Smart Stats: New Zealand's two-man show from Williamson and Boult
According to ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats, Trent Boult and Kane Williamson had a combined contribution of nearly 60% to New Zealand's thrilling five-run win
ESPNcricinfo stats team
22-Jun-2019
New Zealand's nail-biting five-run victory was set up by two players, and it shows in ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats numbers. Kane Williamson came in second ball, and stayed on to score a magnificent 148 off 154 balls, scoring 52% of New Zealand's bat runs; Trent Boult took 40% of New Zealand's wickets, and went at only three runs per over when the match run rate was 5.8. According to Smart Stats, Boult's impact to New Zealand's win marginally pipped Williamson's.
Smart Stats takes into account not only the runs scored or wickets taken, but also the context in which these contributions were made, in terms of match situation, relative strike rate/economy rate, and the quality of batsmen dismissed and the match situation when those wickets were taken. Bowlers get extra value for dismissing batsmen early in their innings, before they can cause damage. All of those factors are quantified, with batting and bowling performances put on an equal scale, and player impact is calculated by summing up the batting and bowling values.
Boult dismissed Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran for 1, derailing West Indies' run-chase early, and then returned to dismiss Ashley Nurse and Evin Lewis. All four batsmen fell cheaply, giving Boult a Smart Wicket value of 4.11 (which means his four wickets were actually worth 4.11). To add to that, his economy rate was almost half the match run rate, and he bowled five overs in the Powerplays and two more in the death (44th and 46th), conceding only eight runs in those two overs.
Putting a percentage to Boult's numbers compared to the total contribution value of all players to the win, his impact is an extremely high 30.6%.
WATCH on Hotstar (India only) - Williamson's brilliant hundred
Williamson's contribution was outstanding too. He batted almost throughout the innings, scoring 148 off 154 while seven other batsmen combined to score 135 off 147. This, after New Zealand lost both openers for golden ducks, only the third such occurrence in one-day internationals. The fact that the combined contribution of Boult and Williamson was almost 60% of the total of all the players to New Zealand's win illustrates just how much of a two-man display this was.