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Andy Murray has enjoyed a brilliant 2016, adding the world number one ranking to his second Wimbledon and Olympic titles. We look back on his year... Britains three-time Grand Slam champion has gone from strength to strength in 2016 and having set himself the target of becoming world No 1 in 2017, he achieved the feat early courtesy of his progress and Novak Djokovics quarter-final defeat at the Paris Masters.A sparkling run of form since winning the Rome Masters in May - his first title of the year - has seen the Scot record suffer just four defeats in the intervening months, as well as landing seven titles and a couple of runners-up finishes. Murray has also recorded a seasons best tally of victories, his Paris win over Tomas Berdych taking him to 72 for the season, bettering the 71 he achieved in 2015.As well as becoming a father, the high points on the court have been a second Wimbledon title and a second Olympic gold medal, but Murrays story is a long one that started in the tortuous winter months of his training camp in Miami and yielded an Australian Open final...More Aussie anguish Murray was left reflecting on another defeat to Djokovic in the first major of the year With his wife, Kim, expecting the arrival of the couples first child, Murrays mind was sure to be elsewhere. A renowned family man having spent his winter training in South Florida, he went to the Aussie Open with no pre-tournament practice other than an exhibition but reached a fifth final in Australia.He had dropped two sets on route to the semi-final, where he faced Milos Raonic, and, but for injury, the Canadian may have turned a 2-1 advantage into victory. Murray rallied to set up another Grand Slam showdown with Djokovic.The Serb claimed a fifth crown in Melbourne - four of them with victory over Murray - and a tearful Murray was left to reflect on an encouraging start, a flight home and the prospect of becoming a father.In his speech, he said: And to my wife Kim, Im sure shes going to be watching back home just now. Youve been a legend the last few weeks. Thank you for your support and Ill be on the next flight home.Slow start Murray suffered a frustrating defeat to Federico Delbonis at Indian Wells As expected, Murray took an extended break to enjoy the birth of his daughter, Sophia, and he resurfaced to win his two singles rubbers in Great Britains Davis Cup match against Japan after a month off.The following week, he headed to America for the traditional start to the Masters 1000 Series, with back-to-back tournaments in California and Florida.Indian Wells has been a friend to Murray with just one final to his name, but a shock third-round exit to world No 53 Federico Delbonis was not on the cards - and neither was a loss to Grigor Dimitrov at the same stage in Miami, a tournament Murray has won twice before.Murray then began to show signs of form with a strong start to his clay-court season, reaching the semi-final in Monte Carlo before a defeat to Rafael Nadal, who went on to claim his ninth title at the tournament.The Scot made amends in Madrid a few weeks later, beating Nadal in the last four before a three-set defeat to Djokovic in the final.Mauresmo split Murray and Amelie Mauresmos two-year partnership ended after the Madrid Masters in May Defeat on the Spanish dirt saw Murray lose his world No 2 ranking and the news soon followed that he was to split with coach Amelie Mauresmo after almost two years.Although Mauresmo went on to make some comments about Murrays on-court behaviour, the Scot had only positive things to say: Shes been a calming influence in the team and we will all miss having her around.Ill take some time to consider the next steps and how we progress from here, but Id like to thank her for everything she has done. Shes been an invaluable member of the team.Murray headed off to the Rome Masters the following week without a coach and it was there the golden run was to begin. He eased to another final showdown with Djokovic without dropping a set.A magnificent match saw Murray claim his first title in the Italian capital with a 6-3 6-3 win over the world No 1 and he would head to Roland Garros and the French Open boosted by a notable win against Djokovic. Murray beat Novak Djokovic to claim the Rome Masters title in May After three semi-final appearances in Paris, Murray went on to make a first final, but standing in his way again would be Djokovic. Murray, inspired by his Rome efforts, took the first set.However, with Djokovic aiming for a career Grand Slam, Murray was to slump to another defeat to the Serb who claimed his 12th major title and would hold all four major titles at the same time.A familiar face Ivan Lendls return to the Murray camp was confirmed ahead of the Aegon Championships at Queens in June With the grass court season in sight and an impressive clay-court season behind him, Murray was to turn to a familiar face before the Aegon Championships at Queens Club.Ivan Lendl returned to the Murray camp. The man who had been in the box when Murray claimed his first and second Grand Slam titles as well as Olympic gold would take up a familiar role alongside Murray for the Grand Slams and training blocks. Murray responded with a second title of the year The result was instant as Murray claimed his sixth title at Queens, recovering from a set down to beat Milos Raonic in the final. He headed to Wimbledon with hopes high of a third Grand Slam title.Grand Slam glory Murray celebrates his second Wimbledon title on Centre Court Straight-sets wins over fellow Brit Liam Broady, Yen Hsun Lu and John Millman at Wimbledon set up a last-16 clash with the enigmatic Nick Kyrgios. The Aussie was dispatched in three uncomplicated sets and an untroubled Murray was into the last eight again, while Djokovics troubles were to begin with a third-round defeat to Sam Querrey.Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the opponent, and when Murray eased into a two-set lead, Britain relaxed. However, Tsonga was inspired and reeled off the next two sets to force a fifth, but Murray kept his cool and got the job done.A routine win over Tomas Berdych followed and Milos Raonic lay in wait as Murray made an 11th Grand Slam final but for the first time would face an opponent that was not Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic.The result was emphatic as Murray claimed Grand Slam title No 3 with a 6-4 7-6 7-6 victory.Golden summer Murray enjoyed a well-deserved summer off with the break seemingly invigorating the 29-year-old, who rather than slowing down, picked up the pace for what would become the run of his career.As a fan of team sports, he made no secret of his desire for more Olympic success and having claimed the Olympic mens singles gold medal on Wimbledons Centre Court at London 2012, he headed to Rio de Janeiro 2016 in spectacular form (one defeat in 24 matches) and confident of a second title. Murray carried the GB flag at the Olympic opening ceremony The Games got off to the perfect start when he was selected to be the flag bearer for Team GB at the opening ceremony, and he went on to defend the gold medalViktor Troicki, Juan Monaco, Fabio Fognini, Steve Johnson and Kei Nishikori were all dispatched as part of Murrays brilliant run to the final. There, he ran into Juan Martin del Potro, who had beaten world No 1 Djokovic in the first round.The Argentine proved a tough nut to crack before Murray eventually prevailed in a near four-hour four-set marathon 7-5 4-6 6-2 7-5. Murray and Juan Martin del Potro played out a memorable Olympic final Targeting Novak Murray celebrates his China Open title With a third Grand Slam in the bag and a second Olympic gold around his neck, Murray re-evaluated his goals and set his sights on the seemingly impossible task of overhauling Djokovic at the top of the rankings.Amazingly, after his draining success in Rio de Janeiro, he was back in action the following week at the Cincinnati Masters, where he progressed to the final without dropping a set before losing to Marin Cilic in the final.Murray returned to Grand Slam action in New York but he suffered another early exit. His quarter-final defeat to Nishikori meant he had not gone beyond the last eight at Flushing Meadows since his 2012 Grand Slam breakthrough. Murrays major season ended with US Open quarter-final defeat to Kei Nishikori After Great Britains Davis Cup defeat to Argentina, which included a loss as Del Potro gained his revenge, back-to-back titles in Asia took Murray to within striking distance of Djokovic, whose second half of the season did not match the heights of the first. Highlights of Bautista Agut v Murray in the Shanghai Masters final in October Murrays Shanghai victory took him to six titles in a year for the first time since 2009, and he added number seven in Vienna with a dominant display to head to the Paris Masters on the back of three successive tournament victories and within striking distance of Djokovic.When the Serb crashed to a straight-sets defeat to Marin Cilic in the last eight, Murray followed up with victory over Berdych before claiming top spot when Raonic withdrew from their semi-final.His form over the second half of the season has strengthened claims that Murray is now the best player in the world - and he has the ranking to prove it. The new challenge is whether can he end the year in that position and achieve the longevity that has made his rivals legends in the game. Live ATP Masters Tennis November 6, 2016, 2:00pm Live on Get Sky Sports Get a Sky Sports pass Watch Murray v Isner in the Paris Masters final live on Sky Sports 3 HD on Sunday from 2pm. Also See: Murray becomes world no 1 Murray worthy of top spot Muray-Djokovic: The rivalry Tennis on Sky Sports Cheap Jerseys From China . -- Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a $630,000, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration. Wholesale Authentic Jerseys . LOUIS -- Theres no telling how these wacky World Series games will end. http://www.jerseyscheapcustom.com/ . -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making. Cheap Fake Jerseys Free Shipping . Down by seven with 90 seconds left in regulation, thats where they looked comfortable. Cheap Jerseys 2020 . Soukalova missed only one target and completed the 15-kilometre course in 40 minutes, 32.6 seconds for both victories in this seasons individual discipline. Darya Domracheva of Belarus was second, 34. In 2014, Fraser Stewart, Cricket Academy Manager, MCC, asked whether I could do a comprehensive analysis of the boundary-hitting trends in Tests and ODIs. The MCC was extremely concerned with the way bats were becoming thicker and wider and contemplated making changes to the laws to bring some balance to the game. I provided a set of reports. The matter stayed there. The MCC must have