September 23, 2007

Bowled

Is it just me? Just my impression? Or is it really true that a greater fraction of the wickets in Twenty20 are bowled compared to other forms of cricket?

And could that be why this form of the game is growing on me?

For me, the most thrilling sight in cricket has always been a top flight fast bowler taking out a top-flight batsman with a ball that crashes into the stumps. (I remember Allan Donald and Sachin Tendulkar paired forever in my mind like that). And there's been plenty of that in these Twenty20 games.

Anyone does an analysis, let me know.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I was thinking about the exact same thing, though I believe India Vs. Australia yesterday probably had the most bowled out batsmen in the history of the Twenty20.

There was another statistic they could have popped into our heads during the match. I wasn't very sure how many other matches in T20 were won with a score of over 170 to follow on to.

Patrix said...

Another fear was that T20 would be dominated by batsmen but yesterday's match showed that ultimately bowlers make the difference...sound duh! but strange how many believe otherwise. And it isn't always raanti cricket.

Mayuresh Gaikwad said...

Dilip,

I think your observation is right, especially given the finals between India and Pakistan!!!

I tried thinking about a reason to attribute to this phenomenon, but could come up with none to back the empirical evidence.

I think the closest explanation I could muster is: Since every over is almost like a slog over, the most successful bowling strategy is to bowl wicket to wicket (unless the ball is swinging crazy). When most bowlers bowl wicket to wicket (with the aim to contain the boundaries), there is every chance that the batsman,if he goes for the slog and misses, his furniture would be disturbed

Anonymous said...

Hi Dilip,

Abt the most beautiful sight in Cricket... for me it would always be the ball beating the bat... needn't go & hit the stumps... might just well be a dot ball... an outswinger that tempts a batsman to come and have a go at it and beating him completely... what a joy...!!!
Am not a cricket fan... would anyday choose another sport over it..!!!