Impact Observation of the Day
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South African HD Ackerman, whom many of us may have seen giving commentary during the IPL, is actually one of the great T20 batsmen. In fact, he is the fourth highest impact batsman of all time in T20 domestic cricket. He played his last T20 match in 2009. The batsman with the lowest failure rate in IPL 2012 so far for Rajasthan Royals is Rahul Dravid and the bowler with the lowest failure rate is Brad Hogg. For Mumbai Indians, it is Sachin Tendulkar amongst the batsmen and Lasith Malinga amongst the bowlers. Maybe the teams will play full-strength teams now at least. Even though it is pretty much a dead match. Kolkata Knight Riders rely on Gambhir (19% of KKR's batting impact in IPL 2012 has come from Gambhir) even more than Royal Challengers Bangalore rely on Gayle (18%). Getting Gambhir out early will be the key for anyone playing against KKR. While Deccan Chargers is the only team in IPL 2012 which has not had a single moment of Pressure Building IMPACT with the ball (taking successive wickets to put pressure on the opposition), whereas Rajasthan Royals has the most bowlers who have done that. The bowling, even more than the batting, may well be the difference in that match. In IPL 2012, Chennai Super Kings has absorbed about 50% more pressure than Kings XI Punjab. That could be the key to today's must-win (and pretty much a knockout) match for both sides. CSK should win. The highest impact player in all of T20 domestic cricket is Shoaib Malik. He has the maximum tournament-defining performances in T20 history - 4, for Sialkot Stallions - the team that will now play in the next Champions League.
The five highest impact batsmen in IPL history when it comes to Strike Rate IMPACT are Chris Gayle (currently playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore), Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils), Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals), Yousuf Pathan (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Jesse Ryder (Pune Warriors). The 5 highest Economy IMPACT bowlers in IPL history are R Ashwin, M Muralitharan, SL Malinga, DL Vettori and DW Steyn. The highest impact bowling performances in IPL history are by Doug Bollinger (4-13, Mumbai 2010) in a tournament context and Sohail Tanvir (6-14, Jaipur 2008) in a match context. The highest impact batting performances in IPL history are by Adam Gilchrist (85 off 35, Centurion 2009) in a tournament context and Brendon McCullum (158 off 73, Bangalore 2008) in a match context. More here. On the list of 10 highest impact batsmen in IPL history, Ambati Rayudu is the biggest suprise. More here. On the list of 10 highest impact bowlers in IPL history, Harmeet Singh is the biggest suprise. More here.
The highest impact batsmen in T20 Internationals are Kevin Pietersen, Jacques Kallis, Craig Kieswetter, Gautam Gambhir and Kumar Sangakkara. More here.
The highest impact T20 player (on a domestic T20 career level) in this year's IPL who has been given just one game by his franchise (where his impact was still over 1) - Daniel Harris of Deccan Chargers. He is not injured either; he fielded as a substitute in yesterday's match against Pune Warriors. Why would DC not languish at the bottom with such thinking?
The 5 highest impact batsmen in the last 4 seasons of IPL are Shaun Marsh (currently playing for Kings XI Punjab), Chris Gayle (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals) and Suresh Raina (Chennai Super Kings). Kolkata Knight Riders is a curious IPL side - packed with all-round talent, but not enough high impact specialist bowlers and batsmen. The all-round talent makes them a high impact side but whether that will translate to desirable results without the specialist talent is to be seen. It will be interesting. The teams with the strongest batting units in IPL 2012 are Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils. While Chennai star a lot of match winners in their line-up, Delhi Daredevils have the highest Strike Rate IMPACT amongst all the teams. And they have KP - the Viv Richards of T20 cricket.
