Plunket Shield update - Round 2

At the end of round 2, I thought it would be good to do an update on the progress of the tournament, and look at some trends that have emerged.

One thing that I thought I would focus on is how the runs have been scored, rather than just how many.

I looked at each innings and looked at the total runs from boundaries, and the total other runs (I called them run runs, but they include no balls and wides, as they were too hard to separate).

I plotted them on a graph, to see if there were any interesting patterns emerge.

There were a couple of things that I noticed. Auckland, Otago, Wellington and Canterbury have all had similar rates across the different innings that they've batted, while Northern Districts and Central Districts have had more variety in how they've accumulated their runs.

The triangles seemed to be higher up the chart on average, with all of them being above the median boundary rate, so I thought that I'd see if there was a correlation between the rates and the total competition points gathered in a match.

There is a reasonably strong relationship between the boundary rate and the points earned in a match, however, there's almost no relationship at all between the speed of accumulation of non-boundary runs and the points earned.

There is a theory that regularly rotating the strike makes it easier to survive a match, as it doesn't allow the bowlers to settle. I certainly know that I hated batsmen hitting singles off my bowling, and I remember Dale Steyn saying in a press conference something to the effect of "I don't mind dropped catches that much. Dropped catches happen. But I get really upset when a fielder lets a batsman get off strike when I had him under pressure."

Of the 7 innings played by a losing side, 5 of them had a run-runs rate below the median. That made me wonder if there was a pattern there. I looked at the final innings by teams that batted out a draw or lost, and looked to see if there was a difference in the rates for the teams that lost vs the teams that drew.

This graph isn't particularly meaningful at the moment, with only 5 innings to look at, but I intend on building this up as the season goes on.

Looking at it as individual points makes it more clear:

I've circled the point at the bottom, because that was an innings where Canterbury lost their last wicket with only 6 balls remaining, and so it was very close to being a saved match. Interestingly the teams that have scored a lot of boundaries have lost, but it is a very small sample to be drawing too many conclusions from.

The final table, with other information, looks like this:

This made me wonder which correlation was stronger, scoring rate with total points, or the traditional value of Net Average Runs Per Wicket (batting average minus bowling average).

The Net Average Runs Per Wicket seems to be a better predictor of success, but there is a clear relationship with the scoring rate also.

I'll be interested to see how these develop as the season progresses, but for now we seem to have a separation between the sides, with Auckland, Canterbury and Otago all needing to find another gear for the next round.

A quick look at the Anderson innings

Corey Anderson has been talked of as the big hope for New Zealand cricket for about 7 years.

He was signed to a national contract when he was still at school to make sure he didn't chose to play rugby, a sport in which he also excelled.

He was one of only a few New Zealand players to play first class cricket while still at school since the Second World War.

And yet so far in his international career he has failed to make a splash. Until today.

Today he broke Shahid Afridi's record for the fastest ODI hundred by smiting the West Indies for 131* off 47 balls. The first 101 of which came up off only 36 balls. I honestly thought Afridi's record would never be broken, but I guess you should never say never.

Here's the full 47 balls, for those of you who are interested:

1 . 4 1 . 1 6 1 . 2 1 4 6 1 6 6 . 6 . 6 1 . . 6 6 6 6 6 1 . 1 4 4 1 1 6 6 4 1 2 4 1 6 1 2 2 1

The first question that came to my mind was how does this innings compare to other great innings of the past.

I came up with a formula that I've used a number of times before to quantify how good a limited overs innings is. Basically the score is either squared if they are out or multiplied by 5 more than itself if they are not out, then divided by the balls faced. It rewards both big scores and quick scoring. It isn't perfect, as it doesn't take into account the state of the match, the quality of the opposition the importance of the game or the conditions that the match is played in. However, it is the best simple system that I know of, so it's the one that I use.

I put Anderson's innings into the formula and then compared it to all other big innings that were scored quickly. For this comparison I looked at every innings where a batsman scored more than 75 at a strike rate of more than 110.

