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Monday, May 25, 2009

Its Gilchrist’s hurricane vs Kumble’s discipline

Different strategies adopted by Deccan and Bangalore brought about changes in their approach in this IPL. While Deccan skipper Adam Gilchrist changed his game in the semi-finals, Bangalore captain Anil Kumble brought discipline in all the departments of the game. Two different approaches adopted, and both are working fine with the teams.

Gilchrist changed his batting style in the semi-finals to completely stun Delhi. In this IPL, according to Castrol Index, on an average Gilchrist scores off 51% of the balls he faces. Against Delhi in the semis, he scored off 83 % of the balls he faced. Similarly, he has hit 24% of the balls to the boundaries on an average this IPL, but in the semis he sent 47% of the deliveries he faced to the boundaries.

The big overs by Gilchrist in the Semi-Final

Bangalore Royal Challengers on the other hand, have lifted their team’s performance on the whole in their last few games to have reached the final. Anil Kumble took over the team from the 7th game in the league stage from Kevin Pietersen. Over the next 9 matches, Kumble has won 7 games. So how did Kumble achieve this turnaround? According to Castrol Index Bangalore scored 32 in Fielding Points outlining their excellence in their field. Chennai, on the other hand continued their poor outing in the field with a (- 26) in fielding. While the whole team acted as a unit in fielding, each of the specialists then perfected their roles chipping in with above par performances. The following table demonstrates how the specialists have improved their performances based on their core skills.

Manish Pandey’s core skill being batting, his CI rocketed to 122 thanks to his brilliant century against Deccan in the last league encounter. Prior to that match Pandey used to aggregate an average Batting Momentum or BM of 20 in the 2 matches he played. In the semi-finals he achieved a CI of 66 which put Bangalore on a solid platform. Similarly, Praveen Kumar, whose role was an all-rounder in the team, bowled better in the semi-finals. So against his average Bowling Efficiency or BE of 28, he bowled at an improved level to earn a BE of 31 in the semi-final.

Can Bangalore maintain this unity on one hand and role clarity on the other in the final?

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