Pakistan's Backbone: Misbah ul Haq.

Via: Cricinfo. Misbah-ul-Haq hasn't yet scored an ODI century, but apart from that he has done pretty much everything as a middle-order batsman for Pakistan. The lack of a hundred has itself put him in the record books, as the scorer of the most runs without a century in one-day internationals, but the series in the West Indies was memorable for many more reasons for a Misbah fan.

He was consistency personified, scoring four fifties in five innings, thus becoming only the third captain - after Ricky Ponting and AB de Villiers - to pass 50 so often in a bilateral series when playing five or fewer innings. Two of those efforts won him Man-of-the-Match awards - he has only won five of those in his entire career - while his consistency won him his second Man-of-the-Series award, almost 11 years after his first. And, most importantly, Pakistan won the series 3-1.

The last two-and-a-half years have been outstanding for Misbah the ODI batsman. He is now 39, an age by which most players have long decided that they no longer have the stomach to play one-day internationals. Not Misbah, though. Since the beginning of 2011, he has amassed 2265 runs at an average of more than 50, with 20 half-centuries in 62 innings; until that point, in 52 previous innings, he had scored only nine. Since his 38th birthday, Misbah has made ten 50-plus scores in ODIs, a feat achieved byonly one other batsman - Geoffrey Boycott. Given that Boycott won't add to that tally, that's another record which Misbah will surely have all to himself. In fact, apart from these two, only two others have more than five 50-plus ODI scores after the age of 38.

And yet, Misbah the ODI batsman divides opinions among fans, largely because of his scoring rate. Most agree that he needs to bat the way he does given the fragility of the rest of Pakistan's top order, but some still argue that his slow scoring at times leaves the rest of the batting with too much to do. They point to his overall ODI strike rate of 73.38, which has reduced further to 69.13 during this golden period.

While it's true Misbah's strike rate has dropped recently, that number as a standalone stat doesn't offer the full picture. Apart from having to bat with a brittle top order, Misbah has played many of his matches during this period on pitches which are difficult for run-scoring. As the table below shows, in his first 58 matches, when Misbah scored at a strike rate of 80.60, the overall rate in those matches was 79.85. In the matches he has played since 2011, though, the overall strike rate has dropped to 72.88. Misbah's scoring rate is still lower than the overall match rate, but only by around 5%.

Misbah-ul-Haq's ODI career

Period	Matches	Runs	Average	Strike rate	100s/ 50s	Overall SR*
Till Dec 2010	58	1554	37.90	80.60	0/ 9	79.85
Jan 2011 onwards	67	2265	50.33	69.13	0/ 20	72.88
Career	125	3819	44.40	73.38	0/ 29	76.17

* Strike rate of all batsmen in those matches

Among batsmen who have scored at least 1500 ODI runs since the beginning of 2011, Misbah is one of seven to average more than 50, but even when reducing the average cut-off to 40, he is the only one without a hundred. However, what's probably more interesting is the strike rates in matches involving the other players: for most of them it's in the 80s, while for Misbah it's less than 73 (which is probably a combination of the conditions, the strength of Pakistan's bowling attack, and the lack of strength in their batting).

Alastair Cook, for example, has a strike rate of 82.19, but in the matches he has played the overall scoring rate is 83.72, which means Cook is marginally below average. Like Cook, Michael Clarke is slightly below average as well. MS Dhoni, on the other hand, is about 4% above average, scoring at 87.55 when the overall match rate is 84.36. The ones who've clearly exceeded the match rates are AB de Villiers, Shane Watson and Hashim Amla.

Apart from Misbah, the other player whose deficit is more than 5% is England's Jonathan Trott. Plenty has been said about his lack of urgency too, and his rate is about 6.8% below the match rate, compared with Misbah's 5.1%.