Here are the top 20:

Player	Score	vs	Year	Modified	Viv Points
Corey J Anderson (NZ)	131* (47)	v West Indies	2014	379.06	144.6
SR Watson (Aus)	185* (96)	v Bangladesh	2011	366.15	139.7
MV Boucher (SA)	147* (68)	v Zimbabwe	2006	328.59	125.4
V Sehwag (India)	219 (149)	v West Indies	2011	321.89	122.8
SR Tendulkar (India)	200* (147)	v South Africa	2010	278.91	106.4
RG Sharma (India)	209 (158)	v Australia	2013	276.46	105.5
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	134 (65)	v Pakistan	1996	276.25	105.4
HH Gibbs (SA)	175 (111)	v Australia	2006	275.9	105.3
IVA Richards (WI)	181 (125)	v Sri Lanka	1987	262.09	100
Shahid Afridi (Pak)	102 (40)	v Sri Lanka	1996	260.1	99.2
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	194 (146)	v India	1997	257.78	98.4
Shahid Afridi (Pak)	124 (60)	v Bangladesh	2010	256.27	97.8
RT Ponting (Aus)	164 (105)	v South Africa	2006	256.15	97.7
Yuvraj Singh (India)	138* (78)	v England	2008	253	96.5
CK Coventry (Zim)	194* (156)	v Bangladesh	2009	247.47	94.4
L Vincent (NZ)	172 (120)	v Zimbabwe	2005	246.53	94.1
BB McCullum (NZ)	80* (28)	v Bangladesh	2007	242.86	92.7
Ijaz Ahmed (Pak)	139* (84)	v India	1997	238.29	90.9
MS Dhoni (India)	183* (145)	v Sri Lanka	2005	237.27	90.5
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	157 (104)	v Netherlands	2006	237.01	90.4

The first name on the list is Corey Anderson's. This innings overcame Watson's demolition of Bangladesh from 2011.

I've also included "Viv Points." This is a comparison with what many people still consider the greatest innings of all time, Viv Richards vs Sri Lanka in 1987. 100 points means that it was equivalent to Viv's innings.

Incidentally at 43rd on the list was the innings that happened at the other end, Jesse Ryder's 104 off 51 balls. It was also one of the greatest innings in ODI history, but it was completely overshadowed by the outstanding innings from Anderson.

It's still early days in Corey Anderson's career. There have been plenty of players who have had a very good day in an international match (You may notice Charles Coventry and Lou Vincent's name in the above list as evidence of this) but he has now shown that the potential that the selectors saw all those years ago when he was a teenager is closer to being realised.

There are lots of things that can be said about this innings. Poor bowling, small boundaries, big bats etc, but they can't take away from the incredible pace that Anderson managed to score at. It really was a sensational innings.

Warner in Perth

I have written before about how impressed I am with David Warner's running between wickets. I genuinely believe that he is one of the best at judging a run that I've seen.

Accordingly I was surprised to see that he had scored the same number of singles as boundaries in the second innings at Perth. I also heard the commentators describe it as a typical innings from Warner. It made me wonder if it actually was a typical innings.

First of all I looked at how Warner compared to other batsmen.  The method I chose to look at was to compare the boundary percentage (boundaries per delivery) and the activity rate (runs scored per non-boundary delivery). I filtered out any batsman who hadn't faced more than 650 deliveries since 2000, hadn't hit more than 50 fours and hadn't played in the past 2 years. I then put the rest of the batsmen on a single graph.

I divided up the batsmen into 4 categories. Aggressive, Block Bash, Pushers and Defensive. Close to the extremes of each group were players who have been reasonably successful.

In the defensive group are players like Rahul Dravid, Peter Fulton, Tino Mawoyo, Ed Cowan and JP Duminy.
Block Bash contains Angelo Mathews, Shane Watson, Chris Gayle and Yuvraj Singh.
Pushers includes Kane Williamson, Shiv Chanderpaul, Jonathan Trott and Thilan Samaraweera.
Aggressive include Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Darren Sammy and David Warner.

