+--------------------+---------+-----------+------------+---------+ | | No. of | Times not | | | | Batsmen | Innings | out | Total runs | Average | +--------------------+---------+-----------+------------+---------+ |K. S. Ranjitsinhji | 12 | 2 | 692 | 57·8 | |F. A. Iredale | 18 | 0 | 705 | 39·3 | |C. Hill | 12 | 0 | 467 | 38·11 | |A. Shrewsbury | 36 | 4 | 1,277 | 35·17 | |A. E. Stoddart | 28 | 2 | 996 | 35·16 | |A. C. MacLaren | 22 | 2 | 769 | 34·16 | |A. G. Steel | 17 | 3 | 586 | 34·8 | |W. G. Grace | 32 | 4 | 1,079 | 33·23 | |W. L. Murdoch | 27 | 3 | 885 | 32·21 | +--------------------+---------+-----------+------------+---------+ Like all tables of averages the above is misleading. Players like Grace, Murdoch, and Shrewsbury played in the days when runs were not so easily got, and their performances may rank on a par with those of MacLaren, Ranjitsinhji, and Hill, and, of course, there have been many innings played against equally good bowling, but not in matches of England _v_ Australia. No innings of greater merit has, however, been played than Murdoch’s innings of 153 not out against England at the Oval in 1880. [Illustration: THE CRITICS] With regard to the merits of the English and Australian bowlers, we think there are few English cricketers who would deny that Spofforth is the best bowler ever seen on English grounds, at any rate in modern times, and yet the statistics show that he is not at the head of the average list. The following is the list of the first twelve bowlers:-- +--------------+-------+------+---------+---------+ | | Balls | Runs | Wickets | Average | +--------------+-------+------+---------+---------+ |Lohmann | 2,861 | 875| 61 | 14 | |Peel | 4,891 | 1,715| 101 | 16 | |Turner | 4,423 | 1,510| 84 | 17 | |Spofforth | 4,137 | 1,714| 93 | 18 | |Boyle | 1,620 | 598| 30 | 19 | |Briggs | 3,403 | 1,569| 76 | 20 | |Hearne | 1,732 | 761| 35 | 20 | |Palmer | 4,463 | 1,678| 78 | 21 | |Richardson | 4,017 | 2,221| 88 | 25 | |Giffen | 5,962 | 2,793| 103 | 26 | |Trumble | 2,723 | 1,213| 47 | 26 | |Jones | 1,537 | 850| 29 | 29 | +--------------+-------+------+---------+---------+