Our latest match analysis article sees our spotlight fall on the memorable 2019 Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand. One of the most dramatic games in cricketing history, it saw England claim their first one-day international crown since the tournament’s inception in 1975 with victory on boundaries scored after a Super Over – which, like the main game itself, ended in a tie.
Remembered for Ben Stokes’ match-winning innings, here we use data to analyse the match as a whole and look how it ebbed and flowed throughout that dramatic July afternoon at Lord’s.
Bowlers very much on top
As the game has evolved in recent years, bigger bats, smaller boundaries and more dynamic players have all lent themselves to higher-scoring matches. Totals in excess of 300 have become the norm, with a scoring rate of a run-a-ball seen, generally, as the bare minimum needed in a 50-over clash to be competitive.
There was much talk heading into the tournament of a side reaching the illustrious score of 500 in an innings, given that scores of 400 were consistently being surpassed in the months and years prior to the competition. However, the highest total was 397/6, scored by England against Afghanistan, whilst the average score was just 251.
In this game it was very much the bowlers who held the upper-hand, helped by a slow, sticky wicket that did not enable the batsmen to hit cleanly through the line of the ball and tested their ability to time the ball effectively. The most telling indicator of this was that, of the 28 bowling spells throughout the game, only nine went at more than a run-a-ball, with only one bowler – Trent Boult – going at more than six runs conceded per over overall with his figures of 0/67. Additionally, there were only two batting partnerships over 50, going to show just how hard it was to get in and feel comfortable at the crease.
The most proficient throughout the game was New Zealander Colin de Grandhomme, the medium-pacer ending up with figures of 10-2-25-1, quite ridiculous for a man who generally bowls at only 75-80mph and thus would be expected to be easy pickings for Jason Roy, Jos Buttler et al.
Given that he cannot rely on pace to trouble batsmen, he has to instead ensure his accuracy is pinpoint, bowling on a good length and giving the batter no room to manoeuvre. His pitch map can be seen below.
As can be seen, the majority of his deliveries – 33% – landed on a good length around the off-stump line. This ensured that, with the pitch being slow and the ball not coming onto the bat as would be liked, he clogged the batsmen up with a plethora of balls that did not allow the batter to either drive off the front foot or rock back and capitalise on the lack of pace. The hive of white dots on the above image shows his ability at doing so, with only three balls out of his 61 bowled going for more than one run (two twos and one four).
When he did drop short he was punished. Although only 11% of his deliveries landed at a short length, they accounted for 29% of the runs he conceded, indicating that it was easy for the batsmen to watch and hit away the slower ball. He was the perfect bowler to exploit these conditions. With the odd ball nipping either way off the seam and hitting an awkward, in-between length, his lack of pace worked in his favour to really turn the screw on the English batsmen.
Short length takes a hammering
With the pitch showing little rewards for genuine pace when pitched up, it is no surprise that several bowlers took it upon themselves to try and bang the ball in short in order to utilise their own speed as opposed to being able to rely on the pitch to assist them. The likes of Lockie Ferguson, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are all well capable of reaching and surpassing the 90mph mark, all known as genuinely quick bowlers. In their search for speed, the trio, therefore, were the bowlers who showed the greatest will to try and hurry the batsmen with shorter pitched balls, knowing that their raw pace would still be able to trouble the man 22-yards away despite the pitch’s shortcomings. Their respective pitch maps below show the spread of their deliveries.
Ferguson
Since his introduction to the international game in late 2016, Ferguson has become known as one of the fastest bowlers on the world circuit. The 28-year-old regularly registers on the speed gun higher than 90mph, testing batsmen with his raw speed. As a result, his pitch map is not uncommon to what an overall career map would look like for him: as his main weapon is pace and not swing or seam, he seldom pitches the ball on a good length, instead asking batsmen to either fend off fearsome bouncers or dig out searing yorkers – sometimes called a ‘Nose or Toes bowlers’.
With 65% of his deliveries landing back-of-a-length or shorter, 30% pitching on either a full or yorker length and only 5% landing on a good length – considerably less than the amount landed here by Archer (18%) and Wood (19%), his method of attack is clear to see. The multitude of dots around the batsman’s head on the arrival map above only further strengthen this point.
Archer
24-year-old Archer has lit up the international stage since his debut in May 2019, showcasing his talents with both the red and white ball. He has become widely known for his rapid pace, demonstrated perfectly in his enthralling battle with Steve Smith in the 2019 Ashes series. Here, he favoured a slightly more varied line-and-length than Ferguson, putting the skills he has developed in various T20 competitions to good use in keeping the batsmen guessing.
There is more of an even spread across the pitch map than Ferguson’s, albeit with 51% of deliveries pitched at back-of-a-length or shorter. His line to the batsman is also tighter than the New Zealander’s, Archer’s tight-to-the-stumps style coming through here in that almost all of his deliveries are aimed at the batsman. Whilst Ferguson’s pace enabled any balls wide or high to be slashed at, resulting in five boundaries conceded, Archer’s tighter line meant only two of his deliveries went to the boundary. His bouncer is especially hard to line up, his languid approach and vicious arm speed meaning it is nigh-on impossible for a batsman to predict until it is zoning in on his head. With 17% of his deliveries pitched at bouncer length, but only 5% of his runs conceded coming from this area, it shows just how tricky it is to hit away.
