July 16, 2008
The best performance in a single Test
Posted by Ananth Narayanan -
2 days, 5 hours ago in
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Ian Botham's heroics against India in Bombay comes out as the best performance by a player in a match
© Getty Images
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| When people talk of the most outstanding performances in a single Test match, a few superlative displays come to mind. Ian Botham's all-round excellence in Bombay in 1980, Jim Laker's 19-wicket haul in Manchester in 1956, Andy Flower's and Brain Lara's back-to-the-wall batting exploits, Richard Hadlee's tour-de-force in Brisbane in 1985 against Australia, Muttiah Muralitharan and Graham Gooch at Lord's etc. What is the best among these memorable efforts?
To seek an answer, this article looks at single player performances in a Test match.
Due to a technical glitch, comments were not accepted on 17/7/08. Pl re-post any comments you might have posted.
From this time I have made a significant change. In order for all readers to view my own response to the readers' comments, these responses will be appended at the end of the article. Even though this will make the article longer, this is the best way of addressing what are often overlapping comments. Pl see at the end of the article for these counter-responses.
Let me emphasise that this is not a look at the best all-round performances, although allrounders will be prominent in the lists. I have looked at a method of bringing batting, bowling and fielding performances to a common platform and analyse the results. I will also make due allowances for the fact that bowlers can, on their day, monopolise the team bowling performances, while batsmen cannot. I have also looked at the relative contribution of a player in a Test match rather than the absolute numbers.
Continue reading "The best performance in a single Test"
Comments (16)
July 6, 2008
Extrapolating high scores in Tests
Posted by Charles Davis -
1 week, 5 days ago in Trivia - batting
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Sanath Jayasuriya's 340 was the cornerstone of Sri Lanka's 952 for 6 declared, the highest total in Test cricket
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When comparing the biggest team scores in Tests, the results can be a bit messy. This is because cricket often does not allow teams to carry their innings to completion, and big innings are often truncated by declaration or lack of time. We know for sure that the highest innings in a Test match is Sri Lanka’s 952 for 6 in 1997, but an interesting side question would ask if this is also the most ‘extraordinary’ score in Tests. For example, we know that the West Indies once made a score of 790 for 3. Where might such an innings have gone if it had continued? Can we compare it to Sri Lanka’s record?
While we can never know for sure, it is possible to make a statistical estimate. The approach is to look at the way that innings naturally progress over a wide range of scores. Of course, there is plenty of variation between innings [part of cricket’s appeal], but there are statistical patterns. A team that is, say, five wickets down, will on average add a certain number of runs if the innings is played to completion. Continue reading "Extrapolating high scores in Tests"
Comments (51)
June 27, 2008
The night-watchman story - Part II
Posted by Ananth Narayanan -
3 weeks ago in Trivia - batting
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Matthew Hoggard has played some vital night-watchman innings
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In the first part I looked at a methodology for determining night-watchman situations and looked at individual performances. In this concluding part, I have done a team analysis and come to a conclusion whether the night-watchman experiment is a success or not. I have also looked at readers' comments.
Note: David Barry has sent me an invaluable file containing the day-end batsmen data for all the tests. I myself had gone to my own Text archive and found that this information is available for most matches. However parsing those files would have required lot more effort than parsing the CSV file David has sent.
I will complete the work and come out with a revised article incorporating the actual player data. I will also do a comparison of the actual results and my own derived results. However this will be after some time after looking at a few other interesting ideas already in the pipeline.
I owe David one for this.
There was a suggestion to use the day-end player data which is available in text scorecards. While accepting that this is available in most scorecards, I have to express the inability to do so at the current stage because I have to download quite a few scorecards, do a text-based data mining to extract this data, do some complex parsing work and link this data to the player and fall-of-wicket data already available. This is certainly possible. However, this will
take too much time and resources and it is not possible to do this at this instance. Possibly at a later date. Continue reading "The night-watchman story - Part II"
Comments (13)
June 20, 2008
The best night-watchman in Tests - Part I
Posted by Ananth Narayanan -
4 weeks ago in Trivia - batting
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Jason Gillespie averages 116 balls per stint as night-watchman
© AFP
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| After a light-weight ODI related post last time around (The "Unfulfilled team innings in ODIs"), I am now reverting to Test matches and a considerably more complex analysis.
The night-watchman concept in Test cricket is a paradox. A batsman of far lesser ability is sent to bat in place of a far more accomplished batsman, in possibly inferior batting conditions. The better batsman is preserved to bat when conditions are better. But this is as much part of Test cricket as white clothing, follow-on, new ball after 80 overs et al and deserves an in-depth look.
This time I have taken a conscious decision to do this post in two parts. The first part will deal with the individual batsmen performances while the second one will analyse the whole night-watchman canvas by team and by period. In addition, I will take a view on whether the night-watchman concept has been successful. I will also incorporate relevant readers' suggestions. Continue reading "The best night-watchman in Tests - Part I"
Comments (41)
June 11, 2008
'Unfulfilled' team innings in ODI matches
Posted by Ananth Narayanan -
on 06/11/2008 in Trivia - batting
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Ramiz Raja scored an unbeaten 102 off 158 balls as Pakistan limped to 220 for 2 and lost to West Indies by ten wickets in 1992
© Getty Images
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| Continuing the ODI analysis work, here is another aspect. What do I mean by "unfulfilled" innings? An example, from an imaginary match will suffice.
England: 250 for 2 in 50.0 overs lost to Australia: 251 for 7 in 49.3 overs
A single line summary of a match. It conveys a lot. We do not need any further match or player information to sense that there was something wrong as far as the England innings was concerned. What were the England batsmen thinking? Whoever be the Australian bowlers, should they not have gone on to score, say, 270 for 6 or for that matter, 290 for 9. Especially as the Australian bowlers seemed to have taken very few wickets, indicating a batsmen-friendly pitch and/or lack of penetration. Let us ignore the current favourite broadcasters' jargon, "no bounce", "two-paced", "not coming on to bat", "ball stopping" et al. The bottom line, especially in view of the Australian reply, was that English batsmen messed up, and messed up big time. Continue reading "'Unfulfilled' team innings in ODI matches"
Comments (34)
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