O'Brien's stunner and the closest World Cup final

A brief introduction into the methodology of Performance Analysis.

The Batting Performance Ratings analysis takes into account the Runs scored, Balls faced, Next highest score (if this is the highest score), % of Team score, Innings status at entry, Bowling quality, Pitch information, Team strengths, Target score in front, Match location, Result and Match importance. These parameters are given appropriate weights. The calculations are done in such a way that Rating points of 1000 would be allotted to a mind-blowing and match-winning score of 200 in 150 balls in a WC final.

The Bowling Performance Ratings analysis takes into account the Wickets captured, Quality of batsmen dismissed, Scores at which batsmen were dismissed, Bowling accuracy, Batting quality, Pitch information, Team strengths, Target being defended, Match location, Result and Match importance. The calculations are done in such a way that Rating points of 1000 would be allotted to a magnificent and match-winning analysis of 10-2-15-6 in a WC final.

The Player Performance Ratings analysis takes into account the Batting Rating points, Bowling Rating points and the Fielding Rating points, which is a combination of catches and stumpings. There are minimum criteria for batting and bowling stints to ensure that these are genuinely all-round performances.

The Team Performance Ratings analysis takes into account the Result, Margin of win, Resources utilized, Team strengths, Match location and Match importance. The calculations are done in such a way that Rating points of 1000 would be allotted to an overwhelming win by 150 runs or 8 wickets in a WC final.

Let us move on to the Performance Analysis tables for 2011.

Top Batting performances

SNo	Rating Pts	Year	ODI#	Batsman	For	Vs	Runs	Balls
1	523	2011	3100	V Sehwag	India	Bng	175	140
2	485	2011	3110	AJ Strauss	England	Ind	158	145
3	457	2011	3148	DPMD Jayawardene	Sri Lanka	Ind	103*	88
4	443	2011	3123	LRPL Taylor	New Zealand	Pak	131*	124
5	422	2011	3114	KJ O'Brien	Ireland	Eng	113	63
6	404	2011	3148	MS Dhoni	India	Slk	91*	79
7	372	2011	3148	G Gambhir	India	Slk	97	122
8	358	2011	3125	TM Dilshan	Sri Lanka	Zim	144	131
9	346	2011	3137	KC Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	Nzl	111	128
10	345	2011	3104	RN ten Doeschate	Netherlands	Eng	119	110

Virender Sehwag's stupendous knock of 175 in the inaugural match of the World Cup leads the batsman performance table. This was not a match against Namibia in a neutral location. This was in an away match against Bangladesh. So it was a tough innings. It is difficult to ignore the size of the innings. The second placed innings is the excellent Andrew Strauss essay in the tied match. This would have been the top innings if England had won the match. The huge size of the target played its part.

Mahela Jayawardene's hundred in the final is only one, of six hundreds, in World Cup finals to have finished on the losing side. It was a beautifully paced innings and along with Thisara Perera, Jayawardene helped Sri Lanka post a very good total. Maybe if Jayawardene had been the captain, Sri Lanka would have won the match. Ross Taylor's blitz against Pakistan is placed next. This innings of New Zealand was somewhat similar to the recent South African innings against West Indies. The last five overs yielded exactly 100 runs, out of which Taylor scored 60 runs.

Finally we come to Kevin O'Brien's breath-taking 113 for Ireland against England. The target: 328. The score, 111 for 5 in 25 overs. No hope at all. Throw one's bat around and hope to score a few. What does O'Brien do? He scores 113 in 63 balls, adds 162 in 15 overs with Alex Cusack and paves the way for the unlikeliest of wins. The reason why this is not placed higher is the undeniable fact that the Bangalore pitch was an out-and-out batsman's paradise.

Top Bowling performances

SNo	Rating Pts	Year	ODI#	Bowler	For	Vs	Analysis
1	565	2011	3147	Wahab Riaz	Pakistan	Ind	10.0 - 0 - 46 - 5
2	479	2011	3110	TT Bresnan	England	Ind	10.0 - 1 - 48 - 5
3	437	2011	3120	SCJ Broad	England	Saf	6.4 - 0 - 15 - 4
4	417	2011	3141	R Rampaul	West Indies	Ind	10.0 - 0 - 51 - 5
5	390	2011	3137	M Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	Nzl	8.0 - 0 - 25 - 4
6	389	2011	3144	NL McCullum	New Zealand	Saf	10.0 - 1 - 24 - 3
7	379	2011	3109	Shahid Afridi	Pakistan	Slk	10.0 - 0 - 34 - 4
8	347	2011	3139	B Lee	Australia	Pak	8.0 - 1 - 28 - 4
9	343	2011	3138	RJ Peterson	South Africa	Bng	7.0 - 3 - 12 - 4
10	339	2011	3103	MG Johnson	Australia	Zim	9.2 - 2 - 19 - 4

Wahab Riaz's 5 for 46 included the key wickets of Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. Despite the awful Pakistani fielding, Riaz helped Pakistan restrict India to a potentially chase-able total. That they messed up the chase is another story. But Wahab Riaz could not have done more. Then comes Tim Bresnan's excellent spell against India. But for this spell India would have gone past 350 and won the match. As it turned out, it was a tie.

Ravi Rampaul's spell was like Wahab Riaz's. He captured 5 for 51 (including Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar and Kohli) and restricted India to 268. But the West Indian batsmen failed. They slid from 154 for 2 to 188 all out. The fifth placed bowling effort was the swansong quality performance of Muttiah Muralitharan. He bowled beautifully, as he only can, and took four top New Zealand wickets for 25, taking Sri Lanka to a big win, and the quarter-final.

