Significant ODI innings: a look at the innings and the batsmen

The articles on significant innings in Tests received very good response from the readers with excellent suggestions for improvement which enabled me to come out with a follow-up article incorporating a number of suggestions. That has emboldened me to do the same for ODIs. Many of the lessons learnt from the earlier exercises have been applied in this effort.

The numbers have totally different implications in the two formats. The data availability, especially the scoring rates, is 100% in ODIs as compared to Tests. Balls faced has different implications in Tests and ODIs. Almost always cameos mean nothing in Tests, not so in ODIs. Hence the two processes are as different as chalk and cheese.

As I have already explained in the Test articles, the following measures have not been considered. All these have value in a Ratings exercise. Not in this effort. And if I consider one I have to consider all.

- Ground/Pitch conditions. - Result. - Quality of bowing attack. - Team strength of opposition. - Innings position at entry. - Home/Away. - Importance of match et al.

The only figures used are the runs scored and balls faced by the concerned batsman and the runs scored and balls faced by his team. No other data is used. It makes the exercise simpler and easier to understand.

The most important requirement of a batsman is to score runs. The next important requirement is that he scores these runs as quickly as possible. Nothing more. I have followed this important guideline in determining the significance of innings. "Significance" is a subjective word and this methodology converts this into an objective measurable process.

After a lot of experimentation, I have determined that I should adopt a different methodology for ODIs. Partly I have used my favourite weighting concept. I have weighted the innings on five measures, assigned these values based on a pre-determined formulae and summed these five values. That represents the significant innings index and the rest is routine. The measures are explained below.

1. Absolute runs scored: It took 26 years for the 175 to be overhauled by 189, the 189 to be equalized, the 189 to be overtaken by 194, the 194 to be equalized and (this time, quite quickly) the first 200 to be scored. Hence I have kept 200 as the pinnacle. Let me cross the 200+ bridge as and when it is crossed by a batsman. The little master's 200 gets 2 points and the other innings get proportionate values.

2. % of Team score: It is very important to differentiate innings such as the 189 which was scored out of 272 and the 175 out of 262 from the 200 which was out of 401 and a 101 out of 363. Hence this percentage is calculated and 2 points allocated for a % of team score value of 84.2% which is the highest % of team share achieved by McCullum (80 out of 95).

3. Score comparison with 'runs per batsman': This is somewhat similar to the Test significant innings work. This is necessary to distinguish between an innings of 150 out of 300 for 2 and an innings of 150 out of 300 all out. The first two values for these two innings will be identical. The Runs per batsman (the number of batsmen who took strike - as against the wickets) value is calculated and the ratio between the batsman runs and this value arrived at. The maximum value of 2 points are allotted for a ratio of 7.64. Richards' 189* has the highest ratio and gets allotted a point value of 2.00.

4. Absolute scoring rate: This is an important measure and gets recognized. Out of all qualifying innings, Chris Lewis' 20 in 6 has the highest scoring rate, viz., 333.3. This is taken as the base for fixing the 2.0 point mark. The other innings get proportionate allocations based on their innings strike rates. The highest innings included, Shahid Afridi's 55 off 18 balls, has a strike rate of 305.6. This innings gets a value for this index of 1.83 points.

5. Strike rate comparison with 'team strike rate': This is somewhat similar to the Test significant innings work. This is necessary to distinguish between an innings of 50 off 50 balls out of 150 in 50 overs and an innings of 50 off 50 balls out of 300 in 50 overs. The fourth measure value for these two innings will be identical. The Strike rate value for the team is calculated and the ratio between the batsman strike rate and this value arrived at. The maximum value of 2 points are allotted for a ratio of 4.67. Afridi's 29 off 10 (2.90) out of a Pakistani total of 142 off 37.5 (0.62) has the highest ratio of 4.67 and gets allotted a point value of 2.00. The others get allotted proportionate values.

Thus it can be seen that runs scored has a weight of 60% and strike rate 40%. It seems fair to me since ultimately runs matter more. However there is no overlap and each measure has a clear significance and separation.

A few other criteria to define the significant innings.

1. All not out scores of below 20 are excluded from consideration. Such scores happen often in ODIs and these should not distort the picture.

2. A SI total value of 2.50 has been considered to be the minimum required for being a significant innings. This represents 25% of the maximum and has worked out quite well.