The team with the best bench strength in this IPL is Delhi Daredevils. The worst in this aspect is Kings XI Punjab. More here. In the just-concluded SL-Eng Test series, despite scoring 128 runs less than Mahela Jayawardene (who was magnificent in both Tests), Kevin Pietersen ended up having up a marginally higher impact with the bat, which may seem inexplicable to those seeing this through conventional cricket statistics. More here. The team with the best batsmen to chase in this IPL is Kolkata Knight Riders. More here. The IPL team with the best overseas players is Rajasthan Royals (though they will miss a few of them in the early phase). And with the best Indian players, the team is Chennai Super Kings. More here. In this IPL, the team unit with the ability to absorb the most pressure while batting is Pune Warriors. They also have the lowest impact amongst all teams before the tournament, so presumably this quality will be called upon a lot. More here. Chennai Super Kings, as expected, start as favourites in this year's IPL again - they have the highest impact batting and bowling team. Only weakness - high failure rates, so a certain inconsistency is inevitable - catching them on a bad day might be more likely this time than the last 2 seasons. More here. The 10 batsmen with the highest Strike Rate IMPACT in ODI cricket history are (in this order) Viv Richards, Shahid Afridi, Virender Sehwag, Adam Gilchrist, Lance Cairns, Kapil Dev, Clive Lloyd, Sanath Jayasuriya, Ian Botham and Ricardo Powell. The Indian batsman to absorb the highest pressure in the 2011 World Cup was Virat Kohli (282 runs at an average of 35). He came under pressure thrice during the tournament and he had a 100% absorption rate – a very promising sign of things to come (which, of course did with great clarity this year). More here. World Cup 2011 Man-of-the-tournament Yuvraj Singh actually had a higher impact as a bowler than a batsman in the tournament. Glenn McGrath has registered a Bowling IMPACT of 5 or more in an ODI match 19 times – which is the highest in ODI history. Followed by Lee (18) and Muralitharan (15). Out of the total number of times batsmen have come under pressure in all of ODI history, only 32% of the time have they managed to successfully absorb that pressure. Andy Flower is 74th on a list of highest impact players in ODI history (minimum 75 matches) and easily Zimbabwe's highest impact player. And the 62nd highest impact ODI batsman. Interestingly, when it comes to pressure, Flower has absorbed pressure more than all batsmen in ODI cricket except three - Twose, Coney and Bevan. Chris Cairns was one of the great all-rounders in the ODI game. Interestingly, his batting and bowling impact was almost identical. His most characteristic feature as a batsman was his ability to absorb pressure - he is amongst the top ten batsman in ODI history in terms of how much pressure he absorbed successfully. A good example of how Impact Index works. We discovered that Mark Boucher's highest impact performance of his ODI career came in a match (Feb 2000 at Johannesburg against England) where he scored just 36 runs - South Africa made just 149 and yet won by 30 runs. Boucher also took 5 catches...and the fact that this was the final of a triangular tournament gave his performance the most weight. Richard Hadlee is the highest impact bowling all-rounder (highest career Bowling IMPACT with Batting IMPACT of 1 or more) in ODI history while Viv Richards is the highest impact Batting all-rounder (highest career Batting IMPACT with Bowling IMPACT of 1 or more) Amongst current players, Jacques Kallis is the highest impact batting all-rounder while Shakib Al Hasan is the highest impact bowling all-rounder. Joel Garner has the lowest failure rate amongst bowlers in ODI history, followed by Glen McGrath and Muralitharan. Shakib Al Hasan is the fifth-highest impact current player playing ODI cricket - after Kallis, Dhoni, Watson and Tendulkar. Yes, he is that much of a giant. What is happening to Bangladesh cricket is not a fluke - they are destined for greater things - and Shakib,who is just 24, will have a lot to do with that. Shakib Al Hasan is a giant of ODI cricket. Besides being Bangladesh's highest impact bowler