Wood
With Wood being the shortest of the triumvirate at about 5’10” compared to about 6’1” in the cases of Ferguson and Archer, he is much more of a skiddy bowler who, when pitching it short, regularly sees deliveries homing in on the batsman’s throat/neck area. Like Archer, 51% of his balls bowled were back-of-a-length or shorter, however, from the ball arrival map we can see that many of these did not clear the batsman’s head as is the case with Ferguson and Archer.
Wood’s lower trajectory means that the batter seldom has the option of ducking under the short ball, instead forcing him to play and fend off uncomfortable deliveries released often at express pace. He is relentless in aiming at the body, mixing up his delivery release point through occasionally going wider on the crease and spearing it into the batter with the greater angle.
Slower balls aplenty and death variance
A favoured method of attack by the bowlers, in order to capitalise on the sedentary surface, was to change the pace themselves with slower balls and/or cutters. They were the most popular variation delivery, with 10.77% of all balls bowled being a slower ball or cutter. Unsurprisingly they were usually successful, accounting for five wickets and only 45 runs conceded from the 67 balls bowled.
An area of the match where they were used commonly was in the death overs (the last ten overs of each innings), bowlers trying to take advantage of a batsman’s yearn to score by varying their pace consistently. Of the 128 balls bowled between overs 41-50 in both innings’, a whopping 50 of those were slower balls or cutters – 39%.
From the pitch and arrival maps of slower balls in the final ten overs above, we can see that not only was the pace mixed up but so too were the lines and length. There is a wide spread of pitching areas and arrival spots, preventing batsmen from getting any rhythm in their striking and forcing them to consistently have to change shot from ball-to-ball. The slower ball bouncer was one that worked particularly well, with 28% of slower balls being bowled at this length but only 10% of runs coming from them. On the contrary, of the 31% of slower balls delivered at a full length, they accounted for 52% of the runs conceded.
Super Stokes sees his side home
The hero of the hour was undoubtedly Stokes. Having entered the fray at 86/4 after 19.3 overs, the all-rounder showed immense powers of concentration, clarity of thought and commitment to skills as he saw his side over the line with firstly his 84* and then the role he played in the dramatic super over. Whilst he has become known for his powerful, big-hitting, this was much more of sensible, considered innings, in fact, his fifth-slowest knock when scoring over 50 in his ODI career to date.
The left-hander frequently looked to the leg-side for his runs, with 70% of his score coming in that area. He took a particular liking to Boult, scoring 23 runs off the 13 balls he faced from the left-armer – 14 of those coming in that dramatic last over (albeit with the help of a fortuitous deflected throw going for four overthrows). His wagon-wheel can be seen below.
However, he played more scoring shots against the bowling of Jimmy Neesham, scoring off 13 balls of the 26 he faced. On the whole, he middled 70% of all balls faced, a figure bettered only by teammate Buttler (80%) and New Zealand wicket-keeper Latham (73%). He also scored slightly more off the front foot than the back foot, with 44% off the front against 36% from the back foot, however, did register 21% of his runs via the pull shot – the most profitable shot of any he played in his innings.
When looking at areas of the pitch he favoured scoring from, anything pitched full was clearly targeted by Stokes. 
Balls that were either full or yorker-length accounted for 33% of the balls he faced but 51% of the runs he scored, showing that he obviously looked to score from deliveries that were over-pitched. He also had good success against short balls (23% of runs), whilst it appears he was content to be watchful against good- or back-of-a-length balls given his lack of scoring against such deliveries.
Super Over drama
Whilst much of the match saw shorter balls favoured by bowlers (as already discussed), the Super Over saw a much higher preference of fuller-pitched balls, as can be seen below.
This is a perfect illustration as to the method that the bowlers – Boult for New Zealand, Archer for England – favoured in the pressure moment, desperately trying to cramp the batsman for room and not allow them to get under the ball at all. Although, as Neesham showed when Archer missed his yorker with the third ball of the over, it made it easy to capitalise on the ball that isn’t quite full enough to be a yorker as he smashed it into the stands for six.
It is interesting that the short ball was used as a surprise when considering its continued use in the normal match, with Archer’s penultimate delivery being the only one pitched anywhere shorter than full length. It is also telling that the bowlers would rather gamble on missing their length from a yorker – meaning that the ball could be delivered as either a full toss or in the ‘slot’ – than they would from a perceived good length ball.
Conclusion
On a slow pitch that did not allow free-flowing cricket, it was only Stokes’ Herculean efforts that allowed his country the chance to finally become champions of the world. With bowlers mixing up their deliveries in order to try and find a way to exploit the conditions, the value of an old-fashioned medium-pacer who can land it on a length was highlighted perfectly. There can be no argument that New Zealand were exceptionally unlucky, although they more than played their part in a match that will go down in history as surely the most dramatic finish ever seen to a match – let alone on the biggest stage in world cricket.