Analyzing Batting Partnerships in Cricket: Factors Affecting Success

Introduction

Amongst the cricketing community, cricket is occasionally referred to as "the gentleman's game". This phrases origin is difficult to pin-point as the various websites and books have no concrete origin story but over the centuries this phrase has been substantiated by the various professionals of the sport, for instance, former wicketkeeper-batsman of Australia Adam Gilchrist walked (will be explained in the upcoming chapters) after umpire Rudi Koertzen had given him not out after edging the ball behind in the 2003 Cricket World Cup semi-final against Sri-Lanka.

Also, former Indian captain MS Dhoni withdrew his run-out appeal against an England player, Ian Bell which allowed him to continue his innings and Haroon Lorgat who was the International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive at the time applauded MS Dhoni for upholding the great spirit of cricket mentioned by Giles Lucas (2011).

It is quite evident that the spirit of cricket and the gentleman's game is still alive and well with the few mentioned examples however in recent history, the spirit of cricket has been tarnished by a few players.

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The most recent scandal was an incident between Australia and South Africa in Cape Town at the Newlands cricket ground in 2018. The Australian team was involved in a ball-tampering incident where they deliberately tried to alter the shape or accelerate the wear and tear of the ball to their advantage. As ball-tampering is against the rules of cricket the following players Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft all received bans from the game but Bancroft's suspension was less than the others as he was not part of the leadership of the Australian team.

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That said, players will do anything in their capacity to win and furthermore driven by external factors like national pride which is the standard that their nations set for them is vital to maintain and the potential monetary benefits as a result of a team winning the league, series or tournament, therefore, it is evident that individuals or teams are expected to maximise their chances of success (Dunderdale).

Amongst the many factors that may affect the outcome of a game, it is common knowledge in the cricket community that the batting team only needs one solid partnership to tilt the odds of the game in their favour. The better an individual batsman or batting partnership performs, the more likely the team is to win. Measuring the batting performance is therefore essential to help with on-field decisions, to optimise team performance and better the chances of winning. Several models exist to summarise individuals batting performance in cricket. However, these models summarise individual performances and do not consider partnership performances. The calculation on how likely a batting partnership is to survive each ball within an innings can enable more effective partnership strategies to optimise a team's final score. The primary objective of this research is to optimise batting partnership strategy by determining the factors which most affect partnership success in the first and second innings and further determine the optimal batting order for the teams based on the predicted partnership success. The structure of the research will entail chapter 2 which discusses an overview of cricket including the type of formats, the history, fundamentals and rules of T20 cricket, partnerships and an introduction to the basics of survival analysis. Chapter 3 consists of the data and methodology which illustrates how the data was obtained and derived while the methodology will elaborate on the adopted methodology. Furthermore, chapter 4 and chapter 5 will be the results and conclusions and recommendations respectively.

Cricket is a bat and ball game played between two teams and each team consisting of 11 players. Each team will have a chance to bat and field and the phase of batting is called an innings and the length of an innings depends on the format. The batting team will select two players to go bat (batsman) forming a partnership with the objective of scoring as many runs as possible towards the teams total while team 2 is fielding. Using Layman's terms, team 2 will place 10 fielders strategically all over the field of play and the remaining fielder will become the bowler. International cricket games are categorised as one of the following; test matches, one-day internationals (ODI) or Twenty20 (T20) matches. ODI and T20 formats are considered as limited-overs cricket due to restrictions on the number of overs assigned to each team, and the number of overs an individual may bowl during an innings. In ODI, each batting team bats for one innings and is allocated 50 overs, compared to an allocated 20 overs to the batting team in T20 cricket.

Furthermore, the number of fielders allowed in a particular area of the field at any time is restricted. In contrast, in test matches, each team is given two innings to bat. Test matches may last a maximum of five days and there are no limitations on the number of allotted overs each team is given, the number of overs a bowler may bowl or fielding positions. (Brown, 2017:13) Fundamentals and Rules A brief overview of cricket was mentioned above further clarity of the rules and regulations of the topic will be explained but the full list of the laws can be found on The Marylebone Cricket Club website.

Cricket is played on a round or oval-shaped mowed down grassy field known as cricket ground. The borderline of the ground is known as a boundary. The central playing surface is known as pitch. The pitch is a rectangular 22 yards long clay strip with stumps also referred to as wickets at each end. The wickets consists of three standing stakes and on top of the stumps are two bails. The area situated around the wickets at each end is called the crease. During an innings, there will always be two batsmen on either side of the crease, who play in a partnership to score as many runs as possible without being dismissed. A batsman can be dismissed in 10 ways but the most common dismissals are bowled, caught, leg before wicket(LBW), stumping and run-out. Furthermore, when a batsman is dismissed another batsman will replace the individual until the team has been dismissed 10 times or their innings has concluded and no further batsman is allowed to bat.

Score is counted in the form of 'runs'. Runs can be scored by the batting team in numerous ways. For example, runs are awarded as a result of the number of times the batsmen run from end to end of the pitch. Generally speaking, the batting team obtains runs by hitting the bowlerџs ball with the bat; a hit outside the boundary gives the batting team four runs if the ball touches the ground before crossing the boundary, or otherwise, the batting team is awarded six runs. (Asif, 2013:5)

From the fielding team, a bowler bowls 6 legal deliveries to constitute an "over'. No bowler can bowl two overs in succession. The maximum number of overs a bowler is allowed to bowl depends upon the format of the game. For example, a bowler can bowl a maximum of ten overs in a one-day international (ODI), whilst a maximum of four overs can be bowled in T20I cricket. The fielding captain is responsible for appointing bowlers to bowl. Lastly, overs are delivered alternately from each end of the pitch.

References

Updated: Dec 12, 2023
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Analyzing Batting Partnerships in Cricket: Factors Affecting Success. (2016, Mar 16). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/about-cricket-game-essay

Analyzing Batting Partnerships in Cricket: Factors Affecting Success essay
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