Individual match approach to Bowling performance measures in cricket

Abstract

Match conditions can play a significant role in player performances in a cricket match. If the pitch is in a good condition, the batsmen can achieve good scores, making it difficult for the bowlers. In the case of an uneven pitch or adverse weather conditions, the bowlers may have the upper hand. In order to measure bowlers’ performances in a fair way, it is desirable that the match conditions should be taken into account in the calculation of bowling performance measures. The purpose of this study was to provide a fair method to select the best bowler of a series or tournament. This is achieved by means of the individual match approach, which is introduced in the present study. Its essence is to scale the number of runs conceded by a bowler down when the batting conditions are favourable and to scale them up when batting conditions are adverse. The measure proposed is used to rank the bowlers in the ICC World Twenty20 series of 2010. The use of these adjusted runs can have a significant effect on the ranking of bowlers compared to the situation where the original number of runs is used in the same measure.

Keywords: Bowling performance; Cricket; Cricket pitch; Wicket weights

South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, 2012, 34(2): 95-103