Expert Blog

Thursday, September 02, 2010

T20 Top batsmen: A look through a BCG graph

Using the BCG matrix, our expert analyses the top 21 batsmen in Twenty20 cricket.

Last week, Arvind Iyengar had a look at the top ODI batsmen using a graph method invented by BCG (Boston Consulting Group). It is a two-dimensional placement of performance and gives a clear visual indication of a batsman’s overall placement.

He had used the Batting Strike Rate and Batting Average as the X and Y axis variables. I feel there is a slight error in this since the Batting Average can be computed as Batting Strike Rate x Average Balls Faced Per Dismissed Innings. As such, there is a bit of double counting of the Batting Strike Rate. I feel we should use the Average Balls faced instead of the Batting Average to get a truly illustrative graph. One of these days, I will post the alternate graph on the ODI batsmen.

Here, I am going to apply the similar analysis on T20 batsmen. The only criterion is that the batsman should have crossed 500 runs. 21 batsmen qualify and that is a nice number. Large enough to have a meaningful analysis and small enough not to clutter the graph.

Let us see the graph now.

The top batsmen are in the top right quadrant. Pietersen is right on top there. McCullum and Hussey are just about there. Smith and Gayle are poised to move in there. These are the star T20 batsmen.

The group led by Yuvraj Singh, Jayawardene and Warner are in the bottom right quadrant. These are the batsmen who belong to the dashers category. If they stay, they would score faster, but their stay is below par.

The top left quadrant players are the stayers. Misbah-ul-Haq (where is he now?) is the leader and is followed by Kallis, Sangakkara and Salman Butt. It is possible that in T20s, one would prefer a batsman in the dasher category than the stayer category.

Now we come to the ***** (the original BCG terminology, representing the canine group, probably should not be used here). Let us instead call them the strugglers. They neither score fast nor do they stay. Certainly a batting liability for the team. Surprisingly Taylor, who scores breathtakingly fast in IPL, is the worst offender, followed by Kamran Akmal and again surprisingly, de Villiers.

http://www.castrolcricket.com/ee/index.php/castrol_weblog/comments/t20_top_batsmen_a_look_through_a_bcg_graph/

Thursday, August 26, 2010

“Double” centuries in an ODI game

How many instances of two centurions in a single one-dayer can you think of? Our expert lists out some interesting trivia in this matter.

This does not refer to the only double century in an ODI game which was scored by the Little Master recently. Rather it refers to two centuries in a game.

Recently I perused the scorecard of the Scotland-Afghanistan match; I saw that two Afghan batsmen had scored centuries. Then I remembered that I had seen a similar instance from the talented Afghanistan team earlier also. As is wont to happen my curiosity was aroused and the result is this analysis.

There have been 86 instances of two batsmen scoring centuries in a single match. This works out to around once in 40 matches.

Now for an analysis of the teams whose batsmen have scored twin centuries.

As expected, India, with its galaxy of batting tracks and flat batting tracks, leads with 21 such instances, followed by Pakistan with 18. It is of interest to note that Afghanistan has two such occurrences and are ahead of New Zealand. Mohd Shahzad has participated in both instances.

Now for an analysis of the teams whose bowlers have conceded twin centuries.

The sub-continent teams lead in this table, headed by Sri Lanka and India.

India have achieved this landmark 7 times against Sri Lanka, Pakistan 6 times against Sri Lanka and Pakistan 4 times against India.

Tendulkar has been part of this batting carnival 9 times, followed by Ponting and Ganguly clocking in at 7 and Dravid and Jayasuriya, 6 times. Jayasuriya has done this with 6 different batsmen, viz., Atapattu, A De Silva, Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Dilshan and Tharanga. 

The maximum instances by a specific pair are 4 by Tendulkar and Ganguly. Gilchrist and Ponting have done this 3 times. Tendulkar/Dravid, Ganguly/Dravid and Saeed Anwar/Ramiz Raja have done this 2 times each.

Finally, this was achieved 9 times during 2003. During 2001, there were 6 such occurrences. During the current year also there have been 6 such occurrences during the first 8 months.

The nearest any team has come to posting three 100s in a match was by Australia in the 2007 match against South Africa. Hayden scored 101, Ponting 91 and Clarke 92. There is no instance of 2x100s and a 90+ score.

http://www.castrolcricket.com/ee/index.php/castrol_weblog/comments/double_centuries_in_an_odi_game/