looked at the numbers and the other related factors and decided that it was not yet time for the line to be crossed.Then the 2015 World Cup 2015 was played. Those interested can read my review of the World Cup indicating how batsman-friendly the entire tournament was. And then the trend continued in Tests, especially down under. This April, Fraser again approached me with a request to redo the analysis and provide the recent and current trends. I ensured that the numbers for the 2015 World Cup and the years 2015 and 2016 for both ODIs and Tests were covered in detail.The MCC considered the numbers provided, in conjunction with other equally important factors like scientific data, anecdotal data, bat sizes, ground sizes etc, and finally came out with a very important status paper. Their key recommendation is outlined below:One proposal would be for the maximum thickness of the edge to be between 35mm and 40mm, and the overall depth of the bat to be between 60mm and 65mm (some bats in current use have edges of 55mm and can be up to 80mm deep).Let me first explain the ground rules. The numbers on the tables in this article do not relate to all the Test matches during the period. These include only the matches for which data on fours and sixes is available. For the first table covering the 2000s, data is available for all matches. For the earlier decades the data availability varies considerably, going as low as 5% during the 1950s.Test matches In view of the importance of the past 17 years, I have gone into this period in greater detail - by year. Let me first look at the percentage of runs scored in boundaries. This has shown remarkable similarity during these years. The range is between 50% and 55%, with only one year falling below 50%, to 49.8% during 2011. This might be an indirect effect of more singles, twos and threes being scored. There is clearly a reduction of dot balls.Now we come to the fours frequency. There is a clear change as years went by. The millennium started with a four being scored every 19.8 balls and that frequency has now reached a four every 14.5 balls: a significant change of 27%. Just visualise this: a four almost every two overs. Afterwards, the teams need only a single every over to reach the acceptable runs per over of 3.0.In the graph I have presented an additional column, which is a summary of the 122 years between 1877 and 1999. For this period the fours frequency was 21.1, not too different to the later figures. Other than the current year, the highest frequency of fours (low frequency values) occurred during 2005. The frequency of sixes has had more topsy-turvy movements during these 17 years. The year 2000 saw a six being hit every 417 balls, the least frequent during this period. The year 2014 saw a six every 206 balls; that is more than two sixes per day or nine to 11 sixes in each Test.The graph is important because of the first figure, the 19xx one. That value has gone through the roof. The actual value is a six every 614 balls. Just to get an idea of the way the numbers have shaped up over the past 100 years, not just the past 17 years, I have provided a summary by decade. Unfortunately not much data is available for six decades starting from 1910. Anyhow, virtually no data is available for the first 30 odd years. The best is the period just before World War I. We have data for just over a third of the Tests played. The worst is during the 1950s in which we have data for only one out of 20 Tests. Maybe because new teams came in and record-keeping was indifferent.So these data are so far out that it is better to ignore those. Four sixes in the 1950s in eight Tests does not tell much. Where data was available we see that a six was hit every few thousand balls. Surprisingly the fours frequency has been quite steady through these 50 years: Around one every four overs or so.For the 1970s, we have data for about two-thirds of the matches. During these matches a four was scored every 22 balls. That is pretty good. However the sixes frequency was one every 135 overs or so. There was a significant change during the 1980s: to a four every 20 balls and a six every 565 balls. The data availability improved dramatically.During the 1990s, the frequency of hitting boundaries improved, albeit, by around 5% only. This trend continued during the first two decades of the current millennium. While there was only minimal increase in the fours frequency, the sixes frequency improved a lot more dramatically.Now we come to a couple of support graphs for Tests. In these I have computed the frequency of fours for the batting teams, bowling teams and grounds. There are no tables for this analysis. The graph would suffice. Since I wanted the analysis to be fair across teams, I have done this only for the period 2000-2016 during which 100% of the data is available for all the teams. If I include the previous years/decades, we would be looking at data covering widely varying percentages of Tests played for different teams.Australia have the best four-hitting frequency, with a four every 14.8 balls. India are close behind with a frequency of 15.3. This is on expected lines. Then we have no less than seven teams in the narrow band of 16-17 balls per four. Zimbabwe are way below these numbers, with a frequency of 19.5. Amongstt the bowling sides, a number of teams are around the 15-16 mark, with New Zealand the worst, in terms of conceding fours quite