Twenty20 World Championship: Key performers (Part II)

Written by Sreeram Ramachandran & Jatin Thakker

Saturday, 04 August 2007

There are very few days that pass without any Australian International cricketer criticizing or downplaying Twenty20 and the various tournaments featuring this brand of the game. The Aussie stance on the 20 over version of the game is clear – good fun, as long as it is taken for nothing more than that – just fun. All this talk might give the general public the impression that since they aren’t taking Twenty20 so seriously, they may not be as big a threat as they are in the other versions of the game.

Fat chance. Apparently, when the Aussies say ‘fun’, they mean smashing the hell out of every opponent in sight. The stats paint a picture that is, by most yardsticks, alarming. The marauding Aussies will start out as favourites. However, the hope that the Englishmen and the Kiwis, with their experience and familiarity with the format, will put a halt to the juggernaut is possibly more than just a fool’s hope.

Batting

Australia

Top Australian Batsmen in the domestic Twenty20 circuit (Minimum qualification: five innings)

		HS	Ave	SR	100	50
Brad Hodge	Aus	106	46.58	142.36	1	11
Cameron White	Aus	141*	49.82	165.75	2	5
Andrew Symonds	Aus	112	47.33	201.41	1	4
Phil Jaques	Aus	92	31.13	131.63	0	6
David Hussey	Aus	86	28.34	139.11	0	4

A look at the table here breaks down for us the exact areas where Australia dominate. This, incidentally, translates to pretty much every area. Two figures stand out straightaway – Cameron White’s incredible innings of 141 (who, incidentally, stakes his claim in the Australian Test and ODI side as a Bowler) and Andrew Symonds’ strike rate of 201.41. Not surprisingly, this is the highest strike amongst all Twenty20 batsmen around the world with a reasonable number of games under their belts.

The fact that is mildly disturbing is that these two aren’t Australia’s best Twenty20 batsmen – Brad Hodge is, with a better overall record across all three parameters, and 11 fifties to boot. Between them, the top Australian batsmen have 30 fifties and 4 hundreds.

England

Top English Batsmen in the domestic Twenty20 circuit (Minimum qualification: five innings)

		HS	Ave	SR	100	50
Darren Maddy	Eng	111	33.63	134.52	1	10
Mal Loye	Eng	100	32.92	141.48	1	5
Owais Shah	Eng	79	35	145.53	0	6
Marcus Trescothick	Eng	76	39.5	147.38	0	4
Vikram Solanki	Eng	92	31.52	142.28	0	4

The list of the best players from England is possibly the most refined of them all, considering they have played the most games and therefore, there is maximum data to go by.

Once again, several new/ forgotten names make their way into the list. England ODI rejects Solanki and Owais Shah are at the top of the pack who have revelled in this format after giving lukewarm returns from their Tests and ODI’s.

Given the number of matches they have played, English batsmen have relatively fewer towers of individual brilliance, but what will aid them is their relative consistency. It will be difficult to find other teams with four of their top five batsmen with their strike rates in the 140’s.

New Zealand

Top New Zealand Batsmen in the domestic Twenty20 circuit (Minimum qualification: five innings)

		HS	Ave	SR	100	50
Scott Styris	NZ	73*	28.26	141.34	0	5
Chris Harris	NZ	100	96.66	153.43	1	1
Stephen Fleming	NZ	64*	23.59	125.2	0	5
Jamie How	NZ	74*	43.57	141.86	0	3
Brendon McCullum	NZ	63	29.5	175	0	2

Scott Styris had an excellent World Cup, and given the stats, it looks like he will be the key dealmaker in determining New Zealand’s fortunes in the Twenty20 Championship. His consistency across all formats and variants of the game is a reflection of his evolution from a bits-and-pieces player to one of the names that will hold its own niche in New Zealand’s cricket history.

A sign of how seriously the Kiwi International cricketers take their 20-over game is almost complete domination of the top batsmen’s list by their Test and ODI players. Also good to see is Chris Harris back, with what a bradmanesque average of 96.66, maintained over nine innings.

Bowling

Australia

Top Australian Bowlers in the domestic Twenty20 circuit (Minimum qualification: avg 3 overs per game, minimum five games played)

		Wkts	Ave	Econ	SR
Shaun Tait	Aus	9	12.88	6.69	11.55
Ashley Noffke	Aus	14	14.35	6.89	12.5
Ben Hilfenhaus	Aus	8	13.5	6.35	12.75
Brad Hogg	Aus	21	15.09	7.57	11.95
Shane Harwood	Aus	12	15.25	6.69	13.66

The consistency shown by the Englishmen with the bat is matched by the Australians with the ball. Four out of their five top bowlers have their economy rates between 6 and 7 and anything under 7 is very good for a Twenty20 game.

Unlike the general trend amongst other countries, Australia has more new names in their top bowlers list. A possible explanation for this is that their international bowling line up consists primarily of Glenn Mc’Grath, Lee and Shane Warne in Tests. Mc’Grath and Warne were nearing the ends of their careers and would have had barely enough fuel to run through the packed International schedule. Lee and Bracken haven’t played enough 20-over games to give any clear indication how they are likely to do in this format.

England

Top English Bowlers in the domestic Twenty20 circuit (Minimum qualification: avg 3 overs per game, minimum five games played)

		Wkts	Ave	Econ	SR
Paul Collingwood	Eng	9	13.66	8.2	10
Stuart Broad	Eng	18	15	5.86	15.33
Dimitri Mascarenhas	Eng	30	18.33	7.44	14.76
Chris Tremlett	Eng	19	19.68	7.05	16.73
Ryan Sidebottom	Eng	20	20.5	6.81	18.05

Interestingly, three out of the top five English domestic Twenty20 bowlers are in England’s current Test squad playing against England, with two of them making it to the playing eleven. This either reflects the versatility of English cricket’s top bowlers, or, closer to the truth, it shows that their top bowlers are out injured and they really are playing the tests with a second string bowling line up.

The truth, of course, is somewhere in between. England have an interesting mix of skill sets distributed between their bowlers. Collingwood has an excellent strike rate with a wicket every 10 balls, Broad has a fantastic economy rate of under 6 while Mascarenhas has a good 30 wicket haul.

However, this combination of strengths is accompanied by a polarization of their weaknesses. For eg, Collingwood is very expensive with an economy of 8.2. How England do will depend on which of these two sides turn up at the game.

New Zealand

Top New Zealand Bowlers in the domestic Twenty20 circuit (Minimum qualification: avg 3 overs per game, minimum five games played)

		Wkts	Ave	Econ	SR
Nathan McCullum	NZ	12	14.33	6.45	13.33
Jeetan Patel	NZ	9	16.77	6.2	16.22
Andre Adams	NZ	27	18.55	7.59	14.66
Chris Harris	NZ	10	21	6.56	19.2
Paul Hitchcock	NZ	13	22.07	6.86	19.3

A look the New Zealand’s top Twenty20 bowlers adds more weight to the theory that slow bowlers and dibbly-dobbly swing bowlers do better at keeping marauding batsmen in check.

While kid brother Brandon smashes it around the park at a strike rate of 180, Nathan does the exact opposite – keeps the likes of his brother in check with an economy rate of under 6.5, and a wicket every 13 balls with his slow off breaks. Chris Harris makes it to the top bowlers list as well, a throwback to the days when he bolstered New Zealand’s efforts with both, bat and ball, in International cricket. Wouldn't be too bad to see a repeat of that this September.

Click here to read Part I of this article

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