Monday, February 20, 2012

AUS vs IND vs SL: Quick Start Performances

In the shorter formats of the game, getting off to a good start is extremely important. In ODIs, for example, a solid start is the need of the hour for both the batting team as well as the bowling team. The Castrol Index terms the first 10 overs – also known as the Mandatory Powerplay Overs – as the Quick Start Overs. In these overs, there are only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle; hence, the batting team should aim to make a brisk start to the game. This will set the base and make it easy for the middle and lower order batsmen to stabilize the innings without taking many risks when the field restrictions are relaxed.

On the other hand, the bowling side would be looking to restrict the opposition with important top order wickets which will peg them back and help them utilize different part time options in the later overs. A good start by the batting side can single-handedly take the game away from the opposition.

Performances of All Three Teams in Quick Start Overs (7 ODIs so far): 



Three top-ranked teams – Australia (1st), India (2nd) and Sri Lanka (4th) – are currently playing in the ODI tri-series Down Under and the tournament is wide open so far with the hosts on 14 points, India on 10 and Sri Lanka on 7 from the seven matches played up till now. All three sides have dangerous opening batsmen who can demolish the opposition bowling attack on any given day. Australia has the likes of David Warner and Matthew Wade; Sri Lanka possesses Tillakaratne Dilshan, and India has Virender Sehwag and the maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Owing to the fast and bouncy bowler-friendly pitches in Australia, this series so far hasn’t seen humongous totals. The highest so far has been 288 posted by Australia against India in the seventh match at Brisbane.


India has scored the highest number of runs in the Quick Start Overs with 230 runs from five matches with the best average of 46 runs per 10 overs. They have had to go the tough way chasing in all matches under lights. Impressively, the World Champions have successfully chased two totals in excess of 230 and tied one against Sri Lanka. On all the three occasions, they have had a good beginning in the Quick Start Overs as they lost just one wicket and scored more than 40 runs in that period. In the rest of the games, they have lost more than one wicket and lost the match. Gautam Gambhir has been their main man with 193 runs and a healthy strike rate of over 80. In the bowling department, Vinay Kumar has been the find of the tournament for them as he is currently the joint highest wicket-taker with nine wickets. Four of those wickets have come in Quick Start Overs at a staggering Economy Rate of just 3.58. What makes this performance more pleasing is the fact that he has bowled the highest number of overs in this period, 24.


Australia is the second best team in the Quick Start Overs with 216 runs from five matches at an average of 43.2 runs per 10 overs. They have batted first in all of them and won three, lost two. David Warner has given them good starts and he is the second highest scorer in the Quick Start Overs with 100 runs at a decent strike rate of 83.33. The fact that he has lost his opening partner early in most of the matches makes his contribution all the more important. He has had starts but has failed to capitalize on them. Mitchell Starc has been their best bowler, picking up three wickets but has given away runs at five per over. Brett Lee, who made his comeback after his toe injury, has performed well, scalping two wickets from eight overs at an economy rate of just 4.25. 

Sri Lanka has managed 175 runs from four matches at an average of 43.75 runs per 10 overs. The impressive fact about their batting in the Quick Start Overs is that they have lost fewer wickets… Just four! The Lankans have scored 43.75 runs per wicket, compared to Australia’s 27 and India’s 28.75. A lot of credit goes to former skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan as he has scored the maximum number of runs in this window with 105 runs from four matches at a healthy strike rate of 84.6. His opening partner Upul Tharanga has been abject, amassing just 26 runs from three matches at a dismal strike rate of 34.61. A mature Dilshan has played sensibly but has failed to capitalize on good starts. Mahela Jayawardena opened with him in their last ODI at Sydney and they scored the highest number of runs scored in a match – 66 – in the Quick Start Overs, helping them achieve a crucial bonus point. Hopefully, this pair will carry on and provide many more good starts for the Lions. Lasith Malinga has provided them wickets but has been expensive going at 5.91 runs per over. Nuwan Kulasekara has bowled with great discipline giving away just 3.84 runs per over and picking up two wickets from 19 overs.

Overall, the likes of Tendulkar (46 runs), Ricky Ponting (11 runs) and Michael Clarke (43 runs) have disappointed to a great extent. Tendulkar and Ponting, in particular, have struggled to see off the new ball. The former Australia captain’s strike rate in the Quick Start Overs has been the lowest with 28.9, which says a lot about his struggle with the bat in this format. With Ponting, in all likelihood, about to declare his exit from limited overs cricket, it will be interesting to see how the new crop shapes up. As of now, all three teams have thrown up some gems in young seamers like Vinay Kumar, Nuwan Kulasekara and Mitchell Starc who have adapted pretty quickly to the challenges of bowling in the Quick Start Overs.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Are the Kiwis really prepared for a tough challenge?

