Pete Rose
Senior ODI Player
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2011
- Runs
- 22,848
- Post of the Week
- 2
So, there's been much grumbling about the dated form of cricket we play in odi's and t20's (to an extent). And there have been spirited debates about which of our batsmen are less rubbish than the others, because we have given up on the idea of bench-marking with international standards because we feel this is the best we have to offer. There have been various theories about our demise in limited overs: lack of exposure to IPL, lack of talent at domestic level where TTF's go and boss the opposition only to show up as the same defective players as they were when dropped, and of course the general mismanagement of the game at domestic level.
I decided to have a look at two most recently concluded domestic tournaments to glean insights and to see how they impact the upcoming Pakistan Cup.
To refresh ppl's memories: I did provide some perspective on the departmental one day cup in this thread: http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...atsmen-in-the-National-One-Day-Cup&highlight=
The departmental one day cup
- was played from December 17, 2016 to Jan 2nd 2017
- There were 31 games played in all by 8 departmental teams
- The average first innings score was 242 and the average second innings score was 220. Kinda tells you where the game is at the moment in Pakistan. I am sure folks knowledgeable than me will be able to give perspective if pitch, ball, and weather had a role to play in these totals
- 300 or more was scored twice only: team batting first scored it and naturally won since we cant really chase whatever the level of cricket. (the highest second innings score was 287)
- Although the team batting second won 20 times out of 31, its not particularly encouraging considering the score being chased was pretty low. To make that point clearer: only 6 out of these 20 scores that were successfully chased were above 250.
- The tournament was played in two cities: hyderabad and karachi
The regional one day cup
- was played from Jan 8 2017 - Jan 27, 2017
- a total of 31 games were scheduled to be played
- a whopping 10 games were abandoned due to bad weather (these were mostly games in Islamabad, Peshawar, Rawalpindi)
- another 5 games were decided on duckworth lewis (4 games in Islamabad and one in RWP)
- so thats a total of 15 games in a 31 game tournament affected by bad weather.
- Now all of this happened because, despite having access to weather forecasts, and past history, 28 f these games were scheduled in islamabad, rawalpindi, and peshawar. Only the two semi-finals and final were in karachi
- Excluding the last three games (2 semifinals, and final), not one score above 300 was there in 26 batting innings. Only 7 scores above 250 out of these 26 innings.
- It was understandable that as the tournament shifted to karachi for the last three games (= 6 batting innings), 4 out of the 6 innings resulted in scores in excess of 300 with the highest being 375.
- Looking at the top ten scorers of this wretched tournament to find top order talent (so, will exclude anyone who did not play top 3)
Khurrum Manzoor: average of 98.75 @ SR of 86.81 as opener
Hussain Talat: average of 79.75 @ SR of 89.60 as one-down (he did not benefit from the flat pitches of Karachi as his team never made it to the semis)
Iftikhar Ahmed: average of 61.8 @ SR of 95.96 as one-down including a matcwinning century in the final at SR over 100
Israrullah: average of 59.4 @ SR of 87.09 as one-down
Ahmed Shehzad: ignore him
Khushdil Shah: average of 68.25 @ SR of 101.86 as two-down (I know I said top 3)
Akbar ur Rehman: average of 51 @ SR of 84.70 as one-down (the negative against him is that he didnt get a single century in the tournament, although some the guys above did)
Shan Masood: ignore him
Shahzaib Hasan: average of 39.66 @ SR of 122.05 as opener (out of tournament aggregate of 238, the bulk came from one innings of 171)
Naved Malik: average of 77.33 @ SR of 97.47 as opener
A few things stand out for me:
- by playing both tournaments in winter, I believe, the conditions did not allow for high scoring matches in either tournament.
- the only time that we got modern playing conditions were when the regional one-day cup last three matches moved to karachi by which time winter was over in the South.
- so why set matches in the wrong weather and in the wrong cities?
- If I compare the top ten scorers of departmental cup and regional cup only three name are common in both lists: ahmed shehzad, shan masood, and iftikhar ahmed
- Ahmed Shehzad should definitely be ingore as well as shan masood (strike rate of 70 odd), but I do believe, Iftikhar Ahmed has earned his shot.
- I was disappointed to note that Awais Zia who performed very well in the departmental cup, could not replicate in the regional cup
- Akbar ur Rehman was the opposite: he will did well in regional but not in departmental
- 7 of the top ten scorers in the regional cup were not part of any team in the departmental cup
- Looking ahead at the Pakistan cup: some of the openers are selected are pretty much garbage - zain abbas, imam ul haq, imran butt, jaahid ali
- so, notwithstanding any major changes, our hope of find aggressive openers rest on the shoulders of Khurrum Manzoor, Akbar ur Rehman, Iftikhar Ahmed, and Israrullah.