Warner has a higher activity rate than anyone in the list. But he also hits more boundaries than most batsmen.

 

Warner's activity rate for his career is 0.353 and his boundary rate is 9.3%. His innings in Perth lasted 140 deliveries. We would expect 13 boundaries, perhaps 12 fours and 1 six. Off the other 127 deliveries we would expect him to score 45 runs. Overall we would expect that he would be on about 99, rather than 112, so he scored slightly faster than we would expect, but the big difference was the make up of the innings.

Warner scored 80 runs in boundaries. That's about 40% more than we would normally expect him to get.

I used the same graph as above, to analyse Warner's other innings. I've included every innings where Warner has scored more than 30. I've drawn in lines to show which group the innings would have fit in.

We can see that Warner's innings does fit in with some of his other innings, but really is closer to the Block Bash quadrant than almost any of his other innings.

It was an interesting innings, because of the context and the opponent, but also because of the way that he scored the runs.

How good was Gayle's demolition of Pune

Chris Gayle, picture from RCB's Flickr stream

Chris Gayle played one of the most incredible innings on Tuesday night. His 175* (66) broke all sorts of records, both for the IPL and for t20 and cricket in general.

He is without question an incredible player, and is an absolute phenomenon in the IPL.

But how good was that innings in the context of the rest of the IPL? I heard some people say that it was meaningless, because the pitches and grounds in India are so easy to score runs on, and the bowlers in the IPL aren't up to much. I heartily disagree with both of these statements, but the only real way to look at the innings is to look at how others have gone in similar conditions.

To do this I'm using my modified batting index for each innings. This system rewards scoring runs, and being not out, but adjusts it for the number of deliveries faced. To put these scores in context an index of 100 would be 70*(49) or 60(33). It doesn't take into account the context of the match, so there can be some high scores that cost a team, and low ones that win a match, but I think it's better than just looking at the runs scored or the strike rate by themselves.

Here's the top 20 innings in the IPL so far this year:

Name	Score	For	Against	At	Index
CH Gayle	175* (66)	RCB	Warriors	Bangalore	464.02
V Kohli	93* (47)	RCB	Sunrisers	Bangalore	184.02
SR Watson	101 (61)	Royals	Super Kings	Chennai	158.95
V Sehwag	95* (57)	Daredevils	Mum Indians	Delhi	158.33
DA Miller	80* (41)	Kings XI	Warriors	Mohali	156.1
CH Gayle	92* (58)	RCB	Mum Indians	Bangalore	145.93
KD Karthik	86 (48)	Mum Indians	Daredevils	Mumbai	145.13
CH Gayle	85* (50)	RCB	KKR	Bangalore	144.5
MEK Hussey	88 (51)	Super Kings	Royals	Chennai	143.22
MEK Hussey	86* (54)	Super Kings	Kings XI	Mohali	136.96
RG Sharma	62* (32)	Mum Indians	Warriors	Mumbai	120.13
AB de Villiers	64 (32)	RCB	Super Kings	Chennai	118
RG Sharma	73 (43)	Mum Indians	Daredevils	Delhi	115.44
RG Sharma	74* (50)	Mum Indians	Daredevils	Mumbai	109.52
Mandeep Singh	77* (58)	Kings XI	Warriors	Mohali	102.22
AB de Villiers	31 (8)	RCB	Warriors	Bangalore	100.75
DA Warner	77 (56)	Daredevils	Royals	Delhi	99
LJ Wright	34 (10)	Warriors	Kings XI	Mohali	98.6
SPD Smith	39* (16)	Warriors	Super Kings	Chennai	95.06
EJG Morgan	47 (21)	KKR	Sunrisers	Kolkata	94

There's a significant distance between Gayle and the next best innings.

