Blog Posts by Impact Index

By Jatin Thakkar and Soham Sarkhel


India 304/3; Sri Lanka 254 (India won by 50 runs)

The scorecard of the match is here.

The distance between Hobart and Mirpur seemed to have had no effect on the fate of the Sri Lankan team as it was their old nemeses again in the form of Gambhir-Kohli who ran the Lankan bowling attack ragged and managed to secure a 50-run win alongside a bowling performance from Pathan for their team in both the teams’ inaugural Asia Cup match.

Observations:

India’s supremacy in the match can be understood by the fact that all the three highest Impact performances generated in the match came from Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan.

Virat Kohli, who is the second highest ODI impact batsman for India (all time) only behind Tendulkar, was again the highest Impact performer of the match with a Match IMPACT of 5.40*. He was the highest impact player in India’s last match against Sri Lanka at Hobart as well and this just goes on to show the purple patch he has hit of Read More »from Kohli and Gambhir torment Lanka, again

By Jatin Thakkar and Soham Sarkhel


Pakistan 262/8; Bangladesh 241 (Pakistan won by 21 runs)

The scorecard of the match is here.

Three big all-round efforts characterised this match – 2 from Pakistan, 1 from Bangladesh (which is what clinched it finally). Bangladesh’s solo star (the most expected name – their greatest ODI player in history) could not quite finish the match. Bangladesh will need to find other stars too if they are to compete in this tournament.

The match through Impact Index.

Observations:
Mohammed Hafeez was rightly declared the man of the match as he had the highest Match Impact (7.45*). Not only did he have the highest overall impact, his individual Batting (4.22) and Bowling Impact (3.23) were also the highest in the entire match.

Hafeez’s knock of 89 runs, which included an opening stand of 135 runs (Partnership Building Impact) with Jamshed, gave the Pakistanis a solid start upfront. While bowling, Hafeez took two wickets in the space of two deliveries to push the

Read More »from All-rounders make merry as Pakistan beat Bangladesh

By Jatin Thakkar and Soham Sarkhel

In a series that went up and down, Australia’s continuous dominance over India (and despite periodic caginess against Sri Lanka) earned them their first ODI Tri-Series win in Australia after a gap of six years since it became rechristened as the CB Series. Australia’s win can be heralded as their answer to the growing allusions of their fading supremacy in world cricket. Their perfect mix of youth and experience brought in boldness and composure in equal measure, and helped them vanquish the two World Cup finalists.

Here is a review of the series through the prism of Impact Index.

Observations:

Shane Watson is the 20th-highest impact player in ODI history. There are just 3 players in ODI cricket today who have had a higher impact than him - Brett Lee, Jacques Kallis and MS Dhoni. True to this billing, Watson was the highest impact player of the series with his Series IMPACT of 4.75 (with an all-round IMPACT of over 1 in both batting and bowling). His

Read More »from Why Australia won the CB series

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

It is so typical of the man. He said nothing when demands for his retirement (and Laxman’s) grew louder in the second half of January 2012. Once the third Perth Test was lost, the series decided, it was time. All meaning drawn out of further participation…but he still said nothing. At Adelaide, during the final Test, on 27th January, as Rahul Dravid walked back to the pavilion, out for the second time in the match, this time for 25, team score at 100, those who paid attention might have felt a charge at the coincidence of these round numbers…they would have intuitively known that the Golden Age of Indian cricket was being finally rounded off.

Still, he said nothing. He flew back to India quietly, not willing to detract from the impact of the main narrative of the series – even though it was such a negative one (probably precisely because it was so negative). He said nothing as the ODI series commenced, nothing even when India got knocked out. It is

Read More »from The big picture man

Scores: Australia 231; Sri Lanka 215 (Australia won by 16 runs)

Everything seemed in place for Sri Lanka to win a series for the first time in Australia. They got a familiar pitch they’d be pleased to play on at home; the home crowds mostly stayed away while their own loyal non-resident fans showed up; they won the toss and got their preferred option of chasing; most of all, despite an alarming start, the bowling and fielding came off for the most part, reducing Australia to a gettable score – all of it vaguely reminiscent of the 1996 World Cup final.

But, whereas that 1996 batting order was formidable for its maturity under pressure, this one, despite three names that inspire almost similar awe on a career level, failed to combine effectively yet again.

Here is the match through the IMPACT prism.

Observations:

Three outstanding all-round efforts from Australia (two from primarily bowlers) ultimately could not be combated by one outstanding batting effort and two fine bowling

Read More »from Batsmen fail Sri Lanka at crunch-time

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

Australia 271/6; Sri Lanka 274/2 (Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets)

The scorecard of the match is here.

On one of those pitches (which are alarmingly becoming common in international cricket) where it is difficult to set a target, Australia faltered by being overly cautious in the initial stages despite having wickets in hand. On what was at least a 310-pitch, Australia were blissfully 40 runs short, and eventually received one of the biggest hidings of this CB Series.

Here is the match through the IMPACT lens.

Observations:

Tillakratne Dilshan produced one of the most outstanding performances of his career – at one of the most important occasions in Sri Lankan cricket history. In the only all-round performance of the match, he first gave Sri Lanka early momentum with the ball with an early wicket and a tight, economical performance at the top (1 for 40 in 10 overs, IMPACT 1.94). Then, he came right back and led Sri Lanka’s batting reply (106 off 119 balls, Read More »from Dilshan destroys Australia

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

After a hard-fought T20 series, which ended in a shocking choke by the Kiwis from a winning position in the decider, the ODI series promised an interesting set of matches. The first match began well for New Zealand, as they scored 253 and had South Africa teetering at 35 for 3. But some individual brilliance from AB de Villiers’ got them out of that hole however, and this time that appeared to be the defining blow. For the rest of the series, for the most part, South Africa called the shots quite comprehensively.
 
Here is an overview of the series through the Impact Index lens.

Observations:

New Zealand captain and wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum was interestingly the highest-impact player in the series. His Batting IMPACT of 3.32 in the series (for his 56, 85 and 47) was second only to Amla’s. McCullum absorbed considerable pressure in all the 3 matches as a batsman (which also gave him the highest Pressure IMPACT amongst all New Zealand batsmen). He Read More »from Despite highest impact player, New Zealand receives a pasting

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

Australia 321/6; Sri Lanka 306 (Australia won by 15 runs)

The scorecard of the match is here.


As Sri Lanka’s no. 8 and 9 began to explode in the latter stages of the match, with no. 6 anchoring the other end (while scoring himself), the first final came alive and demonstrated the most important quality that this Sri Lankan team has, or certainly has had more than the other two sides in this tournament – they play as a team. That is the reason why this team can never be written-off, despite losing this match. Australia played this match very well as a team too, which is why they eventually won, despite riding on the back of one outstanding performance.

Here is the match through the IMPACT lens.

Observations:
David Warner’s overbearing innings (163 off 157, IMPACT 6.44) seemed to have won the match for the Australians at the half-way stage. He was in the middle while all of Australia’s 321 runs got scored on the sort of pitch where the side batting first

Read More »from Kulasekara’s heroics almost negates Warner’s dominance