frequently.dddddddddddd The Sri Lankan bowlers are the most difficult to hit fours. West Indies follow close behind.The four hitting is most frequent in England and South Africa. It is tough to hit fours in the West Indies. However the most difficult place to hit fours is the UAE.When it comes to the frequency of sixes, New Zealand are the king. Their batsmen do it once every 213 balls. That seems quite easy when the concerned team has a certain Brendon McCullum. Australia are close behind. Pakistan and West Indies follow next. Not surprisingly, England and surprisingly South Africa are around the middle with around 350 balls per six. Sri Lanka score a six only once in 60 overs.The Bangladesh bowlers have a six hit off their bowling once every 220 balls. New Zealand are also generous when it comes to conceding sixes. They concede one every 226 balls. Australia, England, West Indies (surprise) and Pakistan conceded a six every 300-plus balls, with the England bowlers being the most parsimonious.The sixes are most frequent on New Zealand and Bangladesh grounds. Sri Lanka are quite parsimonious when it comes to sixes on their grounds: one every 55 overs. In England, it is still more difficult, with a six every 70 overs.I have given below the boundary-hitting frequency values in Test matches for a few top attacking batsmen. The table is ordered on the frequency of boundaries. The table is self-explanatory. It is not a surprise that Virender Sehwag leads this table, closely followed by Adam Gilchrist and David Warner.ODI matches Moving on to the ODI matches, a much shorter period of history but replete with many changes in these 45 years. The first table is the one by period.The percentage of runs in boundaries has registered a significant increase from a third to nearly half across the 45 years. We are yet to reach the 50% mark.As it happened in Tests, the fours frequency has not changed much: from 20 balls per four to 13.4 during the past few years. This is possibly because a four represents the essence of good batting and all the batsmen are capable of playing strokes resulting in fours. Similarly the number of fours per match moved by about 30%: from 28 to 39 during all these years.Sixes are a different thing altogether. Not all batsmen are adept at hitting the ball over the ropes. This distinction is clearly seen when we peruse the changes across the years. The frequency of sixes has increased dramatically from one every 33 overs to one every 12 overs. Consequently, while an average of 2.7 sixes were hit in an ODI match during the initial years, that figure is hovering at over seven now, despite the fact that the average number of overs per match is now 45 and during the early years it was around 53.The frequency of boundaries has changed from one every 18 balls to one every 11 balls. The number of boundaries has increased by about 50%, from 30 to 46. The World Cup is an important reference point to analyse ODI scoring patterns. Hence I have done an analysis by World Cups.One every 57 overs in the 1975 World Cup to one every nine overs during the 2015 World Cup. The changes in four-hitting numbers are not that drastic. As I have done for Tests, I have done a more detailed analysis for the current millennium. The fours frequency has not even changed by 20%. However the six frequency has changed by over 60%.The number of fours per match has increased from 34 to 42 and now back to 38. That seems to have plateaued. For the 39 years leading to the millennium, this figure was 29.2. So no great change. There has been a dramatic increase in sixes per match: from 4.1 to 8.8, over two times. The previous 39 years, 3.3 sixes were hit per match. So the real move up is later.Below are the boundary-hitting frequency values in ODI matches for a few top attacking batsmen. The table is ordered on the frequency of boundaries. The table is self-explanatory. Its not surprising that Sehwag leads this table also, closely followed by Shahid Afridi and Gilchrist. Let us tip our hat for Paul Stirling of Ireland, who occupies the fourth position. It is indeed a very creditable achievement.To view/download the MCC document on State of the game, please click hereMasterpieces by Mendis and Chase I am glad to inform the readers that the Kusal Mendis classic has vaulted into the top-20 in the Test Innings Ratings. This is a completely revised ratings exercise and, as I have mentioned in my response to Jasprits comment in the last article, will be revealed only in my book. I will not say anything other than that the Top Test innings chapter has to be revised considerably. A truly great innings, and totally unexpected.As for the extraordinary last day at Sabina Park and the innings of Roston Chase, even the most die-hard supporter of India has to agree that this was great for world cricket. Roston Chase: a name that will be talked about for years to come. Four West Indian batsmen, all in their early-20s, did the impossible, scoring 340 for 2 wickets on a last-day pitch, starting at 48 for 4. Chases innings was not ranked that high but inarguably as important as that of Mendis. An important point was that the rating points were shared by the four batsmen. I could not stay up the whole night, as I did in 1999, when I (and everyone else, for that matter) was 17 years younger, but watched four hours of play. I was certain at that time that West Indies would hold on. So assured was their approach. ' ' '