Cricket statistics
Cricket is a sport that generates a large number of statistics.
Statistics are recorded for each player during a match, and aggregated over a career. At the professional level, statistics for Test cricket, one-day internationals, and first-class cricket are recorded separately. However, since Test matches are a form of first-class cricket, a player's first-class statistics will include his Test match statistics - but not vice versa. Nowadays records are also maintained for List A and Twenty20 limited over matches. These matches are normally limited over games played domestically at the national level by leading Test nations. Since one-day internationals are a form of List A limited over matches, a player's List A statistics will include his ODI match statistics - but not vice versa.
General statistics
- Matches (Mat/M): Number of matches played. (also Played (Pl).)
- Catches (Ct): Number of catches taken.
- Stumpings (St): Number of stumpings made (as a wicket-keeper).
Batting statistics
- Innings (I): The number of innings in which the batsman actually batted.
- Not outs (NO): The number of times the batsman was not out at the conclusion of an innings they batted in.1
- Runs (R): The number of runs scored.
- Highest Score (HS/Best): The highest score ever made by the batsman.
- Batting Average (Ave): The total number of runs divided by the total number of innings in which the batsman was out. Ave = Runs/[I - NO] (also Avge or Avg.)
- Centuries (100): The number of innings in which the batsman scored one hundred runs or more.
- Half-centuries (50): The number of innings in which the batsman scored fifty to ninety-nine runs (centuries do not count as half-centuries as well).
- Balls Faced (BF): The total number of balls received, including no balls but not including wides.
- Strike Rate (SR): The number of runs scored per 100 balls faced. (SR = [100 * Runs]/BF)
- Run Rate (RR): Is the number of runs a batsman (or the batting side) scores in an over of 6 balls.
1 Batsmen who are not required to bat in a particular innings (due to victory or declaration) are not considered "Not Out" in that innings. Only the player/s who have taken to the crease and remained there until the completion of an innings, are marked "Not Out" on the scorecard. For statistical purposes, batsmen who retire due to injury or illness are also deemed not out [1], while batsmen who retire for any other reason are deemed out [2], except in exceptional circumstances (in 1983 Gordon Greenidge, not out on 154, departed a Test match to be with his daughter, who was ill and subsequently died - he was subsequently deemed not out [3] the only such decision in the history of Test cricket).
Bowling statistics
- Overs (O): The number of overs bowled.
- Balls (B): The number of balls bowled. Overs is more traditional, but balls is a more useful statistic because the number of balls per over has varied historically.
- Maiden Overs (M): The number of maiden overs (overs in which the bowler conceded zero runs) bowled.
- Runs (R): The number of runs conceded.
- Wickets (W): The number of wickets taken.
- Bowling analysis: A shorthand notation consisting of a bowler's Overs, Maidens, Runs conceded and Wickets taken (in that order), usually for a single innings but sometimes for other periods. For example, an analysis of 10-3-27-2 would indicate that the player bowled ten overs, of which three were maidens, conceded 27 runs and took two wickets.
- No balls (Nb): The number of no balls bowled.
- Wides (Wd): The number of wides bowled.
- Bowling Average (Ave): The average number of runs conceded per wicket. (Ave = Runs/W)
- Economy Rate (Econ): The average number of runs conceded per over. (Econ = Runs/overs bowled).
- Best Bowling (BB): The bowler's best bowling performance, defined as firstly the greatest number of wickets, secondly the fewest runs conceded for that number of wickets. (Thus, a performance of 7 for 102 is considered better than one of 6 for 19.)
- BBI stands for Best Bowling in Innings and only gives the score for one innings. (If only the BB rate is given it's considered the BBI rate.)
- BBM stands for Best Bowling in Match and gives the combined score over 2 or more innings in one match. (For ODI, Twenty20 and the like this score is equal to the BBI or BB.)
- Five wickets in an innings (5w): The number of innings in which the bowler took at least five wickets. Four wickets in an innings (4w), the number of innings in which the bowler took exactly four wickets, is sometimes recorded alongside five wickets, especially in limited overs cricket.
- Ten wickets in a match (10w): The number of matches in which the bowler took at least ten wickets; recorded for Tests and first-class matches only.
- Strike Rate (SR): The average number of balls bowled per wicket taken. (SR = Balls/W)
Analysis of cricket statistics
Although the analysis of statistics has not been performed in a large-scale "data mining" manner, professional cricket coaches are beginning to use computer records of ball-by-ball play to obtain more detailed statistical analysis of player performances than was previously possible. New blogs like Against the Spin, Pappu's Plane, and Cricket Analysis provide detailed analyses of cricket, similar to baseball's sabermetrics.
Dynamic and graphical statistics
The advent of saturation television coverage of professional cricket has provided an impetus to develop new and interesting forms of presenting statistical data to viewers. Television networks have thus invented several new ways of presenting statistics.
These include displaying two-dimensional and even three-dimensional plots of shot directions and distances on an overhead view of a cricket field, commonly referred to as a Wagon-Wheel[4]. Other forms include graphs of run scoring and wicket taking numbers plotted against time or balls bowled over a career or within a match. These graphics can be changed dynamically through a computer controlled back-end, as statistics evolve during a game. Commonly used graphics, especially during a limited-over match, are a worm graph[5], called so, for the worm-like appearance of the teams' score progression as the overs progress; and; a Manhattan Chart[6], called so, for its resemblance to the Manhattan skyline.
See also
External links