Another way to look at it is to look at what percentage of Gayle's index each innings got. Here's the top 10:

Name	Score	Gayle points
CH Gayle	175* (66)	100
V Kohli	93* (47)	40
SR Watson	101 (61)	34
V Sehwag	95* (57)	34
DA Miller	80* (41)	34
CH Gayle	92* (58)	31
KD Karthik	86 (48)	31
CH Gayle	85* (50)	31
MEK Hussey	88 (51)	31
MEK Hussey	86* (54)	30

How about how it stacks up against all T20 innings anywhere:

Name	Score	For	Against	At	Index
CH Gayle	175* (66)	RCB	Warriors	Bangalore	464.02
LP van der Westhuizen	145 (50)	Namibia	Kenya	Windhoek	406
GR Napier	152* (58)	Essex	Sussex	Chelmsford	398.34
BB McCullum	158* (73)	KKR	RCB	Bangalore	341.97
CL White	141* (70)	Somerset	Worcs	Worcester	284.01
A Symonds	112 (43)	Kent	Middlesex	Maidstone	278.7
M Vijay	127 (56)	Super Kings	Royals	Chennai	276.68
ST Jayasuriya	114* (48)	Mum Indians	Super Kings	Mumbai	270.75
SB Styris	100* (37)	Sussex	Gloucs	Hove	270.27
RE Levi	117* (51)	South Africa	New Zealand	Hamilton	268.41
CG Williams	116 (48)	Namibia	Scotland	Windhoek	268.25
CH Gayle	128* (62)	RCB	Daredevils	Delhi	264.26
DA Warner	135* (69)	NSW	Super Kings	Chennai	264.13
H Davids	112* (48)	Cape Cobras	Warriors	Cape Town	261.33
KJ O'Brien	119 (52)	Gloucs	Middlesex	Uxbridge	260.88
Ahmed Shehzad	113* (49)	Barisal	Rajshahi	Dhaka	260.59
A Symonds	117* (53)	Chargers	Royals	Hyderabad (Deccan)	258.28
YK Pathan	100 (37)	Royals	Mum Indians	Mumbai (BS)	256.76
CL White	116* (53)	Somerset	Gloucs	Taunton	253.89
AC Gilchrist	109* (47)	Chargers	Mum Indians	Mumbai	252.79

And then the "Gayle Points" for the top 20 innings of all time:

Name	Score	Gayle points
CH Gayle	175* (66)	100
LP van der Westhuizen	145 (50)	87
GR Napier	152* (58)	86
BB McCullum	158* (73)	74
CL White	141* (70)	61
A Symonds	112 (43)	60
M Vijay	127 (56)	60
ST Jayasuriya	114* (48)	58
SB Styris	100* (37)	58
RE Levi	117* (51)	58
CG Williams	116 (48)	58
CH Gayle	128* (62)	57
DA Warner	135* (69)	57
H Davids	112* (48)	56
KJ O'Brien	119 (52)	56
Ahmed Shehzad	113* (49)	56
A Symonds	117* (53)	56
YK Pathan	100 (37)	55
CL White	116* (53)	55
AC Gilchrist	109* (47)	54

How good was Gayle's innings? It was about 14% better than the next best innings ever. That's how good it was.

Mini-session Analysis 1st test SL Ban Galle 2013

Here is the final mini-session analysis for the first test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at Galle International Stadium, Galle, Sri Lanka

A mini-session is (normally) half a session, either between the start of the session and the drinks break or the drinks break and the end of the session. Occasionally a long session will have 3 mini-sessions where it will be broken up with 2 drinks breaks.

