The recently concluded World Cup had a lot of dramatic moments combined with high-quality cricketing action, giving fans a handsome treat for their money. The high-quality cricketing move was backed with some shocking victories of associate teams against top-ranked teams which opened the group stage wide, and something similar is happening in another sport, far away in the gulf.
To introspect on things from a unique perspective, we will be performing a statistical analysis on the best batsman in the recently concluded world cup. We used a method called Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). This method helps us in evaluating various choices available to us based on a certain number of indicators we consider. In our cases, the choices are the different batters and the indicators are (Runs, Strike Rate, Average and Balls per boundary). Each of these indicators is weighted based on what we believe will yield a better result or have a more significant impact on the final score.
Powerplay Insights
So here, we can see that Alex Hales takes the top spot with a score of 0.98 which is almost a perfect score. He played 3 high-quality innings where he provided very quick starts in the powerplay and set the tempo for his mates. Stirling and Buttler occupied top positions and Buttler along with Hales, stitched crucial partnerships in the pre-semi and semi-final matches and there are pure examples of clutch performances. Another very interesting name in this list is Maxwell O’Dowd. He was simply sensational for the Netherlands and played a crucial hand in the qualifiers and in knocks against Srilanka and South Africa.
Middle Overs Insights
For the past year, Sikander Raza has been an absolute sensation in the Zimbabwe international cricketing circuit. He has single-handedly carried Zimbabwe to famous victories and he is someone who is as crucial of a bowler as a batsman. In the recent world cup, he has been superb for Zimbabwe and has been scoring them on a consistent basis with a brilliant strike rate of 149 in the middle overs.
Glenn Phillips was arguably New Zealand’s best batsman in the world cup and his two brilliant innings against Sri Lanka and England are enough to cement it. The pacing of his innings in the middle overs keeps him at the top of the rankings. Another name on this list is our very own Virat Kohli, who had a sensational tournament with the bat. He took his time in the middle overs and paced the innings beautifully, especially against Pakistan.
Death Overs Insights
Surya Kumar Yadav has been mind-boggling in the T20I format of the game and this world cup was no different. His choice of unorthodox shots and sweeping wide yorkers with a bent knee to the deep square leg was just shotted out of the cricketing textbook. Though India would have expected a similar performance from him in the semi-finals, we can take nothing away from the stellar world cup he had.
But in terms of a Clutch performance, Kohli probably takes the nod ahead of Surya Kumar Yadav. His performances against Pakistan, Netherlands and Bangladesh make him occupy the 2nd spot. Hardik Pandya and Stokes, though performed in only a couple of matches in the death overs, still played crucial innings’ for their team when it was needed the most.
Conclusion
Now, these might give an accurate picture of the best batsman in the world cup, but it does help us categorize the different ways we can judge players other than runs and wickets. It helps us understand where each batsman strikes at his best and helps us delve more into each and every player’s role in their respective teams.