Highest averages for ODI batsmen since Jan 2011 (Qual: 1500 runs)

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	Strike rate	100s/ 50s	Overall SR*
AB de Villiers	34	1659	63.80	102.66	5/ 9	80.95
MS Dhoni	47	1625	56.03	87.55	1/ 11	84.36
Jonathan Trott	51	2308	53.67	77.76	3/ 17	83.42
Kumar Sangakkara	66	3028	51.32	78.79	6/ 19	79.56
Virat Kohli	69	3014	51.08	89.14	11/ 13	83.53
Hashim Amla	35	1674	50.72	88.57	5/ 10	79.32
Misbah-ul-Haq	62	2265	50.33	69.13	0/ 20	72.88
Michael Clarke	41	1653	47.22	79.50	2/ 11	80.76
Shane Watson	41	1748	44.82	96.78	3/ 12	79.74
Alastair Cook	46	1823	42.39	82.19	4/ 13	83.72

* Strike rate of all batsmen in those matches

Pakistan's brittle top order has also made it difficult for Misbah to bat as extravagantly as he otherwise might. In many matches he has come in to bat fairly early, with the innings needing consolidation after the loss of early wickets. The next two tables break down his knocks at No. 4 and No. 5 by the team scores at which he came in to bat in these last two-and-a-half years. When batting at four, in ten out of 21 innings he came in with Pakistan two down for 50 or fewer runs. Six of those were instances of Pakistan losing two wickets for less than 20. In those ten innings when he came in with less than 50 on the board, Misbah scored well, but pretty slowly, managing a strike rate of only 54.

However, his strike rate has been much better in matches when he has come in after Pakistan have gone past 50: in those games he has scored at a strike rate of 75.07. In all of these 21 innings, though, only once has he come in at No. 4 when Pakistan had already gone past 100: against West Indies in St Lucia in 2011, he came in with the score on 132 for 2 in the 34th over, with Pakistan chasing a target of 221. Misbah scored a run-a-ball unbeaten 43, and Pakistan won by seven wickets with two overs to spare.

Misbah at No.4 since Jan 2011, by point-of-entry scores

Team score	Innings	Runs	Average	Strike rate	50s
Two down for 50 or fewer	10	411	58.71	54.01	4
Two down for more than 50	11	506	63.25	75.07	6
Total	21	917	61.13	63.90	10

At No. 5 it's a similar story: cautious batting when the team is in trouble, but a lot more expressive when the team is better placed. Ten times out of 36 Misbah has come in to bat at No. 5 with Pakistan three down for 50 or fewer runs - his strike rate in those innings has been 62.65. When he has come in to bat with the score between 51 and 100, his scoring rate has improved significantly, to 75.28, and it's gone up to an acceptable 80.42 in the 13 innings when he has come in with the total more than 100. His approach in a few individual innings might perhaps be questioned, but overall these are perfectly understandable numbers: consolidating when the team was in trouble, but scoring a lot quicker when the first three wickets had contributed more solidly.

Misbah at No.5 since Jan 2011, by point-of-entry scores

Team score	Innings	Runs	Average	Strike rate	50s
Three down for 50 or fewer	10	369	46.12	62.65	4
Three down for 51 to 100	13	466	58.25	75.28	3
Three down for more than 100	13	419	38.09	80.42	3
Total	36	1254	46.44	72.52	10

Clearly, what Pakistan need is for their top three to be scoring more consistently. Since the beginning of 2011, Pakistan's top three have collectively averaged 31.42 runs per wicket, the least among the top eight sides.

Not only has Misbah scored the most runs for Pakistan during this period (see table below), he also has the best stats in wins in these two-and-a-half years, scoring 1452 runs at an average of 69. Mohammad Hafeez has scored five hundreds, but he needs to step in and score more consistently against the top sides - a batsman who bats in the top three needs to average more than 32. Umar Akmal has forged the bestpartnerships with Misbah, with two century stands and ten half-century stands in 29 innings. Their styles complement each other too, with Umar's flamboyance contrasted with Misbah's measured approach. Pakistan fans will want that partnership, and Misbah's splendid form, to continue at least till the 2015 World Cup.

Highest run-getters for Pakistan in ODIs since Jan 2011

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	Strike rate	100s/ 50s
Misbah-ul-Haq	62	2265	50.33	69.13	0/ 20
Mohammad Hafeez	68	2051	32.04	75.21	5/ 10
Umar Akmal	43	1392	39.77	87.32	0/ 11
Younis Khan	42	1101	28.97	76.19	0/ 9
Nasir Jamshed	24	906	39.39	73.12	3/ 4
Shahid Afridi	44	872	21.26	125.64	0/ 5
Asad Shafiq	32	847	29.20	69.94	0/ 7
Imran Farhat	21	605	30.25	67.37	0/ 6
Kamran Akmal	27	591	22.73	76.95	0/ 3