First win for Sri Lanka

Thisara Perera bizarrely declared Player of the Match over Farveez Maharoof.

By | Yahoo! Cricket – Fri 17 Feb, 2012 6:05 PM IST


By Jatin Thakkar and Jaideep Varma

Australia 158; Sri Lanka 152/2 (Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets under D/L Method)

The scorecard of the match is here.

Sri Lanka delivered a Team Bowling IMPACT of 4.31 in the first innings as compared to Australia's Team Batting IMPACT 0.98 to seal the match. Sri Lanka's batting was a mere formality as they won the match with almost 17 overs and 8 wickets to spare.

All figures between 0 and 5 unless otherwise mentioned.

Sri Lanka:


Australia:


*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:

Farveez Maharoof delivered the highest-impact performance in the match (Match IMPACT 8.36*) followed by Thisara Perera (6.25*) and Rangana Herath (4.18) to finish the match in the first innings itself. Maharoof bowled very tightly (Economy IMPACT) to give away just 18 runs in his 8 overs and took 2 wickets besides having taken two catches.

However, Perera was ridiculously declared the player of the match as even his figures of 2 wickets for 29 runs in 7 overs and his involvement in two run-outs had a overall Match IMPACT of 6.25* - one of which was spectacular - a good example of how such feats are romantically adjudged superior in an overall context so as to cloud the real picture. Maharoof's superior economy rate had a greater impact on the match - it can be seen with the naked eye.

This is the third time in 6 matches that the Player of the Match award has not gone to player with highest Match IMPACT.

David Hussey gave the highest-impact Batting performance in the match (Batting IMPACT 3.12). His 58 runs in 64 balls came under pressure at 60-4 which was quickly reduced to 104-8 (Pressure IMPACT) to take the score to 153-9 before he lost his wicket in the 39th over.

None of remaining Australian batsmen managed to have a Batting IMPACT of 1 or more in the match while all the Sri Lankan bowlers managed to cross a Bowling IMPACT of 1 or more.

Except for Mathews and Malinga to a lesser extent, all the other Sri Lankan bowlers bowled very tightly to have an Economy IMPACT in the match whereas all the bowlers for Australia, except McKay, had a negative Economy IMPACT in the match, as the Sri Lankan batsmen aimed for a bonus point by scoring fast.

Daniel Christian was the only player to have no impact in the match.

Dilshan (45 in 41 balls) and Jayawardena (unbeaten 65 in 61 balls) garnered much lower Batting IMPACT numbers than they would have if this match had not been reduced to an easy chase. The Sri Lankan bowlers won this game.

For more information, go to www.impactindexcricket.com

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