Just FYI, in your DATA2_TOP format, your headers are not aligned with your data columns in your DATA2 format.

Perl 5's formats are designed for fixed-width characters, so you need to align the columns based on the numbers of characters from the margin to where you want each column to start. Then, of course, you need to display the output using a mono-spaced font.

Anyway, the following should be closer to what you want:

format DATA2=
-----------------------------------------------------------------
@<<<<<<<<<<<    @<<<<<<<<<   @#########           @########
$name           $format      $matches             $runs
-----------------------------------------------------------------
.

format DATA2_TOP=
=================================================================
Name       Format of match   matches played  runs scored  page@<<
                                                             $%
=================================================================
.
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