TRENDS
Follow UsIt has been a really slow ICC Women's T20 World Cup so far in terms of pitches or run scoring. However, we are already cantering the halfway mark, and it’s a good time to take stock of all the key trends we have observed from this tournament so far. While spin domination is the obvious one, there are many other facets that teams would love to get better at as the tournament progresses.
All the data taken is until Match 10 of the tournament.
Spin is the King Queen
If there was one fact every team would have come prepared for in this tournament, it has to be the domination of spin.
Hence, it wouldn’t surprise anyone that 72 out of the 122 wickets that fell have fallen to the spinners. Amongst them, it’s the left-arm orthodox who are ruling the arena at the moment, with their bowling average (17.6) being much better than right-arm offies (23.2) or leg spinners (21.4). They are also getting wickets quicker than the other two spin bowling types. That’s why four of the top five wicket-taking spinners in the tournament are left-arm spinners.
Also read: Spin is winning for England when it matters the most
Apart from that, if you look at speeds, the 75-80 kmph range has proved to be the most successful for spinners. Based on the deliveries where bowling speed was recorded, 20 wickets have fallen on spinning deliveries bowled between this range.
However, 17 wickets have also fallen to deliveries bowled below 74 KMPH, showing that the slower you bowl as a spinner, the higher the chances of your success are this tournament.
What kind of pacers have worked?
While the pacers have picked 50 wickets in the 10 games played so far, ironically, it’s the slower pacers who bowl big inswingers and seaming in deliveries that have found relatively more success than the bowlers who look to surprise with pace or rely on exaggerated seam movement to get their wickets.
That’s why 16 wickets have fallen on deliveries that have swung in or seamed in after being released by the pacers. That’s why two of the top three wicket-taking pacers so far (Megan Schutt and Arundhati Reddy) are bowlers who are not amongst the quickest but are rather known for their ability to move the ball.
Also read: Better, faster and stronger: Arundhati Reddy continues to scale greater heights
Schutt’s average speed in this tournament is just 100.8, whereas Reddy’s is 95.8. This shows that even the pacers have benefitted from the grip on these surfaces and have tried to bowl slower. New Zealand’s Rosemary Mair is an exception here, with her average speed being 108.4, as she uses more seam-up deliveries and relies on seam movement for her wickets rather than swing.
Has it already won the toss and won the match?
In Dubai, the teams batting second have had a clear advantage, winning three out of four games. Ironically, teams have been selected to bat first thrice this time. Maybe now they’ll change the pattern?
Meanwhile, in Sharjah, the teams batting first have had the overwhelming advantage, winning four games out of six so far.
F for fielding
Players must be playing this tournament with butter on their hands because 51 catches have been dropped in 10 games. That’s almost five catches being dropped in every single game!
What’s even more shocking is that England have the worst catching efficiency (22%) so far, with seven dropped catches as compared to just two taken. Meanwhile, Pakistan (not surprisingly) have yet again shown improvement in their fielding standards and has the best catching efficiency in the tournament after dropping just three and taking 10 catches.
Regarding runs saved on the field, South Africa and Scotland women have been the poorest, with their net runs saved being -16 and -12, respectively.
However, it’s evident at this point that all teams need to improve their fielding standards, as the current levels aren’t representative of the actual growth seen in women’s cricket in this aspect of the game.
Boundary hitters are gold
It has been a slow World Cup so far, and boundaries have been hard to come by, with the average scores revolving around the 120 mark for both venues.
As a result, teams generally hit fewer boundaries, and there’s a clear pattern where the teams performing well have crossed the rope more frequently than the others.
That’s why West Indies (7.9), Australia (8.5), South Africa (9.4) and England (9.4), who have taken the least number of deliveries to get a boundary on average, are also amongst the top sides in their group. Meanwhile, India (18.9), Scotland (21.8) and Sri Lanka (34.2) are worst in that regard and, as a result, are struggling in the tournament.
Hence, teams should really value and bank on their boundary hitters for the remaining period of the tournament.
The first powerplay is the most crucial
There are only five teams who have managed to score at more than a 100 strike rate in the powerplay this World Cup: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, West Indies and England.
"I think in this World Cup, the powerplay is going to be really important with both bat and ball, and if you can win the powerplay I think you give yourselves a good chance to win," Melie Kerr said in the aftermath of their loss against Australia.
It’s no coincidence that these are also the teams who are best placed to make the semi-finals after playing two games each in their group. Hence, with the pitches slowing and the ball gripping, the importance of getting as many runs as possible in the first powerplay can’t be overstated.
If you don’t believe me, ask the Indian women. They leaked 55 runs in the powerplay and are still catching up in the tournament.
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