Posted on September 17, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
As entertaining as it is twenty20 is flawed
Last night South Africa narrowly escaped a loss by beating England in the ICC World Twenty20. Had England fielded better or even had a better batting line-up we would have lost that game miserably. This got me thinking about a very apparent flaw I’ve noticed in the shortened version of the game.
The flaw is that if you win the toss and decide to field first you will inevitably give yourself about a 60% chance of winning the game than if you batted first. Now winning a toss in cricket has always been a very important factor but nothing quite like the 20 over game.
If you look at the current World Twenty20 tournament we’ve already had 15 games played. Of those 1 game has been tied, 5 have been won by the team batting first and 9 have been won by the team batting second.
Similarly in the Standard Bank Pro20 series there were 16 games played between February and March this year. Of those 4 were won by the team batting first while a massive 12 games were won by the team batting second. This means that in the domestic version of the game batting second gives you a 75% chance of winning.
These stats are all down to one thing – pressure.
The problem with batting first is that you have no real choice but to throw down the gauntlet and go for the big runs as you become the pace setters for the match. Unfortunately, the team batting second always has an advantage as they know exactly what they have to chase down and they can then set their innings’ pace accordingly.
When West Indies scored a massive 208/2 I’m pretty sure they thought the game was in the bag but careful planning by the South Africans (along with some poor fielding) allowed for a comfortable victory in the end.
Imagine what would have happened had Zimbabwe batted first in the match against Australia which they won by 5 wickets. Assuming they did, I think Zimbabwe would have felt that they needed to score close on 180 runs for any chance of beating the Australians. As it turned out the Aussies only got a mere 138/9 which took a lot of pressure off the Zimbos and allowed them to win with ease.
With 12 World Twenty20 games left only time will tell if the team batting second really does have the better advantage or not.
6 Comments
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September 18, 2007
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idiot
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September 18, 2007
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Couldn’t agree more. something has to be seriously wrong for a team batting second to actually lose.
I saw two of the matches where the team batting first actually won, and it simply came down to excellent fielding resulting in the opposition losing some confidence in going for the big hits.
The Klusener’s of the game were heavily criticised for ‘slogging’ back in the day, but people just didn’t realise that if your eye is in, there’s no missing that ball, especially if you’re stepping up to the bowler the way the guys do in T20.
As far as I’m concerned the team batting second has absolutely everything in their favour. This form of the game puts the bowlers on the backfoot for a change, pre-madonna’s simply get pounded
(ask srinath)
dood, nice new look btw.
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September 18, 2007
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Mac: why?
Dominique: As Murphy’s law would have it since this post we’ve had 4 more games. 3 have been won by the team batting first… Anyway, I’ll stick to my guns and wait until the end of the tournament and then do a follow up. Thanks for the comments on the new look
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September 18, 2007
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idiot
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September 18, 2007
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Couldn't agree more. something has to be seriously wrong for a team batting second to actually lose.
I saw two of the matches where the team batting first actually won, and it simply came down to excellent fielding resulting in the opposition losing some confidence in going for the big hits.
The Klusener's of the game were heavily criticised for 'slogging' back in the day, but people just didn't realise that if your eye is in, there's no missing that ball, especially if you're stepping up to the bowler the way the guys do in T20.
As far as I'm concerned the team batting second has absolutely everything in their favour. This form of the game puts the bowlers on the backfoot for a change, pre-madonna's simply get pounded
(ask srinath)
dood, nice new look btw.
Visit My Website
September 18, 2007
Permalink
Mac: why?
Dominique: As Murphy's law would have it since this post we've had 4 more games. 3 have been won by the team batting first… Anyway, I'll stick to my guns and wait until the end of the tournament and then do a follow up. Thanks for the comments on the new look