58	7.60	10.38
South Africa	156	24.97	3/ 16	33.03	8.06	9.95

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