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Written by HW Squadstats
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Monday, 24 September 2007 |
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There have been a few occasions in the course of this tournament where the opposition bowlers have ran through the top order of the Indian and Pakistani batting line ups, but have been blown away by landmines even as they were looking to run through the rest of the batsmen. The Landmines-in-Chief that have wrecked bowlers and turned matches around for both the countries are Yuvraj Singh and Misbah-Ul-Haq.
Both batsmen represent very decisive and useful sledgehammers in the middle order for their respective sides, and play the important role of building on the efforts of the top order and taking the batting side's total into orbit. Which way their performance swings today could have a key role in determining which side of the border the trophy lands in.
The Striking difference
Somewhat predictably, both batsmen are on par as far their averages are concerned, with Yuvraj at 33.5, and Misbah Ul Haq at 26. The key difference comes when you look at the strike rate.
Yuvraj's back-to-back blockbuster knocks against England and Australia have meant that he swings miles above Misbah-Ul-Haq as far as strike rate is concerned, with Yuvraj at 235.09 and Misbah at 130.82. A significant factor here is the difference this makes to India and Pakistan's respective team strike rates.
India scores at a strike rate of 129.61, while Pakistan does at 126.13. This means that Yuvraj adds a phenomenal 105.47 points to India's strike rate, whereas Misbah hovers pretty much in and around Pakistan's average team strike rate. The implication of this is that while both batsmen are dangerous in their own right and can cause significant damage, Yuvraj's wicket will be of a far greater value to Pakistan, than Misbah-Ul-Haq's will be to India.
This seems to lead on to a somewhat complicated and unusual scenario where Yuvraj's phenomenal striking has put India in a sort of a treadmill, where they have to keep running to stay in the same spot. In essence, for India to post a total big enough to bat Pakistan out of the match, they will need Yuvraj to do an encore of his previous two games, failing which they will need someone else to fire as hard, and no one else (not just in India, but through the tournament, broadly) has, so far, shown the potential to do that. So, while India has a decent strike rate of 129, much of it is built through Yuvraj's big innings, and it is quite unreasonable to expect a third of that sort.
Yuvraj has set himself up on a pedestal so high that it will be difficult to maintain that, and India will need to rest of the batsmen to come to the party if they are to give themselves a serious chance.
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that is not only agame it's a passion for his sappoters,he is tom duud 