AND batsman of all time, he is the 28th highest impact ODI player of all time - ahead of giants like Michael Bevan, Aravinda De Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly. Md. Yousuf, R Dravid and RT Ponting have faced pressure the maximum number of times in the ODI history. Ponting has absorbed pressure successfully for the highest number of times amongst all ODI batsmen. Australia's 10 highest impact ODI bowlers in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Geoff Lawson, Craig McDermott, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Hogg and Paul Reiffel. The top 5 batsmen in ODI cricket have 134 IMPACT 5 (highest IMPACT on a scale of 0 to 5) performances between them. The top 5 bowlers have 59. The top 5 batsmen have a failure rate of 42% (failure to even register an IMPACT of 1). The top 5 bowlers have a failure rate of 26%. Bringing out some fundamental differences between batsmen and bowlers. Tendulkar's fourth highest impact ODI innings is surprisingly against Zimbabwe in 1998 - his glory year. This was perhaps the strongest Zimbabwe side of all time though - Tendulkar made 124 in 92 balls. More here. Tendulkar's highest impact single Test innings is his celebrated 136 against Pakistan while chasing about double that, which his other 10 team-mates couldn't quite help him with. More here. Dravid's highest impact T20 innings came in 2009, for RCB against (ironically) RR, when he came out to bat at 17-3 (and absorbed pressure), was 8th-out at 125, for 66 in 48 balls. RR was bowled out for even less than what Dravid made, for 58. So, even as a T20 player, his most special quality (so amply displayed in Test and ODI cricket) - of absorbing pressure successfully, has come to the fore in his most special performances in this format. Rahul Dravid's highest impact T20 performance under pressure came against Punjab in the first season of IPL when he scored 66 runs in 51 balls to take his team from 15-3 to 124-9. Link to the scorecard here. On a list of Rahul Dravid's highest impact Test performances under pressure, after the legendary 180 at Kolkata ranks his unbeaten 146 against England just last year. Great till the end. More here. Rahul Dravid's two highest impact ODI innings came against West Indies in Toronto in 1999 and against South Africa in Mumbai in 2005. An interesting example of how IMPACT works is to look at Dravid's comprehensive match-winning effort in the famous Adelaide Test of 2003. He made 233 in the first innings and 72 not out in the second innings. The first came in a team total of 523 in reply to Australia's 556. The second came after Australia made 196 and India made 233-6 to win. His 72 not out actually registered slightly higher on the IMPACT scale than the 233. The fact that a player could do both in one match is what is awe-inspiring, of course. No batsman in the history of international cricket has successfully absorbed the most pressure for his team in both Test cricket and ODI cricket. Except one - Rahul Dravid of India.
Rahul Dravid has 8 series defining performances to his credit in his 164-match Test career - the highest for any batsman in the history of Test cricket. This is his greatest legacy. Australia's 10 highest impact ODI bowlers in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Geoff Lawson, Craig McDermott, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Hogg and Paul Reiffel. Sri Lanka's 10 highest impact ODI bowlers in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara, Kumar Dharamsena, Upul Chandana, Dilhara Fernando, Nuwan Zoysa, Farveez Maharoof and Ravi Ratnayake. Sri Lanka's 10 highest impact ODI batsmen in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Arjuna Ranatunga, Asanka Gurusinha, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Russel Arnold. Sri Lanka's 10 highest impact ODI batsmen in its history (minimum 75 matches), in this order, are Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Arjuna Ranatunga, Asanka Gurusinha, Mahela Jayawardane, Tillakratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Russel Arnold. Joel Garner has the lowest failure rate amongst bowlers in ODI history, followed by Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan. Glenn McGrath, Ewan