Bowlers gain the upper hand in WDCA's tussle for supremacy

And this Warrnambool and District Cricket Association division one season the tug of war is swinging in one discipline's favour.

The Standard has crunched the numbers for the first 60 games - excluding the round three-four washouts, round five and finals - this season and the bowlers in the WDCA currently hold the wood over the batsman.

The average team scores for and against per game - across six one-day, four twenty20 and two two-day rounds of five matches - have dropped in 2019-20 while the mean number of wickets (eight) has remained the same.

Division one teams are conceding 26 less runs at close to 105 a match compared to 131 in 2018-19.

Led by Allansford (1866 conceded runs to 1291), the competition has pulled back 637 runs with the ball in hand.

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Sides are also making 12 fewer runs a game. At the same time last season teams averaged 138 runs a match but that has dropped to 126.

That means the competition's bowlers are sticking to their plans, strangling the batters at the crease and taking their chances.

After 60 completed games last season 16,493 runs had been made but in 2019-20 it is down 695 at 15,798.

Match average run totals are also down with a combined 275 run average now down to 263.

The dwindling scores can be drawn back to the 26 more wickets taken so far in 2019-20. 952 wickets, at an average of 15 a game, have been taken so far this season with 926 recorded after 12 rounds in 2018-19.

The form of the WDCA's bowlers, led by aggregate leaders and Brierly-Christ Church pair Mark Murphy and Jason Greer, is also reflected on the amount of times teams have been bowled out.

Sides have snared all of their opposition's wickets on 48 occasions, up three on last year.

Woodford and Russells Creek lead the way with seven each while undefeated ladder-leaders Brierly and resurgent finals fancies Nesltes have six.

Bottom-placed Port Fairy has struggled to bowl teams out this season with just two occasions where the Pirates have claimed 10 wickets.

Although the amount of three and five-wicket hauls has slightly dropped this season, the amount of 30s and half-centuries has dropped in greater quantity. In both seasons six tons have been scored up to this point.

By this time last season, 82 innings of 30 or more and 58 half-centuries or greater had been scored. In 2019-20 there has only been 39 half-centuries and 79 30s - a combined drop of 22.

Twenty-nine players have scored at least one half-century this season with West Warrnambool's Ben Threlfall the leading batsman with five and one century.

One-hundred-and-eleven players have failed to make a run, which is just 26 behind last year's end-of-season total.

Over 200 ducks were recorded in 2018-19 and so far this season 166 unlucky batsman have departed without troubling the scorers.

The domination of the WDCA's bowlers is shown with seven team's total runs after 60 games significantly lower while six teams have lifted or leveled their amount of wickets.

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Woodford (1993 runs to 1709), Brierly-Christ Church (1603 to 1518), Russells Creek (2205 to 1497), Wesley-CBC (1513 to 1383), Merrivale (1767 to 1374), Dennington (1406 to 1160) and Port Fairy's (1531 to 1443) runs have all dropped.

The Eels (88 wickets to 111), Bulls (92 to 117), Creekers (104), Nestles (91 to 111), West Warrnambool (87 to 102) and Dennington (91 to 93) are snaring more wickets this season.

The next three rounds of two-day cricket will decide which discipline in cricket will have the upper hand by season's end.

If the average two-day match total of 374 runs continues at least 5,600 runs will be scored, bringing the final runs total for 2019-20 to around 21,000 which is over 3,000 down on last year's final total of 24,679.

The bowlers, if they continue to average 22 wickets a match in the longer format, they will finish with just under last season's total of 1371.

This season is shaping up to be a big win for the WDCA's bowling brigade.

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