Mini-Session	Score	Winner
1-1a	Sri Lanka 60/0 off 11	Sri Lanka
1-1b	Sri Lanka 72/1 off 15	Sri Lanka
1-2a	Sri Lanka 55/1 off 15	Sri Lanka
1-2b	Sri Lanka 60/0 off 18	Sri Lanka
1-3a	Sri Lanka 64/1 off 17	Sri Lanka
1-3b	Sri Lanka 50/0 off 9.3	Sri Lanka
2-1a	Sri Lanka 32/1 off 17.3	Bangladesh
2-1b	Sri Lanka 68/0 off 15	Sri Lanka
2-2a	Sri Lanka 97/0 off 14	Sri Lanka
2-2b	Sri Lanka 12/0 off 3	Sri Lanka
	Bangladesh 23/1 off 9
2-3a	Bangladesh 42/1 off 15	draw
2-3b	Bangladesh 70/0 off 19	Bangladesh
3-1a	Bangladesh 49/2 off 14	Sri Lanka
3-1b	Bangladesh 40/0 off 16	Bangladesh
3-2a	Bangladesh 61/0 off 17	Bangladesh
3-2b	Bangladesh 45/0 off 16	Bangladesh
3-3a	Bangladesh 56/0 off 18	Bangladesh
3-3b	Bangladesh 52/0 off 12	Bangladesh
4-1a	Bangladesh 45/1 off 15	draw
4-1b	Bangladesh 63/0 off 15	Bangladesh
4-2a	Bangladesh 43/2 off 14	Sri Lanka
4-2b	Bangladesh 49/3 off 16	Sri Lanka
4-3a	Sri Lanka 44/1 off 12	Sri Lanka
4-3b	Sri Lanka 72/0 off 18	Sri Lanka
5-1a	Sri Lanka 51/0 off 14	Sri Lanka
5-1b	Sri Lanka 63/0 off 16	Sri Lanka
5-2a	Sri Lanka 53/2 off 16	Bangladesh
5-2b	Sri Lanka 52/1 off 7	draw
5-3a	Bangladesh 51/1 off 15	Bangladesh

Final update, click here
Sri Lanka take the mini-session count 16 - 10

First drinks, Day 1: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 1-0

Sri Lanka have started off with a hiss and a roar. Dilshan is treating it almost like a T20 match. This could get messy. - Mykuhl

Lunch, Day 1: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 2-0

A wicket fell, 72 runs were scored, but for me the highlight was when Karunaratne came back out at the fall of the first wicket. I really enjoy watching him bat, and wasn't very happy with the idea of him not being able to play. - Mykuhl

Middle drinks, Day 1: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 3-0

I have watched an entire ODI series where there was not a single innings that went at this run rate. Sri Lanka going at slightly more than a run a minute, despite Bangladesh bowling less than 14 overs per hour. - Mykuhl

Stumps, Day 1: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 6-0

Sri Lanka roll on. They have scored at over 4 an over, and more than a run a minute. Sangakkara was immense, as usual. When he's in Sri Lanka he is just outstanding. - Mykuhl

First drinks, Day 2: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 6-1

A good hour for Bangladesh, but it could have been a very good hour as Chandimal was dropped twice. How costly could that be. He's not a batsman that you really want to give extra chances to as he is really capable of punishing teams. - Mykuhl

Lunch, Day 2: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 7-1

Normal service resumes. Bangladesh spend another hour chasing leather. It might be a reflection of the quality of the bowling and batting, but this pitch doesn't seem to have offered a fair enough contest between bat and ball. With Sri Lanka having Eranga in their team and Bangladesh's batting being dominated by right handers, it might have been more sensible for the groundsman to have left some more grass on the wicket. - Mykuhl

Middle drinks, Day 2: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 8-1

It seemed like a bad idea at the time to drop Chandimal. It now seems like a very, very bad idea. Sri Lanka are giving the Bangladeshi bowlers what some people pay a dominatrix a lot of money for. - Mykuhl

Tea, Day 2: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 9-1

The declaration was probably slightly earlier than normal, but 570 runs is probably going to be enough. Bangladesh are going to have to bat very well here. They are already one down, and it was Eranga that struck. He seems to have added something to his bowling in this innings, bowling a little quicker, and getting some to move in, rather than out. He may well be turning into a genuinely classy test opening bowler. Hopefully the Sri Lankan groundsmen don't work him into the ground by giving him too many mud pitches to bowl on. - Mykuhl

