T20 Bowling: A look after the Mendis special

After 3 years, Ajanta Mendis at last got
the ball to do the talking, albeit only in a T20 game. In one match, he
re-wrote most of the bowling records. So I thought it is time to look at the
T20 bowling scene. Readers would do well to remember that this refers only to T20
Internationals and not IPL and related matches, which, in my opinion, are not
International matches.

First the bread and butter table of T20
wickets captured. Only those who have captured 25 wickets or more are included.
The table is dominated by Pakistan,
who have the first three bowlers and Sri Lanka, who have the next two
bowlers. Shahid Afridi is the only bowler to capture 50 wickets or more. A
total of 18 bowlers have achieved the mark of 25 T20 wickets. 

However, this tells only one side of the
story. Merely capturing wickets is not enough, especially in T20 matches. In
Test matches wickets are paramount but in T20 matches other factors come into
play. These are bowling averages, bowling strike rates and RpO values.

In the next table, I have presented these
key factors from the best bowler's point of view, as an index value.

Mendis has the best average in this group,
an outstanding 10.90. He is ahead of the next best bowler by a whopping 21% and
the third placed bowler by 30%. That is almost Bradmanesque. And look how far
ahead of Mills he is, a matter of 61%. Truly, Mendis is the best T20 bowler, by
a mile.

Now the bowling strike rate (Balls per
wicket) measure. Mendis captures a wicket every 2 overs. That is an average of
2 wickets per match, which would be great in ODI matches. Sammy and Swann also
have good figures.

Now the last measure, Runs per over.
Despite being a spinner, Mendis concedes fewer than 6 runs per over. It is only
in this measure that there is a bowler better than Mendis. Surprisingly,
another spinner, Daniel Vettori of New Zealand. Vettori conceded only
5.36 runs per over and has a decent average. Who is the third bowler? Another
spinner, of course, Shahid Afridi. Did I hear someone say that spinners are a
liability in T20 matches?