Recently, the cricketing fraternity experienced a weapon of mass destruction that demolished/battered/clobbered (take your pick!) a hapless Zimbabwean side in all three formats of the game. The annihilation process started with them thrashing the minnows by an innings and 301 runs; bowling them out twice in a day in the one-off Test; then clean-sweeping the ODIs 3-0 by heavy margins of 90, 141 and 202 runs – in the last two ODIs, they scored in excess of 350. Finally, the torture was complete as they delivered the knockout punch by winning both the T2OIs comfortably.

So what conclusion can we arrive at? Is New Zealand the new super power of international cricket? Or are they the most dangerous side you would ever want to face?  Well, they might have exterminated Zimbabwe in their own backyard but with a strong team like South Africa visiting their den in a few days, are they ready for the real challenge?

New Zealand’s ODI record since January 2010

Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	No Result	Win/Loss Ratio
New Zealand	41	18	21	0	2	0.85

New Zealand hasn’t enjoyed a great time in the ODI arena in the last two years. Since January 2010, they have played 41 ODIs, lost a staggering 21 of them and won just 18 with 2 no results. That brings their win/loss ratio to a poor 0.85. What makes the ratio look more abject is that since that period, they are placed 7th, just above West Indies (0.59) and Bangladesh (0.46) in the top ten Test playing nations’ win/loss ratio list.

Even more concerning is their performance in ODIs against top playing nations. Have they performed to their potential in the last two years?  Let’s have a check.

They started off 2010 with three-match ODI series against a weak team in Bangladesh at home and beat them convincingly with a thumping margin of 86 on the Castrol Index. Their next assignment was a five-match ODI series against the then World Champions Australia at home and they couldn’t carry forward the same momentum in the high profile series as they lost 3-2.

But what followed was more appalling as they finished third in the triangular series involving India and Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, winning just one of the four matches played. Skipper Daniel Vettori’s incessant streak of losses continued as they put in their worst performance of the season being whitewashed by Bangladesh 4-0 (5-match series) and then by India 5-0 away. They lost by an overall margin of 27 points against the Bangla Tigers and 43 points against India on the Castrol Index.

During the period between 13th August 2010 and 31st December 2010, the Kiwis did not win a single match having played 12 matches and lost 11 of them with one no result – 11 consecutive losses were nothing short of disgrace. John Wright replaced Mark Greatbatch as New Zealand’s coach but the losing juggernaut continued as they lost 2-3 to Pakistan in the six-match home series. The repercussions of the poor performance meant that there was a sense of anguish among the fans with crowd numbers going down. The World Cup was just a month away and the Kiwis were in absolute tatters.

They did reach the semi-finals of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup but without facing a daunting challenge as they played eight matches, won five and lost three. Of the five wins, three were against minnows like Kenya, Zimbabwe and Canada. The result being they finished at a mediocre 5th position on the Overall Index, well behind Sri Lanka, India, South Africa and Australia.

Ross Taylor, the new captain, started off on a positive note winning the first two games of the three-match away series against Zimbabwe but a dismal performance saw them lose the last ODI as they couldn’t defend a humongous target of 328.

New Zealand’s ODI record against minnows and top teams since January 2010

Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	No Result
Minnows	16	11	5	0	0
Top Teams	25	7	16	0	2

After the recent 3-0 ODI whitewash of Zimbabwe at home, they have won just 18 of the 41 games played since January 2010 but out of those wins, 11 of them have been against the minnows. And all their three series wins out of the eight played have been against the lower ranked sides, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Their last ODI series win against a top team was way back in November 2009 when they beat Pakistan 2-1 in the three-match series in the UAE. So with a big South African challenge ahead at home, have the Kiwis achieved the much needed competitive practice by winning against minnows like Zimbabwe?  They are seventh in the current ODI rankings and up against a side who has won five out of seven ODI series in the last couple of years. With their fast and bouncy tracks conducive to seam bowling and with the likes of the deadly Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Lonwabo Tsotsobe,  and in-form batsmen like Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis , AB  de Villiers in the South African ranks, it will be a different ball game  altogether.

Inspite of being termed as highly capable, this promising side has always underperformed. They have a new refreshing team with an injection of talented young blood. It’s high time they show their real worth to the cricketing world and doing it with a series win against the mighty Proteas would be the best way to answer their critics.