Final drinks, Day 2: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 9-1

It would have been Bangladesh's hour if it wasn't for the last ball where Anamul Haque was deceived by a Mendis googly. As a bowler who never quite had enough control to rely on a stock delivery, and so bowled a number of variations, I do like it when Mendis gets a wicket, especially when it's with a googly. The batsman sets up for the off break, notices that the ball's actually been delivered with a leg-break action, so adjusts, only for it to come in anyway. It's a brilliant double cross by the bowler. However, it only works if the batsman is watching closely, but not quite closely enough. - Mykuhl

Stumps, Day 2: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 9-2

An interesting hour there. Ashraful was going for it in order to get through to his fifty. He had 54 off 68 balls, but then went into his shell, and actually started playing like a test batsman who wanted to see out the day. He scored only 11 runs off the last 40 balls. If he continues to bat like a batsman, and has some success it might actually (finally) be the making of him. - Mykuhl

First drinks, Day 3: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 10-2

When Mahmadullah played as a bowler, the thing that really impressed me was how serious he was about his batting. He approached it like a real batsman, waiting for the right ball to hit, knowing his areas. It was something that most of the Bangladeshi batsmen couldn't really be accused of. Now that he's primarily playing as a batsman he comes down the track and has a wild heave fifth ball. I guess if he was going to bat like a batsman when he was a bowler, he probably felt he could bat like a bowler now that he is a batsman. - Mykuhl

Lunch, Day 3: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 10-3

Mohammad Ashraful is playing the sort of innings that we've been waiting to see. Not a swashbuckling run-a-minute flight of fancy, but a proper innings where he punishes the bad balls, and accumulates when the ball is in his area. It's all rather exciting, even if it has 45 test after he should have. I guess it's better late than never. Hopefully this innings informs how he plays from now on. - Mykuhl

Middle drinks, Day 3: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 10-4

This is good cricket from Bangladesh. They are fighting hard. Mushfiqur Rahim is a real fighter with the bat. In his last 10 innings this is the 7th time he's made it past 35. He's not prepared to throw his wicket away. - Mykuhl

Tea, Day 3: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 10-5

Sri Lanka are not bowling particularly badly. They have had some bad luck, with a number of balls going past the edge. While this partnership is fantastic, it still feels like a devastating collapse is possible any second now. - Mykuhl

Stumps, Day 3: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 10-7

This is now Bangladesh's highest partnership, Ashraful has the highest score by any Bangladeshi batsman, and Mushfiqur Rahim is only 6 runs off second spot. Bangladesh are now in a position where they might even be able to consider declaring behind, to make Sri Lanka give them a target. They wouldn't want to do that until they have some more runs on the board, and have used up some time, but an attacking option like that may be a very good one for their future. - Mykuhl

Stumps, Day 4: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 14-8

Bangladesh managed to bat themselves into what looks like a no-lose position. Unfortunately it's also probably a no win position also. Perhaps the decision of the board to offer draw bonuses was a good one. Suddenly there is an incentive for their players to play for time, and, in putting a value on their wicket, they started to look like a proper test team. They still have a lot to thank the groundsman for, but they have folded on good batting tracks in the past, so it's good to see them actually applying themselves. - Mykuhl

First drinks, Day 5: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 15-8

Another hour of bowlers getting dealt to. It's not like the Sri Lankan batsmen are slogging, or going particularly crazily. It's just that they are scoring 30% faster than normal test batsmen would, and doing it without many risks. - Mykuhl

Lunch, Day 5: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 16-8

Another relentless hour of Sri Lanka batting. They have now scored 800 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. To put that in context, Bangladesh just had their best ever innings, and scored 638 runs for 10 wickets. If Sri Lanka keep batitng at this rate for another 14 overs then declare, Bangladesh would need to get 222 runs off 44 overs. Bangldesh have a history of crumbling in run chases, so that might be an option that Mathews might consider. Sometimes you need to use some bait if you want to catch a fish. - Mykuhl

Tea, Day 5: Sri Lanka lead the mini-session count 16-9

Sri Lanka batted well in this match, but they have batted the result out of contention. Baring a miracle new ball spell from Kulasekera and Eranga, Bangladesh will hold on for a draw, but they are not going to chase this target. - Mykuhl

End of the match, Day 5: Sri Lanka take the mini-session count 16-10, but the match is drawn.

