A look into Jayawardene’s and Raina’s 100s

Our expert compares the fine centuries of Raina and Jayawardene at the World Twenty20 in the West Indies so far.

Suresh Raina’s 101 (off 60) held sway as the top-WT20 innings for a day. Then Mahela Jayawardene scored 100 (off 64) against Zimbabwe. Before I completed the Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe match analysis, I felt that Raina’s hundred would hold on to the top position since it was faster and against better opposition. However, when I did the analysis I found to my surprise that Jayawardene’s hundred (567.6 rtgpts) had overtaken Raina’s (548.4). Since I have tested and re-tested my algorithms, I was not unduly perturbed and forwarded the tables for publication.

However, I realize that this is an opportunity to explain to the readers how this came about and presents an opportunity for the readers to get an insight into the Rating methodology.

Jayawardene got 537.5 base points while Raina, 542.9.

The table below compares the other weights.

Target/Location/Result/MatchIndex weights are same for both.

Jayawardene is ahead on 4 criteria, with the surprise being the bowling quality. Surprisingly, Zimbabwe’s bowling attack is better than South Africa’s. Look at the averages, Chigumbura (15.83), Cremer (7.33), Lamb (12.25), Mpofu (18.75), Price (14.38) and Utseya (17.33). These numbers surely support this startling revelation. Now we know why they defeated Australia and Pakistan.

Jayawardene received much less support, the next two scores being 23 and 13. Raina received better support, the scores being 37 and 16/16. Jayawardene scored 57.8% and Raina 54.3% of their respective team scores. The India-South Africa pitch was much better, an RpW value exceeding 35 while the Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe match had an RpW value of 25. 

Raina scored at 1.683 while Jayawardene scored at 1.5625. India and South Africa were more closely matched than Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Finally, Jayawardene entered at 0 for 0 while Raina entered at a worse situation of 4 for 1.