Remember what they said about McGwire and Bonds

The ever-diligent Rajneesh Gupta notes that Australia has now had more sixes struck against them in the current Test series than in any previous series. And that with two matches to play.

England has clobbered 26 sixes over the ropes thus far in the 2005 Ashes, beating the 23 struck by the South Africans of 1966-67 at higher altitudes.

There's some undocumented stats that could probably help explain this phenomenon better: (i) the dimensions of the playing area for each Test; (ii) the weight of the bats used in hitting those sixes.