Mahela's accomplishment in SSC or Galle doesn't make him Ordinary

Whenever Mahela is called a “Great”, the only point raised by those who gloat about him is that most of his runs have come in the subcontinent, at home and in dust bowls. It is true that his records outside Asia is not flattering. Jayawardane’s average drops to unfathomably dreadful numbers outside Asia.

Career average of Mahela

	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	0	4s	6s
overall	1997-2014	145	244	15	11493	374	50.18	22329	51.47	33	48	14	1350	60

Only 15 batsmen average over 50 after playing 100 or more games.

Grouping	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	0	4s	6s
in Australia	2004-2013	7	14	0	440	104	31.42	1022	43.05	1	2	2	55	1
in Bangladesh	1999-2014	7	12	2	591	203*	59.10	1045	56.55	2	1	1	59	6
in England	1998-2014	12	23	1	788	119	35.81	1659	47.49	2	4	2	98	1
in India	2005-2009	6	10	0	628	275	62.80	1122	55.97	1	4	1	75	2
in New Zealand	2005-2006	4	7	0	194	141	27.71	423	45.86	1	0	2	24	1
in Pakistan	1999-2009	9	17	1	684	240	42.75	1266	54.02	1	3	1	96	1
in South Africa	2000-2012	8	16	0	446	98	27.87	965	46.21	0	1	1	61	2
in Sri Lanka	1997-2012	77	121	9	6846	374	61.12	13032	52.53	22	32	3	795	40
in U.A.E.	2011-2014	6	11	0	329	129	29.90	785	41.91	1	0	1	31	4
in West Indies	2003-2008	4	7	0	294	136	42.00	515	57.08	1	0	0	32	0
in Zimbabwe	1999-2004	5	6	2	253	100*	63.25	495	51.11	1	1	0	24	2

Surprisingly his record draws parallel to the West Indian Brian Lara who has similar records to Mahela. It is evident from the above graph that Mahela’s record is sturdy only in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Lara’s record

Grouping	Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100	Wkts	BBI	Bowl Av	5	Ct	St	Ave Diff
in Australia	1992-2005	19	1469	277	41.97	4	0	–	–	0	19	0	–
in England	1995-2004	15	1268	179	48.76	4	0	–	–	0	21	0	–
in India	1994-1994	3	198	91	33.00	0	–	–	–	–	3	0	–
in New Zealand	1995-2006	7	406	147	36.90	1	0	–	–	0	3	0	–
in Pakistan	1990-2006	7	626	216	48.15	2	–	–	–	–	7	0	–
in South Africa	1998-2004	9	841	202	46.72	2	–	–	–	–	10	0	–
in Sri Lanka	1993-2001	4	706	221	100.85	3	–	–	–	–	4	0	–
in West Indies	1992-2006	65	6217	400*	58.65	17	0	–	–	0	94	0	–
in Zimbabwe	2003-2003	2	222	191	55.50	1	–	–	–	–	3	0	–

Lara’s record is astonishing only in Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe. Both Mahela and Lara have scored heavily in conditions that favor spinners.

Here is where one of the most perplexing questions in my life arrives. Why are batsmen who play well in fast and bouncy conditions considered great, while batsmen who play well against spinners in the subcontinent relegated to the levels of Gully cricketers? Players who have mastered the batting against lethal and fiery fast bowlers have struggled against spinners.  Ricky Ponting averages only 26.48 against India and 48.20 against Sri Lanka. Yet these batsmen have the prerogative of being called greats.

But players who have mastered themselves against spinners are still made to saunter in darkness on the other side of the Hall of Great batsmen. It may be due to the fact that, in the past  batsmen had to do well in England and Australia to gain recognition from the senior experts there, who judged players by their performances in Australia and England.

There is no second word to the fact that Mahela is one of the very best when it comes to playing spin bowlers. Through out his career no spin bowler has ever troubled Mahela, with Ajmal being the only exception. Let it be the top spinners of Kumble or the Leg breaks of Warne, Mahela had the technique to counter everything that spinners had in their quiver.

In all the matches where player vs player comparison is available, Mahela has scored 49 runs on the average against Shane Warne. Shane Warne has managed to get him out only 4 times, a commendable feat by Mahela against a spinner like Warne. Against Kumble he averages 53.67 getting out only thrice.  In the games where player vs player comparison is not available Kumble has got the better of Mahela only once, even that was after he had amassed 242 runs. Against Harbhajan Singh Mahela’s average reaches a whopping 86.4, losing his wicket to the bowler only 5 times. Graeme Swan has bowled reasonably well against Mahela going for an average of 43.33, picking Mahela thrice. Vettori’s record is mediocre giving away 99 runs on the average and getting Mahela’s wicket only once. Ajmal has had the better of Mahela, getting him out 8 times, the most by any of the bowlers concerned. Mahela averages only a paltry 23.75 against Ajmal.

Even though subcontinental tracks are considered to be flat, the pitches in Sri Lanka often assist the bowlers better than any other tracks in South Asia. Galle pitch can become a minefield for batsmen after the third day. SSC pitch often takes turn after the third day.