3. The batsmen listed are those who have scored 3000 ODI runs and above. Readers should remember two facts. One is that all innings are considered and included in the analysis. It is only for display of the tables that the cut-off of 3000 runs is taken. There is nothing arbitrary about this. I also considered use of number of innings, say 100, for cut-off. However this leads to the inclusion of quite few bowlers. 3000 runs gives us 109 batsmen, a good population size. 2000 runs will increase this to 157 but will also bring in quite a few non-batsmen.

Now let us look at the tables.

First the list of top batsmen ordered by the % of SIs played out of the selected innings.

There should be no surprises in the top-3. Richards and Tendulkar are the two "First among equals". Nearly 40% of the innings Richards has played are significant indicating the impact he has had on the game. There is some daylight and then there is Tendulkar. The fact that more than a third of the 400+ innings he has played are significant is a stupendous achievement. His influence on the modern game and the Indian team's ODI performances is legendary. Now comes Hussey, whose place in the modern game as a finisher is substantiated by this high ranking. I do not understand why he should bat behind White in the current Australian team. He also comes in quite often in situations where he has no option but to take undue risks (as at Oval a few days back).

Next the list of top batsmen ordered by the number of SIs played.

This is the one time a longevity table has some meaning. Tendulkar has played over 150 significant innings. To do this day in and day out for over 21 years is the stuff only the all-time-greats can dream of. Note the 27% gap between Tendulkar and Jayasuriya, although both have played the same number of ODI games. Three wonderful ODI batsmen, Ponting, Lara and Inzamam follow next. The top-5 are all awe-inspiring ODI batsmen.

The last one is the list of top batsmen ordered by the average value of SI index.

There is a surprise at the top. I would have expected Richards and Tendulkar to be on top. However they have been leap-frogged by the stylist, David Gower. That indicates that when he performed, Gower went way past the line. Richards follows next close behind and is followed by Tendulkar. Very well-deserved positions indeed for these greats. Jayasuriya and Trescothick take the next two places. In this table Hussey is quite low with only around 3 points.

Readers will note that I have also given the average runs per innings for the SIs. Tendulkar's average RpI is very high at 84.2. Richards' RpI value is 80.0. Note the very high RpI value of Ganguly, 89.2. In fact Ganguly is second only to Geoff Marsh who has averaged 90.1 runs. Astle is in third place with 85.2 and Tendulkar is fourth. Hussey is way down with a value of 63.7 runs indicating the inability to play longer innings in late-order.

Finally the top four SI values and the related scorecards.

If some one does not know about Richards' all-time classic innings, he probably follows only T20 games or is not interested in Cricket. Over the past few years I have done quite a few ODI Innings rating lists, including the Wisden-100. The one constant factor in all these lists is the presence of Richards' 189* in the top place. Not once has this innings come second. It is my firm conviction that if 100 unbiased, objective and informed followers are asked the question of what was the best ever ODI innings, 90 would point to Richards' 189.

The points secured by Richards are 1.89, 1.65, 2.00, 0.67 and 0.58 totaling to 6.79 points.

The only reason why Kapil Dev's 175* is in second place is the presence of Richards' 189. Otherwise the same 90 would point to Kapil's classic as the best ever. To say that this innings was one of the major reasons for India winning the World Cup may not be hyperbole.

The points secured by Kapil Dev are 1.75, 1.56, 1.72, 0.76 and 0.74 totaling to 6.53 points.

Third is Coventry's monumental 194, albeit on the losing side. The points secured by Coventry are 1.94, 1.48, 1.62, 0.75 and 0.52 totaling to 6.31 points.

In fourth place is a surprise innings. Not even a hundred and not even in a winning cause. However its place is well-deserved mainly because of the way-out scoring rate. How Sri Lanka lost after this Jayasuriya classic is a mystery. The points secured by Jayasuriya are 0.76, 1.05, 1.27, 1.63 and 1.34 totaling to 6.05 points.

I have given the summary figures below. I have not done the %. I leave it for the readers.

TotInns:52235 TotSelInns: 46329 Tot SIs: 7952 100+runs: 1072 50+runs: 5054 <50runs:1826 BPos 1-7: 6967 BPos 8-11: 985 1Inns: 4284 2Inns: 3668 Wins: 4361 Losses: 3416 Ties/NRs: 175

I have also made available the complete list of significant performances for all the 109 qualifying batsmen. Let me warn that this is a huge file (660k). This is a formatted text file and could easily be imported into an Excel sheet.

To view/down-load the list of SIs , please click/right-click here.

To view/down-load the complete Player tables, all three in a single file, please click/right-click here.