The challenge of the batting Powerplay

The batting Powerplay is a concept that most teams are still trying to come to terms with. When Powerplays were first introduced, the onus of when to use them was completely with the fielding team, which made things fairly straightforward: finish them off as early as possible in the innings, so that the fielding captain has the option of plenty of boundary fielders towards the end of the innings.

Now, however, things have become more complicated, with the batting team being allowed to choose one of the Powerplays. The scope to use it ranges, potentially, from the 11th to the 46 over of a 50-over match, which means the batting captain has plenty to consider: should it be kept aside till the end of the innings, or should it be unleashed when two well-set batsmen are going strong, regardless of how many overs remain. The counter-argument to this is that if two well-set batsmen are knocking the ball around for ones and twos and taking advantage of the spread-out field, taking the Powerplay might actually disrupt the batsmen's rhythm and force them to play differently. But then there's also the argument, which has plenty of merit, that taking the batting Powerplay relatively early will force the best opposition bowlers to bowl out early, leaving the weaker bowlers for the end.

The system has been in use for more than two years now, but captains and players admit they still haven't figured out the best way to use it. This article examines the team-wise numbers in batting Powerplays since the Champions Trophy in 2009.

As the table below shows, Australia have been by far the best side in these Powerplays: both their batsmen and their bowlers handle this period better than any other team. In fact, they are ahead of the rest in three out of four parameters in the batting Powerplays - the batting average, run rate, and bowling average, with only Sri Lanka having a slightly better economy rate. As a batting unit, Australia's displays have been extremely impressive, with 19 scores of 40 or more runs in these five overs. Their highest was in a Champions Trophy game against West Indies in Johannesburg, when they creamed 69 in a sequence which read 21, 5, 11, 11, 21. Their bowling has been equally strong, with an average of 17.03 at an economy rate of 7.05. They've taken 66 wickets in 38 innings, with 11 instances of three or more wickets in those five overs. The ability to take wickets has undoubtedly helped them restrict the runs too.

The only other team with a batting run rate of more than eight per over during this period has been New Zealand. Some of this could also perhaps be attributed to the small sizes of most of the grounds there, but New Zealand have also managed the highest score by any side in the batting Powerplays: against Bangladesh in Napier a year ago, the sequence of runs scored read thus: 22, 17, 14, 25 and 4. After the first four overs, New Zealand had scored 78 and were on course for a century in the batting Powerplay alone. They messed it up in the last over, but still ended up with a record score.

As a bowling unit, Sri Lanka have done slightly better than Australia, and are the only side to concede less than seven runs per over. In 24 innings, they've conceded 40 or more runs in the batting Powerplay only three times.

The other aspect about the batting Powerplay that has been discussed plenty is the time when captains opt for it. The table below looks at when teams have taken it. Most of the times it's been used after 40 overs, which isn't really surprising, but some have been bold enough to opt for it earlier. Out of 13 innings, West Indies have taken the batting Powerplay after the 40th only five times (though this excludes their recent series in Sri Lanka). India, on the other hand, have often taken it between overs 30 and 39 - on 13 occasions, which is more than 35% of their total innings.

There have been a couple of instances when teams have taken the batting Powerplay even before the opposition has taken the bowling one, but that only happened because teams were coasting to victory chasing low totals. New Zealand took it in the 11th when chasing 146 against England, while Sri Lanka used it early too after India had set them a target of 104.

A look at the Powerplay stats from the last two ODI series in Australia and New Zealand offers a clue as to how teams use these overs. As the table below shows, Australia completely outperformed England in this aspect too during their 6-1 rout - their run rate in these overs was more than two runs better than England's. What's surprising, though, is that England hit seven more fours than Australia - and they faced only 12 extra deliveries - and yet their overall run-rate was much poorer than Australia's. The highest run-scorer in these overs from either team, though, was England's Michael Yardy. In 41 balls he scored 56 runs and wasn't dismissed once. Seven out of England's 26 fours came off his bat, which helped him achieve a run-rate of 8.19 runs per over.

The stats for New Zealand and Pakistan were closer in their six-match ODI series, with New Zealand having the better run-rate. The leading scorer in these overs was Nathan McCullum, with 73 runs from 41 balls at a run-rate of 10.68 runs per over, while Pakistan's highest scorer wasn't a surprise at all - Shahid Afridi scored 68 from 35, a run-rate of 11.65.