If it takes an impeccable technique to counter swing, seam and bounce, it takes an equally supreme technique to play on turning, low bouncy dust bowls. Mahela has mastered the art of survival on terrible pitches, which has helped him standout among the rest in low scoring games.

Often the SSC track is notoriously called a highway, but it has a better results percentage than most of the other grounds. Hence, Mahela’s record in SSC cannot be simply trashed  as yet another brutal rendition on batsman friendly pitches.

SSC has  a results percentage of 63. Only 19 stadiums have a better percentage. Galle has an even better record with 72% of the games yielding results, the 12th best in the list of grounds with more than 20 test matches.

The average runs scored per wicket in SSC is 35.90. If SSC is considered flat, then there are 9 other flatter pitches, that includes, Adelaide, Brabourne Stadium Mumbai, Napier, Antigua and Guyana. Both Lara and Ponting have amassed most of their runs in Adelaide and Antigua which are flatter than SSC.

Ground	Span	Mat	Won	Tied	Draw	Runs	Wkts	Balls	Ave	RPO
Antigua Recreation Ground, St John’s, Antigua – West Indies
	1981-2009	22	10	0	12	24084	626	47416	38.47	3.04
Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh – India
	1994-2013	11	6	0	5	12766	332	25030	38.45	3.06
McLean Park, Napier – New Zealand
	1979-2012	10	3	0	7	9841	259	19785	37.99	2.98
Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong – Bangladesh
	2006-2014	12	8	0	4	13515	356	23979	37.96	3.38
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka – Bangladesh
	2007-2014	11	9	0	2	12148	320	21400	37.96	3.40
Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana – West Indies
	1930-2005	30	13	0	17	29120	803	63627	36.26	2.74
Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai – India
	1948-2009	18	7	0	11	18976	526	45268	36.07	2.51
Green Park, Kanpur – India
	1952-2009	21	9	0	12	20423	568	46210	35.95	2.65
Adelaide Oval – Australia
	1884-2013	72	53	0	19	86922	2419	183811	35.93	2.83
Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo – Sri Lanka
	1984-2012	36	23	0	13	38595	1075	76224	35.90	3.03
Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad – India
	1983-2012	12	6	0	6	13002	363	27076	35.81	2.88
Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi – India
	1948-2013	32	18	0	14	31646	900	68946	35.16	2.75
Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore – Pakistan
	1959-2009	40	18	0	22	38486	1097	78257	35.08	2.95
Bellerive Oval, Hobart – Australia
	1989-2012	11	9	0	2	11884	343	22576	34.64	3.15
M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore – India
	1974-2012	20	12	0	8	20612	595	41071	34.64	3.01
Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad – Pakistan
	1978-2006	24	11	0	13	24900	722	48810	34.48	3.06
Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo – Zimbabwe
	1994-2011	19	12	0	7	18815	555	39109	33.90	2.88
Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados – West Indies
	1930-2014	50	33	0	17	53354	1590	109220	33.55	2.93
Eden Gardens, Kolkata – India
	1934-2013	39	20	0	19	39275	1178	85738	33.34	2.74
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai – India
	1934-2013	31	19	1	11	30523	923	61668	33.06	2.96
P Sara Oval, Colombo – Sri Lanka
	1982-2012	17	13	0	4	17369	528	33911	32.89	3.07
National Stadium, Karachi – Pakistan
	1955-2009	41	23	0	18	40406	1235	87256	32.71	2.77
Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica – West Indies
	1930-2014	47	34	0	13	47411	1452	99657	32.65	2.85
W.A.C.A. Ground, Perth – Australia
	1970-2013	41	34	0	7	43547	1340	83073	32.49	3.14
Galle International Stadium – Sri Lanka
	1998-2013	22	16	0	6	22208	684	44602	32.46	2.98
Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane – Australia
	1931-2013	56	42	1	13	56561	1743	120525	32.45	2.81
Trent Bridge, Nottingham – England
	1899-2014	60	37	0	23	59339	1830	130018	32.42	2.73
Kennington Oval, London – England
	1880-2013	96	59	0	37	93235	2893	196321	32.22	2.84
Basin Reserve, Wellington – New Zealand
	1930-2014	56	33	0	23	51970	1620	111200	32.08	2.80

 

It is agreed that to be deemed an all time great one should play spin and pace equally well. But if batsmen who had faced pace with ease and struggled against spin ( Kallis averages only around 35 in Sri Lanka) can be considered great, then Mahela Jayawardane deserves to be in the league of Lara, Kallis and Ponting. Kumar Sangakkara has been the best in terms of statistics, but Mahela’s innings have had substance and lot of contextual relevance to Sri Lankan victories.  The western world looks at records in Asia patronizingly. A spin bowler is measured by his performance outside Asia, yet a fast bowler is measured by his performances in pace friendly pitches. It takes an equally rigorous and phenomenal technique to play spin, which should never be belittled.