Bangladesh get a creditable draw. Sri Lanka could have made a game of it by declaring at drinks. However if they wanted to do that they should have come out and really attacked the bowling during that hour between lunch and drinks.

There's no dishonour in the draw for either team, but there are questions over both teams heading into the next match. Can Sri Lanka improve their execution, take their missed chances and find a way through the Bangladesh line-up? For Bangladesh: can they back up one good performance with another?

Whatever happens, I hope the groundsman is going to prepare a pitch with some life in it at Premadasa. - Mykuhl

The Sehwag and Watson show

This week has witnessed a quite remarkable innings. Sehwag has achieved a score of 214 in a One Day International. That's quite a lot of runs. And scored at a good clip too. So how does it compare to other scores this year?

Well obviously he scored more than everybody else, but the nature of ODI's is that just scoring runs is not the only thing. As well as wickets, deliveries are also a vital resource. One way that I like to check on the effective score is to square the runs scored and divide by the deliveries faced. This way someone that scores faster than a run a ball gets benefit, while someone that scores slower gets their score reduced. This allows us to compare innings like 114 off 121 vs 89 off 75. Which is the most effective. 114 x 114 / 121 = 107.40 while 89 x 89 / 75 = 105.61 so the 114 is better, but only a little bit. While this method is not perfect, I think it is quite easy to understand, and is an interesting metric for analysing scores.

So here are the top 20 scores this year, sorted by this method:

Name	Runs	Balls		Effective score
SR Watson (Aus)	185*	96	v Bangladesh at Dhaka	356.51
V Sehwag (India)	219	149	v West Indies at Indore	321.89
V Sehwag (India)	175	140	v Bangladesh at Dhaka	218.75
KJ O'Brien (Ire)	113	63	v England at Bangalore	202.68
AB de Villiers (SA)	134	98	v Netherlands at Mohali	183.22
SR Watson (Aus)	161*	150	v England at Melbourne	172.81
AJ Strauss (Eng)	158	145	v India at Bangalore	172.17
Shahid Afridi (Pak)	65	25	v New Zealand at Christchurch	169.00
KA Pollard (WI)	94	55	v Ireland at Mohali	160.65
TM Dilshan (SL)	144	131	v Zimbabwe at Pallekele	158.29
YK Pathan (India)	105	70	v South Africa at Centurion	157.50
IJL Trott (Eng)	137	126	v Australia at Sydney	148.96
KS Williamson (NZ)	100*	69	v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo	144.93
PR Stirling (Ire)	101	72	v Netherlands at Kolkata	141.68
LRPL Taylor (NZ)	131*	124	v Pakistan at Pallekele	138.40
DPMD Jayawardene (SL)	144	150	v England at Leeds	138.24
BRM Taylor (Zim)	128*	120	v New Zealand at Harare	136.53
RD Berrington (Scot)	56	23	v Ireland at Edinburgh	136.35
PR Stirling (Ire)	113	95	v Scotland at Edinburgh	134.41
KA Pollard (WI)	60	27	v Netherlands at Delhi	133.33

Watson, Sehwag, Pollard and Stirling all have two entries on the list. Interestingly Pollard's century is not there, but two fifties are. Unsurprisingly most of the scores are at grounds that have a history of being batsmen friendly, but Jayawardene's innings was at Heddingly, which has the opposite reputation, so it is to be singled out as being quite an extraordinary innings. The Williamson knock was one that probably passed most people by, but the fascinating thing about that one was the he was on 93 when he faced the final ball of the match. He managed to hit a no ball for 4 and then hit the bonus delivery for 3.