Top Player performances

SNo	Rating Pts	Year	ODI#	Player	For	Vs	Runs	Balls	Analysis
1	591	2011	3125	TM Dilshan	Sri Lanka	Zim	144	131	3.0-1- 4-4
2	473	2011	3104	RN ten Doeschate	Netherlands	Eng	119	110	10.0-0-47-2
3	471	2011	3142	Mohammad Hafeez	Pakistan	Win	61*	64	10.0-3-16-2
4	407	2011	3121	Yuvraj Singh	India	Ire	50*	75	10.0-0-31-5
5	404	2011	3136	PR Stirling	Ireland	Net	101	72	10.0-0-51-2
6	393	2011	3145	TM Dilshan	Sri Lanka	Eng	108*	115	6.0-1-25-1
7	379	2011	3135	AD Russell	West Indies	Eng	49	46	8.0-0-49-4
8	378	2011	3123	Umar Gul	Pakistan	Nzl	34*	25	10.0-1-32-3
9	358	2011	3114	JF Mooney	Ireland	Eng	33*	30	9.0-0-63-4
10	355	2011	3143	Yuvraj Singh	India	Aus	57*	65	10.0-0-44-2

Tillakaratne Dilshan opened the batting against Zimbabwe and his belligerent 144 took Sri Lanka to 327. Then he must have felt that he had not done enough. He took the ball and captured 4 for 4 in 18 balls. This is the player performance of the World Cup. Ryan ten Doeschate almost single-handedly carried Netherlands to a famous win against England. His quick 119 took them to a huge total of 292. Then ten Doeschate bowled ten overs capturing the wickets of Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell. England could only win in the 49th over.

Mohammad Hafeez opened the bowling against West Indies and was virtually unplayable. He bowled 10 overs and conceded only 16 runs while capturing 2 wickets. Then he scored 61 in their ten-wicket win. Yuvraj Singh, who had an outstanding tournament, captured 5 for 31 with his crafty left arm spin and then when things looked dicey for India, scored 50 to cement a tough win against Ireland. Paul Stirling's 101 and 2 for 51 rounds off the top five positions.

Top Team performances

SNo	Rating Pts	Year	ODI#	Team	Own score	Vs	Other score
1	774	2011	3101	New Zealand	72 for 0 in 8.0	Ken	69 for 10 in 23.5
2	770	2011	3118	West Indies	59 for 1 in 12.2	Bng	58 for 10 in 18.5
3	765	2011	3142	Pakistan	113 for 0 in 20.5	Win	112 for 10 in 43.3
4	756	2011	3138	South Africa	284 for 8 in 50.0	Bng	78 for 10 in 28.0
5	705	2011	3115	South Africa	351 for 5 in 50.0	Net	120 for 10 in 34.5
6	704	2011	3112	West Indies	330 for 8 in 50.0	Net	115 for 10 in 31.3
7	703	2011	3148	India	277 for 4 in 48.2	Slk	274 for 6 in 50.0
8	680	2011	3140	Zimbabwe	308 for 6 in 50.0	Ken	147 for 10 in 36.0
9	679	2011	3117	New Zealand	166 for 0 in 33.3	Zim	162 for 10 in 46.2
10	674	2011	3111	Zimbabwe	298 for 9 in 50.0	Can	123 for 10 in 42.1

New Zealand had 42 overs and 10 wickets to spare when they defeated Kenya. This was the most overwhelming performance of the World Cup. West Indies' win was nearly as emphatic. They needed four overs and one more wicket.

Pakistan had an easy win over West Indies. Similarly South Africa's win over Bangladesh and Netherlands are in the top five. India's win over Sri Lanka in the final was very close and that pushed the match into seventh place. The fact that they won only in the 49th over was significant. It is safe to say that this match was the closest of all the 10 World Cup finals.

This was a World Cup of two teams: for contrasting reasons. India, because, they won the cup after a long gap of 28 years. The expectations of many millions was an albatross hanging around their neck. They had to deliver. Else the repercussions would have been enormous. From the quarter-final onwards, they played three tough matches, and won all. It is a fact that India could have lost any of these three.

If Australia had played the middle overs more forcefully and had some luck while bowling the middle overs, they could have won. If Pakistan had even caught half the catches they dropped, they could have won. If Sri Lanka had made proper bowling changes and kept for a slip for Lasith Malinga when he came back, they could have won. But India weathered all storms, and their very effective and powerful middle-order batting carried them through to a well-deserved win.

England produced some of the most amazing matches of the tournament. They moved from the sublime to the ridiculous, at the drop of the trilby. They almost lost to Netherlands. Then managed to snatch a tie from India, matching India's 338. After scoring 327, they lost the match against Ireland. And then they defended a low total of 171 against the mighty South Africans. Finally, as if to compensate for this magnificent performance, they lost to Bangladesh, by conceding a ninth-wicket partnership of 58. Finally, to crown all these, they lost by 10-wickets to Sri Lanka in the quarter-final, after posting a respectable 229. What a World cup for England!

The match of the tournament had many candidates. Finally I have selected Ireland's win over England. There have been upsets galore through the 40 years of World Cups. But there has never been a chase of this magnitude by an associate country. That too, after being 111 for 5, still in arrears by over 200 runs. O'Brien played the innings of the lifetime of many Irishmen.
The bowling spell of the tournament was Wahab Riaz's 5 for 46 in the semi-final against India. It should have been a match-winning one, but for the butter fingers of the Pakistani fielders. Very close contender to this effort was Stuart Broad's 4 for 15, a spell which converted a certain loss for England to a totally amazing win.
The innings of the World Cup 2011, for me, is a toss-up between Dhoni's match-winning 91 in 79 balls and Kevin O'Brien's 113 in 63. I might have gone with O'Brien's innings but for the fact that Dhoni delivered in the final, both as a captain and batsman. Another 51-49 decision.