I decided to have a look at two most recently concluded domestic tournaments to glean insights and to see how they impact the upcoming Pakistan Cup.
To refresh ppl's memories: I did provide some perspective on the departmental one day cup in this thread: http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...atsmen-in-the-National-One-Day-Cup&highlight=
The departmental one day cup
- was played from December 17, 2016 to Jan 2nd 2017
- There were 31 games played in all by 8 departmental teams
- The average first innings score was 242 and the average second innings score was 220. Kinda tells you where the game is at the moment in Pakistan. I am sure folks knowledgeable than me will be able to give perspective if pitch, ball, and weather had a role to play in these totals
- 300 or more was scored twice only: team batting first scored it and naturally won since we cant really chase whatever the level of cricket. (the highest second innings score was 287)
- Although the team batting second won 20 times out of 31, its not particularly encouraging considering the score being chased was pretty low. To make that point clearer: only 6 out of these 20 scores that were successfully chased were above 250.
- The tournament was played in two cities: hyderabad and karachi
The regional one day cup
- was played from Jan 8 2017 - Jan 27, 2017
- a total of 31 games were scheduled to be played
- a whopping 10 games were abandoned due to bad weather (these were mostly games in Islamabad, Peshawar, Rawalpindi)
- another 5 games were decided on duckworth lewis (4 games in Islamabad and one in RWP)
- so thats a total of 15 games in a 31 game tournament affected by bad weather.
- Now all of this happened because, despite having access to weather forecasts, and past history, 28 f these games were scheduled in islamabad, rawalpindi, and peshawar. Only the two semi-finals and final were in karachi
- Excluding the last three games (2 semifinals, and final), not one score above 300 was there in 26 batting innings. Only 7 scores above 250 out of these 26 innings.
- It was understandable that as the tournament shifted to karachi for the last three games (= 6 batting innings), 4 out of the 6 innings resulted in scores in excess of 300 with the highest being 375.
- Looking at the top ten scorers of this wretched tournament to find top order talent (so, will exclude anyone who did not play top 3)
Khurrum Manzoor: average of 98.75 @ SR of 86.81 as opener
Hussain Talat: average of 79.75 @ SR of 89.60 as one-down (he did not benefit from the flat pitches of Karachi as his team never made it to the semis)
Iftikhar Ahmed: average of 61.8 @ SR of 95.96 as one-down including a matcwinning century in the final at SR over 100
Israrullah: average of 59.4 @ SR of 87.09 as one-down
Ahmed Shehzad: ignore him
Khushdil Shah: average of 68.25 @ SR of 101.86 as two-down (I know I said top 3)
Akbar ur Rehman: average of 51 @ SR of 84.70 as one-down (the negative against him is that he didnt get a single century in the tournament, although some the guys above did)
Shan Masood: ignore him
Shahzaib Hasan: average of 39.66 @ SR of 122.05 as opener (out of tournament aggregate of 238, the bulk came from one innings of 171)
Naved Malik: average of 77.33 @ SR of 97.47 as opener
A few things stand out for me:
- by playing both tournaments in winter, I believe, the conditions did not allow for high scoring matches in either tournament.
- the only time that we got modern playing conditions were when the regional one-day cup last three matches moved to karachi by which time winter was over in the South.
- so why set matches in the wrong weather and in the wrong cities?
- If I compare the top ten scorers of departmental cup and regional cup only three name are common in both lists: ahmed shehzad, shan masood, and iftikhar ahmed
- Ahmed Shehzad should definitely be ingore as well as shan masood (strike rate of 70 odd), but I do believe, Iftikhar Ahmed has earned his shot.
- I was disappointed to note that Awais Zia who performed very well in the departmental cup, could not replicate in the regional cup
- Akbar ur Rehman was the opposite: he will did well in regional but not in departmental
- 7 of the top ten scorers in the regional cup were not part of any team in the departmental cup
- Looking ahead at the Pakistan cup: some of the openers are selected are pretty much garbage - zain abbas, imam ul haq, imran butt, jaahid ali
- so, notwithstanding any major changes, our hope of find aggressive openers rest on the shoulders of Khurrum Manzoor, Akbar ur Rehman, Iftikhar Ahmed, and Israrullah.
