They ran very little: The rope-crossers in T20/IPL

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Minimum effort, maximum runs. That seems to be the mantra for some very gifted batsmen. Let’s have a look at some such performances.

These batsmen played innings which were studded with boundaries, some a few feet above the ropes and some a few inches above the ropes. They conserved their energies and ran very little. While it is true that the T20 format requires frequent boundary hits, these batsmen went way past the normal expectations.

Let us first see the T20 International scene. The criteria are an innings of 50 and a boundary share exceeding 80%.

Year	Batsman	For	Vs	Runs	Balls	S/R	4s	6s	Runs	%
2007	Yuvraj Singh	Ind	Eng	58	16	362.5	3	7	54	93.1
2010	Warner D.A	Aus	Win	67	29	231.0	5	7	62	92.5
2006	Jayasuriya S.T	Slk	Nzl	51	23	221.7	10	1	46	90.2
2007	Oram J.D.P	Nzl	Aus	66	31	212.9	5	6	56	84.8
2007	Smith G.C	Saf	Pak	71	40	177.5	9	4	60	84.5
2010	McCullum B.B	Nzl	Aus	116	56	207.1	12	8	96	82.8
2010	Smith G.C	Saf	Zim	58	29	200.0	9	2	48	82.8
2009	Redmond A.J	Nzl	Ire	63	30	210.0	13	0	52	82.5
2008	McCullum B.B	Nzl	Win	59	34	173.5	6	4	48	81.4
2009	Gambhir G	Ind	Slk	55	26	211.5	11	0	44	80.0
2010	Hussey M.E.K	Aus	Pak	60	24	250.0	3	6	48	80.0
2007	Sharma R.G	Ind	Saf	50	40	125.0	7	2	40	80.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only one person would have forgotten Yuvraj’s innings: Stuart Broad. Helped by the six 6s in the Broad over, Yuvraj achieved the unbelievable 93.1% figure in boundaries. Great that Broad has bounced back. David Warner was very close, with 92.5%. The Sri Lankan great, Jayasuriya, is the only other batsman who has crossed 90%. McCullum appears twice.

Now for the IPL matches. Same criteria as for T20s.

Year	Batsman	For	Vs	Runs	Balls	S/R	4s	6s	Runs	%
2009	Pollard K.A	TT	NSR	54	18	300.0	5	5	50	92.6
2010	Lumb M.J	RR	KXP	83	43	193.0	16	2	76	91.6
2008	Jayasuriya S.T	MI	CSK	114	48	237.5	9	11	102	89.5
2008	Gilchrist A.C	DC	MI	109	47	231.9	9	10	96	88.1
2008	Pathan Y.K	RR	DC	61	28	217.9	4	6	52	85.2
2010	Pathan Y.K	RR	MI	100	37	270.3	9	8	84	84.0
2010	Hayden M.L	CSK	DD	93	43	216.3	9	7	78	83.9
2010	Pietersen K.P	RCB	RR	62	29	213.8	10	2	52	83.9
2010	Watson S.R	RR	CSK	60	25	240.0	5	5	50	83.3
2008	Dhoni M.S	CSK	RCB	65	30	216.7	9	3	54	83.1
2010	Sehwag V	DD	RR	75	34	220.6	8	5	62	82.7
2009	Gilchrist A.C	DC	DD	85	35	242.9	10	5	70	82.4
2010	Gayle C.H	KKR	KXP	88	42	209.5	6	8	72	81.8
2008	Jayasuriya S.T	MI	DD	66	42	157.1	6	5	54	81.8
2008	Hopes J.R	KXP	CSK	71	33	215.2	10	3	58	81.7
2008	Ganguly S.C	KKR	DC	91	57	159.6	11	5	74	81.3
2008	Sehwag V	DD	DC	94	41	229.3	10	6	76	80.9
2010	Uthappa A.R	RCB	KKR	52	22	236.4	3	5	42	80.8
2010	Sangakkara K.C	KXP	DC	52	37	140.5	9	1	42	80.8
2010	Pollard K.A	MI	GUY	72	30	240.0	1	9	58	80.6
2008	Sangakkara K.C	KXP	DC	50	25	200.0	7	2	40	80.0
2008	Dravid R	RCB	RR	75	36	208.3	6	6	60	80.0
2009	Dilshan T.M	DD	CSK	50	27	185.2	7	2	40	80.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kieron Pollard’s 18-ball blitz, playing for Trinidad, against New South Wales, has a boundary % of 92.6%, nearly as high as Yuvraj Singh’s. Michael Lumb’s fantastic cameo against King’s XI Punjab also has a 90+% boundary value of 91.6%. Jayasuriya takes the third place in this table also, with a very high boundary % of 89.6. Note that this is also the highest placed 100 value and is followed by Gilchrist, playing for Deccan Chargers. Note the presence of two innings of Yusuf Pathan in the Top 10.

Dominant bowling in ODI matches

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Time to look at instances where bowlers have put up commendable performances in the 50-over version of the game. Our expert analyses it all.

Since the numbers of overs for a bowler is limited in ODIs, it is not very easy for a bowler to dominate the bowling the same way that a batsman can do. We saw, in our last articles, instances where a batsman dominated the stay at the crease. Here, let us have a look at the forgotten species, the bowlers. Since we do not have specific information on bowling spells, I have done this analysis based on the complete bowling spell.

This time, the criterion is that the bowler should have captured 5 wickets or more. Otherwise there would be cases of pseudo-domination by bowlers who capture the only wickets to fall.

The formula used is given below.

             Bowling strike rate of the bowler (Balls / wkts)

Index =————————————————————————————

            Bowling strike rate of the rest of the bowlers

The table is ordered on this index value and the bowling spells in which the bowler performance is better than his compatriots’ performance by a factor of 7.5 or more are listed. Let us see the table now.

England scored 204/8 in 50 overs against Australia. Out of this reasonable total, Bichel captured 7 wickets in 10 overs, a BpW value of 8.57. The rest of the bowlers bowled 240 balls to capture a single wicket. The amazing strike rate ratio of 28.00 is the highest in ODI history.

In a rain-affected match, Zimbabwe scored 150/7 in 32 overs. Edwards captured 6 wickets in 7 overs for a BpW figure of 7.00. The other bowlers captured a single wicket in 150 balls for a very high ratio of 21.43.

This was a high scoring match. Sri Lanka scored 302/7 in 50 overs. Sohail Tanvir captured 5 wickets in 10 overs leading to a BpW value of 12.00. His teammates captured two wickets in 240 balls which leads to a ratio of 10.00.

There are seven other bowlers who have a strike ratio of 10.00.

The striking feature of this table is that great bowlers like Waqar Younis, Ambrose, Donald, Muralitharan, Kumble, Pollock and Bond are sharing the marquee space with average bowlers like Bichel, Edwards, Jayasuriya, Dillon, Nehra, de Mel, Maharoof et al and with part-timers like Robin Singh,  Aftab Ahmad, Srikkanth, Klusener, Sehwag et al.

A major surprise is that Waqar Younis appears twice, as do Jayasuriya and unbelievably, Srikkanth.