The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of success in Twenty20 cricket. 29 matches for winning teams and 30 matches for losing teams were analysed from the 2010 English domestic Twenty20 competition. Magnitude-based inferences, reported as effect sizes (ES), were used to characterise differences in performance indicators between winning and losing teams. The top 5 indicators of success were losing less wickets in the powerplay overs (ES = -1), losing less wickets between overs 7-10 (ES = -1), 50+ run partnerships (ES = 1), individual batsmen contributing 75+ runs (ES = 1) and 50-74 runs (ES = 1). In addition, winning teams scored a higher percentage of total runs to long-off (ES =0.4) and the off-side (ES = 0.2), and bowled a higher percentage of deliveries at a yorker (ES = 0.4) and short length (ES = 0.58) than losing teams. Collectively, these findings highlight that teams should retain wickets in the first 10 overs of an innings, without necessarily maximising the number of runs scored. In the final 10 overs, teams should outscore the opposition by hitting boundary 4s and avoid scoring a high percentage of runs from 1s. Moreover, from a bowling perspective, a more balanced strategy with regards to bowling length appears to be advantageous, as evidenced by the greater usage of short and yorker length deliveries by winning teams.
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of success in Twenty20 cricket. 29 matches for winning teams and 30 matches for losing teams were analysed from the 2010 English domestic Twenty20 competition. Magnitude-based inferences, reported as effect sizes (ES), were used to characterise differences in performance indicators between winning and losing teams. The top 5 indicators of success were losing less wickets in the powerplay overs (ES = -1), losing less wickets between overs 7-10 (ES = -1), 50+ run partnerships (ES = 1), individual batsmen contributing 75+ runs (ES = 1) and 50-74 runs (ES = 1). In addition, winning teams scored a higher percentage of total runs to long-off (ES =0.4) and the off-side (ES = 0.2), and bowled a higher percentage of deliveries at a yorker (ES = 0.4) and short length (ES = 0.58) than losing teams. Collectively, these findings highlight that teams should retain wickets in the first 10 overs of an innings, without necessarily maximising the number of runs scored. In the final 10 overs, teams should outscore the opposition by hitting boundary 4s and avoid scoring a high percentage of runs from 1s. Moreover, from a bowling perspective, a more balanced strategy with regards to bowling length appears to be advantageous, as evidenced by the greater usage of short and yorker length deliveries by winning teams.
