Blog Posts by Impact Index

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

After two consecutive whitewashes in different formats (bizarrely by both teams), the third series at last provided an even contest between the two sides, complete with thrilling decider. And some of the biggest players in both sides had their say.

Here is an overview of the series through the Impact Index lens.

Observations:

KP Pietersen is the world’s highest impact T20 batsman, bar none. Both in T20 internationals and in domestic tournaments, no one has had a greater impact with the bat than he has in the format’s history (whatever little of it there may be).

It was therefore fitting that he took charge of this series – he was easily its highest impact batsman, and player. His series-defining performance in the deciding match (62 off 52, IMPACT 6.40) was the highest-impact batting performance in that game as well as the entire series. As also befits his status as the batsman with the lowest rate of failure (failing to register an IMPACT of even 1 in

Read More »from World’s best T20 batsman wins series for England

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

Scores: Sri Lanka 320/4; India 321/3 (India won by 7 wickets with 13.4 overs to spare)

1998 is unanimously considered the year Sachin Tendulkar touched his peak. And the most memorable moment in that period was Tendulkar’s 141 against Australia when India needed a stiff target to qualify for the tournament final (knocking out New Zealand). India just about managed to do that (though they lost the match) and then went on to win the tournament.

Virat Kohli’s finest ODI innings (and India’s best team batting performance after the World Cup final) put him in that hallowed league today – as he produced a performance that could be remembered years from now, if India can finish this tournament like that one.

This is the match seen through the Impact Index prism.

India:

Sri Lanka:

Observations:

Three days ago, we had put up a piece that seemed to surprise a few people, about how Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir were India’s highest impact chasers in its ODI history

Read More »from 2012's Kohli reminiscent of 1998’s Tendulkar

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

Australia 252/9; India 165 (Australia won by 87 runs)

The scorecard of the match is here.

India undid the good work that their bowlers did for them when Australia batted first and soundly repeated their recognizable theme of the Australian summer - resounding failure with the bat. It was only during the 7-over (from the 8th over to the 16th), 44-run stay from familiar quarters - also the biggest partnership of the innings, when India actually looked on even keel, perhaps even ahead. But it all ended abjectly, pusillanimously...familiarly.

This is the match seen through the Impact Index prism.

Australia

India

Observations:

David Warner, with an innings of 66 in 68 balls, within the context of this match, was easily the highest impact player of the match. He absorbed the pressure of 57 for 3 and was out at 107 (in the 21st over) and was largely responsible for there being no run-rate pressure on the Australians.  His was the highest impact batting performance

Read More »from Indian batting self-destructs again

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

April 2, 2011. Mumbai. The final of the Cricket World Cup. Lasith Malinga and all his Sri Lankan teammates exulted as Sachin Tendulkar was caught behind and India was reduced to 31 for 2, both star openers gone. A nerve-tingling, nervous moment for most Indian fans, who felt their chance of winning the World Cup after 28 years was in serious jeopardy.

They were wrong.

They had no way of knowing that the five batsmen India still had left actually had better credentials of delivering in those circumstances than both Sehwag and Tendulkar. To its own surprise, Impact Index discovered that Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni and Raina - all - had a higher Chasing IMPACT than the two openers under pressure situations, and also Finishing IMPACT (chasing and staying not out).  What followed thereafter is the stuff of history of course, but it is interesting to note how consistently the core of this Indian ODI team has maintained this remarkable quality.

Chasing

Read More »from Kohli and Gambhir – India’s real chasing giants

By Jatin Thakkar and Soham Sarkhel

Australia 280/6; Sri Lanka 283/7 (Sri Lanka won by 3 wickets)

The scorecard of the match is here.

Despite the fact that the highest impact batting and bowling performances in the match came from Australians (Peter Forrest and Daniel Christian), their team still eventually ended up on the losing side. Overall, Sri Lanka had a Team IMPACT of 1.74 as compared to Australia’s 1.63 in this match.

All figures between 0 and 5 unless otherwise mentioned.


SRI LANKA

AUSTRALIA

Observations:

Mahela Jayawardene deservedly got the Man of the match award for his overall Match Impact of 4.64. He was closely followed by Peter Forrest (4.35) and Michael Clarke (3.86) in the overall Match Impact column.
 
Jayawardene led the Sri Lankan chase (Chasing Impact) with his attacking knock of 85 off 81 balls and had the second highest Batting Impact in the match (3.89).

Earlier in the day Peter Forrest notched up his maiden international century and also registered the highest Batting Read More »from All round Lanka outshine Aussies, top the points table

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

An interesting T20 series ended dramatically as South Africa reversed a cricketing cliché. As the series headed to a climax where chasing looked like the only answer to winning these matches, New Zealand, from a position where they needed 24 runs in 28 balls with 7 wickets in hand, choked up as South Africa snatched victory from nowhere.

Here is an overview of the series through the Impact Index lens.

Observations:

JP Duminy was the highest-impact player in the series. His batting performance of 38 runs in just 20 balls followed by a bowling spell where he gave away just 9 runs in 2 overs (increasing the required run rate from 6.3 to 7.2) had a Match IMPACT of 4.16 in the deciding T20I (which was the highest in the match for South Africa - and not Botha's bowling performance which got him the Man-of-the-Match for the drama that unfolded at the end) and therefore earned him Series Defining status as South Africa won the T20I series 2-1 with this match.

Read More »from New Zealand does a South Africa

By Jaideep Varma and Jatin Thakkar

It is not often when two teams whitewash each other in two different formats. If anything, England would have expected to prevail in the Tests and perhaps find a considerable struggle in ODIs given their recent record in that format in the subcontinent. But exactly the opposite happened in the UAE as after their 0-3 thrashing in the Tests, England hammered Pakistan 4-0 in the ODIs.

More oddities were in store. In conditions universally considered batting-friendly, 260 was the highest team score in the series. Even more surprisingly, the best bowler was not a spinner.

Here are the highest impact players of the series.

Only players who played 2 or more matches in the Series considered for this table.

All IMPACT numbers between 0 and 5.

Observations:

It has been one of the game's oldest blind spots - the batsman's heroic feats overshadowing equivalent or greater feats by the bowler's in the same space. Steven Finn's performances in this series have suffered

Read More »from The Finn-Cook-Pietersen show

By Jatin Thakkar and Soham Sarkhel

Sri Lanka 289/6; India 238 (Sri Lanka won by 51 runs)

The scorecard of the match is here.

Overall, Sri Lanka had a Team IMPACT of 2.28 as compared to India's 1.61 in this match. Sri Lanka with this win moved over India in the points table. However Irfan Pathan's all-round impact performance for India ensured that they didn't get the crucial bonus point.

All figures between 0 and 5 unless otherwise mentioned.

Sri Lanka:

India:

*Figures in the brackets represent the players' Match IMPACT when it is not restricted between 0 and 5, as it is in a career context.

Observations:

Even though Thisara Perera delivered the highest impact performance (Match IMPACT 5.61*) Nuwan Kulasekara got the man of the match award for his figures of 9-0-42-3 (Match IMPACT 4.92). Perhaps the jury though that taking the crucial wickets of Tendulkar and Gambhir upfront made him worthy for the award. But they did not factor in Perera's contribution in finishing the match off for Sri Read More »from Perera, Kulasekara overpower India