Astle's 200th

Nathan Astle's 200th ODI might have been a wash-out, but it still made a good excuse to bring the statto's out. Cricinfo, as always, was the first to oblige with a very interesting analysis of Astle's career. Amongst the interesting gems they tell us are that he is a match-winner; averaging 55.46 in victories, and just 21.60 in defeats. He has also been crap against some of the minnows - his combined average against Bangladesh, Canada, Netherlands, Scotland and UAE is just 12.89. And finally, his bowling is much better in the second innings of an ODI than in the first. A reflection perhaps that his style of bowling suits wickets which have lost their juice and bounce.