The Statsguru Awards are based purely on numbers from international matches in 2012. However, they go beyond the usual stats – runs scored, wickets taken, batting averages and such – and are based instead on detailed data analyses of performances. Which batsman played more consistently than any other over the entire year?
MOST CONSISTENT TEST BATSMAN
Shivnarine Chanderpaul – Consistency index 1.75 (cut-off: 800 runs)
Clarke scored more Test runs than any other batsman in 2012, but for consistency there was no beating Chanderpaul, whose Test scores in 2012 read: 103, 12, 94, 68, 69, 87, 91, 46, 11, 0, 9, 43, 203, 1, 150. In 15 innings he had eight scores of 50 or more; Clarke had as many 50-plus scores in 18 innings, though he obviously made much bigger scores. Chanderpaul’s relative lack of failures meant his standard deviation – which is a measure of the average distance from the mean – was a comparatively low 56.42. That, combined with his average of 98.70, gave him a consistency index (average divided by standard deviation) of 1.75, which was the best among all batsmen who scored 800-plus Test runs in 2012. Clarke had a higher average of 106.33, but his standard deviation was also relatively high (95.70), giving him an index of 1.11.
Source: ESPNCricInfo