T20Is of 2019-1

The year of the “big bang” when many new teams were admitted to “official” T20Is. A quick look at the results:

Teams ranked by W/L ratio:

A total of 71 teams played at least one T20I this year.

You will agree that the above table doesn’t mean much. Australia (OK), Argentina and Belize !? are the top teams, are they? And is Jersey as good as India?

Let us look at the ICC rankings, which are supposed to be more refined:

There are 86 teams covered in these rankings. The last 7 have zero points:

One might argue that Gibraltar and China are the worst teams as they have played the most matches for zero points.

Anyway, back to the top. The T20I World Championship will be held in Australia in late 2020:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_ICC_Men%27s_T20_World_Cup

The 16 teams participating are the top 19 in the ICC ranking table MINUS Zimbabwe, Nepal and UAE.

Next we look at individual performances in T20Is.

Quick statistical summary of the 2017 Champions Trophy

Here we focus on individual performances rather than the end result.

Most runs (100 and above):

No one scored more than one century. Several made 3 scores of 50-plus.

Dhawan, RG Sharma and Tamim scored the most runs.

Though there is not much sense in calculating averages and strike rates with a lesser number of matches, we can see that Kohli averaged 129.00. Next is Stokes with 92.00

The highest strike rate here is by HH Pandya with 194.44, with Fakhar Zaman, Dhawan and Morgan just crossing 100.

Highest individual scores (75 and above):

Consistent performances by RG Sharma, Dhawan and Kohli except in the final. Other consistent performances by Tamim, Fakhar Zaman and Williamson among others.

Bowling-5 or more wickets:

Hasan Ali clearly leads, while Hazlewood took most of his wickets in one innings. In this limited sample, Hasan Ali has the best average and best economy while Hazlewood has the best strike rate.Plunkett is the only one with two 4-wicket hauls.

Best innings bowling-3wi and above:

Note that startling consistency of Hasan Ali who took exactly 3 wickets in an innings in 4 matches.

Best fielding (3 or more dismissals):

Sarfraz has the most dismissals and catches, Buttler the most stumpings, while Babar Azam, Jadeja and Maxwell have the most catches by non-keepers.

Best innings fielding (2 or more):

Sarfraz and non-keeper Maxwell have the most dismissals.

All-round performance (see criteria below):

No one has reached these modest requirements.

All-round match performance (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):

Nothing outstanding, although M. Amir’s performance may have been the most valuable.

 

The jinx in India-Pakistan matches

Note: This was written before the start of the 2017 Champions Trophy.

It is often said that India dominates Pakistan in ICC tournaments. Hence the “Mauka Mauka” ads which aired at the beginning of the 2015 World Cup.

Let us see take a closer look at the history of these encounters. First, the World Cup:

India and Pakistan never met in the World Cups of 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1987. They were somehow always drawn in different groups so they could have met only in the semi-finals or finals. It was not until 1992 that they met in the World Cup. In that tournament all teams played each other in the knockout stage.

They met in the quarter-finals in 1996, Super Six in 1999, and a pool match in 2003. India won all these matches so the feeling of a jinx over Pakistan kept growing.

In 2007, both India and Pakistan were jinxed and failed to proceed beyond the pool stage, being displaced by Bangladesh and Ireland respectively.

In 2011, India won in the semi-final and repeated this in a pool match in 2015. So India have won all 6 encounters.

If you want to see the scorecards, open this link and click on the blue square on the extreme right.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=2;filter=advanced;opposition=7;orderby=start;team=6;template=results;trophy=12;type=team;view=results

Now we go to the T20 World Championship. We will come back to the Champions Trophy at the end.

The teams met twice in the inaugural championship in 2007. Though the match in the pool stage was a tie, India got the winner’s points as they won in the bowl-out which was then the method used to determine the winner of a tied match.

Then India won against Pakistan in the final. The teams did not meet in 2009 and 2010. India won the next three encounters in 2012, 2014 and 2016. All of these were in the group stages and not the semi-final or final. Thus India leads 5-0 (including the tie) in the World T20 Championship.

You can see the scorecards from this link:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=3;filter=advanced;opposition=7;orderby=start;team=6;template=results;trophy=89;type=team;view=results

For details of the bowl-out in the first match in 2007, see the commentary section rather than the scorecard.

But the story in the Champions Trophy is somewhat different:

India and Pakistan did not meet in 1998, 2000 or 2002 (when India shared the trophy with Sri Lanka). Pakistan won the first encounter in 2004 in the group stage. They did not meet in 2006. Pakistan won in 2009, also in the group stage. India finally won in 2013, in a group match on their way to the trophy.

So the jinx on Pakistan in ICC tournaments does not apply to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy, where they lead India 2-1. Let us see what happens when they meet on June 4. India currently has a higher ranking than Pakistan, but that has no bearing in high-tension encounters like these.

See the scorecards here:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=2;filter=advanced;opposition=7;orderby=start;team=6;template=results;trophy=44;type=team;view=results