Chatfield and Allan Donald are the only ones in ODI cricket history who have a 100% failure rate – in batting. Phil Simmons is the 11th highest impact West Indian in ODI cricket history (minimum 50 matches) and only the fourth genuine all-rounder, after Viv Richards, Carl Hooper and Chris Gayle. Michael Atherton is remembered today for being a very fine Test opening batsman. It is surprising therefore to see him on a list of highest impact ODI batsmen for England (he is number 6 - when minimum matches are 50), as he is not known for fireworks in that format, nor does his ODI batting average of 35 suggest that. His Batting IMPACT of 1.86 is very impressive though, notable for the tough runs he made and the partnerships he built in the middle. Virat Kohli, Md Kaif and Azharuddin have had the highest fielding IMPACT for India in ODI cricket (min matches 50). At the stage Kohli is in today (77 innings in completed ODIs), Tendulkar's Batting IMPACT was 1.67 (on a scale of 0 to 5). Kohli's is 2.20. Just after Tendulkar's legendary Desert Storm Sharjah innings of 143 (his 178th innings) which was his peak, his Batting IMPACT was 2.23. Kohli has taken far less time to reach what is possibly his peak. The top 5 all-time ODI bowlers to have highest Economy IMPACT (economical bowling in the context of each match over their careers) are Joel Garner, Shaun Pollock, Curtly Ambrose, Glen McGrath and Michael Holding. Virat Kohli is India's highest-impact batsman when it comes to chasing a target successfully. He has the lowest failure rate (failure to cross an IMPACT of even 1) amongst all Indian batsmen while chasing in ODIs. More here. South African RE Levi became the new international cricket star when he scored the fastest century in T20 history, in an international series against New Zealand. Interestingly, he failed in the other two matches of the series - reflecting his overall failure rate of 58% in T20 cricket. Praveen Kumar was India's best Test bowler in 2011. In 2008, when India won the CB Series, he was the best bowler. Last year, it was considered a big blow when he wasn't available for the World Cup in India (and his performance in England only confirmed that), but inexplicably he has not been played much in this CB series. Just two matches, one of which he failed in. Surely, not playing him, at least a bit more, is a huge waste? In the recent 4-match ODI series against Pakistan, Cook got 323 runs at an average of 81. Finn got 13 wickets at an average of 10. Cook was the highest impact batsman in 2 matches. Finn was the highest impact bowler in 3 matches. Pietersen joined Cook as a high impact batsman in the series. No one came close to being high impact for England with the ball. Yet, Cook got the Man-of-the-Series award. The traditional cricket blind-spot (batsman, lovely batsman) again. More here. Chris Cairns is New Zealand's second-highest Impact player in ODI history only behind Richard Hadlee. Both Hadlee and Cairns have been genuine all-rounders for New Zealand (both Batting and Bowling IMPACT of over 1). Klusener has the highest Strike Rate IMPACT (ability to score fast within the match context) in South Africa's ODI history. He is also the second-highest Impact all-rounder (both Batting and Bowling IMPACT of over 1) in South Africa's ODI history only behind Jacques Kallis. Ponting is 5th on a list of highest impact ODI batsmen from Australia. More here. Inzamam-ul-Haq is Pakistan's 3rd highest Impact batsman in their ODI history. The batsmen ahead of him are Saeed Anwar and Javed Miandad, both of whom also have a lower failure rate than Inzamam while batting in ODIs. Amongst all the players in the history of ODI cricket, Sir Richard Hadlee has the lowest failure rate as an all-rounder (both Batting and Bowling IMPACT over 1) followed by Ian Bothan and Kapil Dev. The batsman with the lowest failure rate in the history of ODI is Gordon Greenidge of West Indies. He is followed by three Australians on this list - Dean Jones, Geoffrey Marsh and Mathew Hayden. The top 3 batsmen in the ODI history to have absorbed maximum pressure while batting (Pressure IMPACT) are Roger Twose and Jeremy Coney of New Zealand followed by Michael Bevan of Australia. Viv Richards has a strike