Australia v tenth wicket partnerships

Can one of the statsguru experts here do some analysis on this?

I suspect that in the past ten or so years, Australia has become possibly the most ineffective team in Test cricket at finishing teams off. In other words, have tenth wicket partnership against Australia yielded more runs than say, the eighth or ninth have?

The West Indies in their heyday had it down to a fine art, with some really nasty stuff against number 11s, quick yorkers on the stumps and vicious short balls. Australia used to manage it in the early 90s, but in recent years, the tactic seems to have been to play for the outside edge, often conceding plenty of runs in the process.

I was thinking the same thing today as I watched at how the Aust captain and bowlers totally changed the game plan that had seen them just take 7/40 odd.

The Aussies aren't the only ones to do it mind.

I don't think Australia is the only team that does it, but I think we're pretty much the worst at it.

In 77 tenth wicket partnerships since the Ashes in 06-07 the opposition's last pair has scored 1054 runs against Australia and has been dismissed 75 times (including the Ashwin Yadav partnership).
Average- 14.05
Highest- 68 between Rampaul and Nash
3 partnerships over 50, 9 over 30 and 19 over 20.

A lot of captains seem to change the game-plan. If for instance there's a recognised batsman and a tailender, they seem to assume that the former is undismissable and target the latter. Runs seem to accumulate before you know it.

Nothing though can beat Pakistan's tactics against Hussey and the tail in the Sydney test a few summers back.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;groupby=opposition;orderby=fow_average;partnership_wicketmin1=10;partnership_wicketval1=partnership_wicket;spanmax1=28+Dec+2011;spanmin1=28+Dec+2006;spanval1=span;template=results;type=fow

middle of the table stuff from the aussies

Thanks TO. How does that compare to eighth and ninth wicket stands?

9th wicket

Opposition Partners Span Inns NO Runs High Ave Overs RR 100 50
v India 59 2007-2011 79 4 1768 118 23.57 546.1 3.23 1 11
v Pakistan 44 2007-2011 51 0 1088 123 21.33 330.3 3.29 1 6
v New Zealand 42 2007-2011 49 2 902 66 19.19 244.0 3.69 0 4
v South Africa 65 2007-2011 75 1 1293 106 17.47 314.3 4.11 1 7
v England 72 2007-2011 89 2 1493 98 17.16 419.5 3.55 0 4
v Bangladesh 19 2008-2011 21 1 332 47 16.60 93.5 3.53 0 0
v Australia 66 2007-2011 82 0 1319 180 16.08 376.3 3.50 1 7
v West Indies 37 2007-2011 43 4 566 67 14.51 182.3 3.10 0 2
v Zimbabwe 4 2011-2011 5 1 58 18 14.50 14.4 3.95 0 0
v Sri Lanka 43 2007-2011 52 1 708 69 13.88 247.3 2.86 0 2

8th wicket

Opposition Partners Span Inns NO Runs High Ave Overs RR 100 50
v England 68 2007-2011 92 2 2043 115 22.70 576.4 3.54 2 9
v India 67 2007-2011 84 5 1791 115 22.67 544.2 3.29 2 8
v Australia 67 2007-2011 85 3 1774 129 21.63 509.1 3.48 4 4
v Pakistan 46 2007-2011 54 1 1434 332 27.05 457.2 3.13 2 5
v South Africa 63 2007-2011 76 0 1407 117 18.51 393.4 3.57 1 8
v West Indies 41 2007-2011 46 3 1179 93 27.41 327.5 3.59 0 7
v New Zealand 43 2007-2011 51 2 962 76 19.63 294.3 3.26 0 5
v Sri Lanka 46 2007-2011 54 1 898 74 16.94 308.0 2.91 0 3
v Bangladesh 22 2007-2011 25 2 397 59 17.26 134.2 2.95 0 1
v Zimbabwe 5 2011-2011 5 0 126 50 25.20 26.2 4.78 0 1

Ta.

What I would like to know is some many wickets we usually lose in just wiping away the 10th wicket partnerships in the first dig. Here we were 4/27 after their 10th put on 23. Obviously Cape Town was an abomination but it seems like we are often 2 down just catching up for the 10th wicket.