The runs scored by two players are shown in a back-to-back stem-and-leaf display, the stem being the tens digit. Stem 2 — Kiran 1, 5, 8; Meera 3, 7. Stem 3 — Kiran 4, 6; Meera 1. Stem 4 — Kiran 2, 5, 7; Meera 4, 6, 9. Stem 5 — Kiran 3; Meera 5. Taking all these innings together, what is the median score?

Kiran's nine scores are 21, 25, 28, 34, 36, 42, 45, 47, 53 and Meera's seven are 23, 27, 31, 44, 46, 49, 55, giving 16 innings in all. Merged in order they read 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 31, 34, 36, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 53, 55. With 16 values the median is the average of the 8th and 9th, that is (36 + 42)/2 = 39. The value 40 averages the two players' OWN medians, Kiran's 5th score 36 and Meera's 4th score 44 — a combined median is never the average of the separate medians, because the two groups are of different sizes and their values interleave. The value 36 is Kiran's median alone, and 42 takes the 9th value by itself and forgets that an even count of readings has no single middle.