The Importance of a Quick Start

The saying goes- Well begun is half done. That has held true at the ICC Twenty20 World Championships where getting off to a good start has been supremely important and has played a big role in determining match results.

The Quick Start Batting, or the QS Bat, is a metric in the Castrol Index that measures a side’s ability to get off to a good start with the bat. It is a function of runs scored and wickets lost in the first six overs of an innings.

In matches played in the tournament so far, the side with the higher QS Bat score for a match has ended up winning 87% of the time, highlighting the importance of starting well.

A look at the Quick Start Bat scores for sides over a number of matches reveals that the best teams in the tournament- South Africa and Sri Lanka have the highest QS Bat scores and are a fair distance ahead of the rest of the pack. The numbers also tell you that the QS Bat scores are well correlated with the Castrol Index Scores- showing they are good indicators of team success.

The batsmen who occupy the first three batting positions are the ones entrusted with the responsibility of getting their side off to a quick start. It’s these guys who are currently topping the batting charts and if they continue to fire, it will be hard to stop their sides from making the final four.

Arvind Iyengar - View Profile