Victor Ian
International Coach
Agree. The idea that accelerating before the tail goes should earn more for the team as a concept makes sense. @Burgey will know better, but I never felt as if Border was slow. I always had the impression he was one of the quicker scorers in the team. Whether that is because his team were cactus or whether it was about par for the 80's or whether it was just being an idol, I can't say.Ya, I barely saw him at all, and these things are highly situational, but I really can't see how the ability to accelerate in a lower-middle bat would not be massively useful.
You are likely right in your impression that it was 10 more runs and done when he got out, but that was likely a result of there typically only being the tail left when he did so... he faced a hell of a lot of balls per innings from low down in a weak line up, and unless he was the best strike farmer ever, that's a lot of balls for the opposition to cut the chaff away while he didn't score that many runs.
IDK exactly how relevant this theory is to border... the way cricket typically works it should be, but, as I said, I barely watched him. The idea was a response to the suggestion that Kallis should be penalised for slow scoring in relation to Border when the vast majority of generally applicable principles suggest the opposite to be true.
TBH now though, I'm more interested in how well it holds up as a general stat for the (lower) middle than its applicability to Border.