The Cricket Statistician No 195

13 CEB Rice 1969-1993 961 39805 39.64 1447 22.54 1.7587 MJ Procter 1965-1989 672 28550 33.74 1761 19.38 1.7410 JW Hearne 1909-1936 647 37252 40.98 1839 24.42 1.6781 Mushtaq Mohammad 1957-1985 682 35562 39.86 984 24.62 1.6190 Imran Khan 1969-1992 807 27871 35.41 1796 22.29 1.5886 J Langridge 1924-1953 695 31716 35.20 1530 22.56 1.5603 JH Kallis 1994-2016 857 38956 45.93 892 31.15 1.4745 TE Bailey 1945-1967 689 28734 33.29 2093 23.15 1.4380 GL Jessop 1894-1914 493 26698 32.63 873 22.79 1.4318 R Illingworth 1951-1983 1005 26514 27.93 2258 20.68 1.3506 WG Quaife 1894-1928 719 36137 35.46 931 27.32 1.2980 CL Hooper 1983-2004 806 36553 44.41 959 34.83 1.2751 DB Close 1949-1986 950 38452 32.12 1236 26.20 1.2260 IT Botham 1973-1993 872 29873 32.26 1784 26.43 1.2206 RES Wyatt 1923-1957 739 39405 40.04 901 32.84 1.2192 DI Stevens 1997-2021 851 27840 31.78 853 26.11 1.2172 TE Jesty 1966-1991 918 31132 30.82 957 26.49 1.1635 JH King 1895-1925 552 25122 27.33 1204 25.17 1.0858 DE Davies 1924-1954 621 26564 27.90 903 29.30 0.9522 P Willey 1966-1992 1017 35466 29.80 1103 31.31 0.9518 Of these 25, only the four highlighted in bold – Rice, Davies (whose long career was mainly pre-war and who would probably have won a Test cap had the MCC 1939-40 tour of India, for which he had been selected, not been cancelled owing to the outbreak of the Second World War), Jesty (who played 10 ODIs for England in 1983) and Stevens – did not play Test cricket. And Stevens’ recent performances are exceptional for a man in his forties. A total of 47 players have scored more than 2,000 runs and taken more than 200 wickets in first-class cricket after turning 40. After dividing their batting averages after turning 40 by their bowling averages, this is the top 10: TABLE F: PLAYERS WITH THE BEST DIFFERENTIAL BETWEEN BATTING AND BOWLING AVERAGES WHO SCORED MORE THAN 2,000 RUNS AND TOOK OVER 200 WICKETS IN FIRST-CLASS CRICKET AFTER THE AGE OF 40 Player Career Mat Runs Ave Wkts Ave Bat/Bowl W Rhodes 1919-1930 433 14024 32.61 1469 15.63 2.0864 DI Stevens 2016-2021 64 3016 36.33 248 19.66 1.8479 FE Woolley 1927-1938 390 25963 42.63 234 26.60 1.6026 GH Hirst 1911-1929 157 6662 33.31 311 21.21 1.5705 J Langridge 1946-1953 197 9519 38.22 332 24.34 1.5703 BL D’Oliveira 1972-1980 141 7442 40.44 204 27.49 1.4711 WE Alley 1959-1968 305 14887 32.08 635 22.48 1.4270 S Haigh 1911-1913 91 2258 21.92 260 15.44 1.4197 WG Grace 1888-1908 408 22199 33.78 644 24.64 1.3709 HTW Hardinge 1926-1933 234 12484 37.26 236 27.72 1.3442