rate of 90.2 in ODI cricket – which puts him 15th on a list of ODI batsmen arranged in descending order of highest strike rates. But, when you consider the context of all the matches he played in (which also factors in the standards of his time), he goes right to the top of the list. In other words, he has the highest Strike Rate IMPACT in the history of ODI cricket. The all-time 5 highest-impact ODI batsmen who also play the role of wicket-keeper for their teams are Adam Gilchrist, MS Dhoni, Kumar Sangakkara, Alec Stewart and Andy Flower. When it comes to chasing, Dhoni is indeed amongst the finest ODI Indian batsmen but there are a few others who have an even higher impact than him in that regard. Gambhir is India’s best batsman in a chase followed by (interestingly) Gavaskar (in a small sample size of matches). Dhoni comes 3rd in this regard, followed by Yuvraj, Tendulkar and Azharuddin. David Hussey's career Bowling IMPACT of 0.98 shows his ability to bowl off-spinners during the middle overs. This, complemented with his career Batting IMPACT of 1.53, suggests a genuine all-rounder flowering at the international level. More here. Azhar Ali and Saeed Ajmal managed to have an IMPACT of 5 or more twice as Pakistan whitewashed England in the 3-match Test Series. More here. Angelo Mathews is the only genuine all-rounder (Batting and Bowling IMPACT above 1) in the Lankan lineup. His pressure impact of 0.15 (highest in the team) shows how crucial a cog he has become in the Sri Lankan middle order. His career failure rate of only 38% shows his importance as an all-rounder to his team. More here. The consensus would go by the fact that Dilshan is a far superior player than Tharanga. However the latter has performed more regularly in his usual laid back attitude and has a batting impact of 1.80 compared to Dilshan’s 1.53 in the last one year. More here. The highest impact Indian batting performance in a Test match in the last 5 years is by VVS Laxman – 38 and 96 vs South Africa, Durban 2010. Followed closely by 56 and 103 not out, again by Laxman vs Sri Lanka, Colombo 2010. More here. Laxman’s 59 and 281 is the highest impact batting performance by an Indian in any Test match (vs Australia, Kolkata 2001). Followed by Dravid’s 270 (vs Pakistan, Rawalpindi 2004). More here. Franchisees spent considerable amount of money to hire services of all-rounder Jadeja and wicketkeeper batsman Parthiv Patel. But high impact all-rounder Dean Elgar and wicketkeeper batsman Adam Crosthwaite (both with a reserve price of just $20,000) were omitted in the final auction list based on recommendations from the teams (read more) Why the IPL Auctions are built on a flimsy foundation. In IPL 2011, 45% of the Man-of-the-Match awards went to the wrong candidates. Out of the 25 highest impact T20 players in the world, only 7 played in IPL 2011. Why? The highest impact Test match batting performance by an Indian batsman in the 1990s was Azharuddin’s 5 and 163 not out vs South Africa, Kanpur 1996. Followed by S Ramesh who made 60 and 96 vs Pakistan, Delhi 1999. Sadly, the last everyone forgot about because Kumble got 10-74 in the second innings. More here. The highest impact Indian Test batsman under Dhoni’s captaincy has been Sachin Tendulkar followed by VVS Laxman. Under Ganguly’s captaincy it was Dravid followed by Tendulkar. More here. Amongst batsmen who got a chance to affect the series score-line in a series-defining match, Dravid has a 35% record of affecting the series – a stunning record. Followed by Azharuddin (33%) – interesting for a player in an era where India did not win much, especially abroad. More here. Failure rate (impact below 1 in a match) denotes consistency better than anything else. Gavaskar has the lowest failure rate amongst prominent Indian batsmen in Test cricket, followed by Tendulkar, Dravid and wonder-of-wonders, Sehwag. More here. The most important legacy of a Test cricketer is how many times he impacts the series score-line directly. Dravid has 8 series-defining performances in his career – amongst the highest in Test history. Tendulkar has 6, Laxman 4, Sehwag 3, Azharuddin 3, Gavaskar 1, Ganguly 1. More here. Rahul Dravid is India’s highest impact Test batsman of all-time. Followed by Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar. More here. Adelaide Oval's history suggests that specialist batsmen have the highest Batting IMPACT in the 2nd innings as compared to the 1st, 3rd or 4th innings. Looks like the trend will be broken this time though. While Ponting and Clarke came in the series with last 2 years' Batting IMPACT of 1.48 and 1.65, their Batting IMPACT in this series at the end of the 3rd Test is 2.84 and 2 respectively. Ponting has also absorbed the maximum pressure (Pressure IMPACT) amongst all batsmen in the series so far. Sehwag has had a Batting IMPACT of 2.86 at Adelaide Oval in 2 matches, Dravid 2.07 in 3 matches, Laxman 1.96 in 3 and Tendulkar 1.74 in 4. Of all the performances amongst them, Dravid's 233 & 72 not out in 2003 had the highest Batting IMPACT of 7.81 (also a series momentum-changing effort). Umesh Yadav has provided the highest impact Indian bowling performance in the India-Aus series and Virat Kohli the highest impact batting performance. Any clearer indication that is time for India to blood youth? More details here. Virat Kohli scored 162 runs at an average of 27 in the first 3 Tests against Australia 2011-12 (when the series was still open). Tendulkar made 249 runs at an average of 42. Yet, Kohli’s Batting IMPACT was 1.45 and Tendulkar’s 1.37. Here’s why. Ricky Ponting scored 263 runs at an average of 66 in the first 3 Tests against India 2011-12 (when the series was still open). Clarke made 379 runs at an average of 126. Hussey made 253 runs at an average of 84. And yet, their Batting IMPACT numbers in the series were 2.84, 2.00 and 1.84 respectively. Here’s why. In the history of Test cricket, only 31% bowling performances have had a positive Efficiency IMPACT on the matches played. Efficiency IMPACT measures the efficiency of the bowler to take wickets while giving lesser runs than the match standards. The average Batting IMPACT that a batsman has in the first half of the game is 0.88 as compared to 0.74 in the second half. The average Batting IMPACT of specialist batsmen in Test Cricket history is 1.42. The average Batting IMPACT of specialist batsmen in Test Cricket history is 1.42. Batting IMPACT of batsmen at various positions: No. 1 - 1.53, No. 2 - 1.42, No. 3 - 1.61, No. 4 - 1.67, No. 5 - 1.50, No. 6 - 1.27 and No. 7 - 1.01. In the last 2 years, Tendulkar has had a batting IMPACT of 2.26, Laxman 2.32, Dravid 1.70 and Sehwag 2.15. All have played over 20 Tests in this period. Will they extend this run or are they batting for the last time together? This is absolutely the last chance for a Golden Generation to make an impact together. Tendulkar has a Batting IMPACT of 2.64 (2 matches) at Perth, Laxman 2.05 (1) and Dravid 2.21 (1). Encouraging signs? The average Batting IMPACT of all the wicketkeepers in the history of Test Cricket is 0.97. The most impact made from a single batting position in the history of Test cricket is no. 4. All number 4s in the last 135 years of Test cricket have had an IMPACT of 1.67. India's highest impact Test player of 2011 was Praveen Kumar (3.81). Though he just played 6 Tests, his impact has not been properly acknowledged yet. India's highest impact Test player of the last two years is Zaheer Khan (3.05). More than Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman or Sehwag. India's highest impact Test batsman of the last two years is VVS Laxman (2.32). Along with Sehwag, he is the only one who has two series-defining performances in this period. Is the fourth innings of a match the most difficult time for batsmen to face pressure? History suggests so. In the 134 years of Test cricket, batsmen have absorbed pressure 13% of the time in each of the first 3 innings. In the fourth innings, it dramatically falls to 6%. |
Cricket Video of the Day
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The highest impact bowling performance in IPL 2012 so far has come from spinner Ajit Chindila (who appears to wear 3-D glasses on the field), who opened the bowling against Pune Warriors - took 2 wickets off his last 2 balls and a wicket off the first ball of his second over. Done and dusted pretty early on. He eventually took 4-13 in 4 overs as PW lost by 45 runs (as they chased 170).