Batters in cricket are athletes who take the charge of scoring runs for their team. A team can have nearly six to seven batters in a team of eleven. It is important for batters to pile up the runs in order to increase the chances of their team’s victory.
A batter’s average in cricket is the measure of the number of runs scored by the batter divided by the total number of innings he batted and got out. For instance, if a batter has scored 500 runs in his career and got out in all 10 matches that he played, then his career average is 50. However, if a batter remains not out, then the numerator increases and the denominator stays the same. For example, if the batter used in the previous example scores 73 runs in the next match and remains not out, then the batter’s average will be 57.3.
Tail-enders are players who come out to bat when nearly six batters of the side have been dismissed. These tail-enders play at the tail of the innings. Most of them get their turn as the innings nears it’s conclusion. This increases their chances of remaining not out and getting an inflated average. For example if a tail-ender has scored 200 runs in 10 matches, and remained not out in 4 of these matches, then the player’s batting average will be 33.33.
Australia’s Don Bradman was a legendary batter, known for his unparalleled record of having a career average of 99.94 in test cricket. Netherland’s Ryan ten Doeschate holds the record for the highest batting average (67.0) in One Day Internationals among players who have batted in a minimum of 20 innings. In women’s cricket, Denise Annetts has recorded the highest batting average in test cricket (81.90), whereas Rachael Heyhoe-Flint has the best average in One Day Internationals (58.45).
