Sometimes more is less...

2005 was a bumper year for teams batting first in ODIs. Not only did they win over 55% of the games, 21 times they managed to score 300 or more (11 times going on to score more than 325). This is the highest both in terms of numbers and % of games played (21 of 107) over the years. The previous highest was in 2002 when 19 teams scored 300+ in 147 games...



Wow, you will say, this is great. It means that the One-day game is getting more exciting. Fours, sixes (the works basically) and this is what we what to see.

Well, not exactly especially when you look at the number of times the team batting second has actually crossed 300 in the same games...



As you can see, teams batting second still haven't mastered the art of chasing high scoring games. The result is that the number of teams that win chasing a score of 300 or more is still very low.



(this is a cumulative % and excludes games won on D/L method).

Also, not only do teams batting first (scoring 300 or more) win over 90% of the games, the average margin of victory stands at a staggering 101 runs!

I agree that when teams batting second do win or get close to the target (like the two games between NZ & Aus in December) the games tend to be great, but these games are few and far in between a load of one-sided encounters.

So at half time the 9/1 odds may look favourable, but don't be fooled and bet on the team batting second (not yet anyway).

Sadly, the only people who think that more is not less are the adminstrators who run this game. Bring on more Powerplays, I say, and see the % of 300+ scores shoot through the roof but don't put your money on an exciting game.

Anyway (on a slightly different note), its not all doom and gloom out there, as this suggests.



The number of ODIs being played over the years seems to be finally heading south and I hope its not just a blip...

postscript: Just watching the current Twenty20 game between South Africa and Australia. The first thing that stuck me was that the boundary ropes had been brought in to enable more fours and sixes. Unfortunately, all it did was create another one sided contest. At the end of the day, be it Tests, ODIs or Twenty20, if cricket is not an even contest between bat and ball, it ceases to be a contest. But watching the crowd cheer Pollock hit fours and sixes when South Africa need 150 runs in 50 balls makes me wonder!!! Maybe, I am in the minority here and cricket has indeed become a game of individual brilliance, the result be damned...