The Cricket Statistician No 195

18 Wisden have adopted this approach for T20 matches for the 2021 edition. The sub-group agreed that the suggestion of Balls, Dot Balls, Runs and Wickets was appropriate, provided that balls meant legal balls. There is also need for clarity on what is meant by a ‘dot ball’. In essence it means a legal delivery when no runs scored have been scored off the bowler. It therefore includes balls from which a dismissal took place if no runs are scored (as opposed to a run-out returning for the second, third or fourth run). The guiding principle from a bowler’s perspective that it should be the same as what constitutes a maiden over. i.e. it is a ball which is a legal ball (not a no ball or wide) from which no runs were scored from the bat. Byes, leg-byes and penalty runs would not prevent a ball from being a dot ball. A ‘dot ball %’ for a bowler, if calculated = 100 x dot balls divided by total deliveries including wides and no balls, rather than just using legal balls. From a batter’s perspective, a dot ball includes a no ball but not a wide, from which they did not score runs from the bat. As statisticians, the sub-group noted that there were some potential anomalies if penalty runs were awarded. For example, an over with no balls and wides, and where all legal balls were dot balls, could be recorded as 5-5-10-0. 30 How should summative and aggregate statistics be prepared and presented for The Hundred? It had been mooted that it could be more appropriate to list batters and bowlers by strike rate, rather than by batting / bowling average as in first-class, Test and List A cricket. It was agreed, that, to illustrate the prowess of a batter or a bowler in The Hundred, it could be more appropriate to focus on batters’ strike rates and bowlers’ economy rates. Ric Finlay suggested using a statistic called BtI, or Batting Impact, using the geometric mean (the square root of the product) of the batting average and scoring rate. Sky TV use ‘batting index’, the sum of batting average and scoring rate; Ric indicated however that, because scoring rate exceeds batting average, this leads to it being given too much emphasis. The sub-group felt that Batting Impact, as proposed by Ric Finlay, could be used as a summary statistic. 31 Should we use different “statistical methods” to describe the prowess of a batter or a bowler in The Hundred rather than traditional averages? One possibility which had been raised was to calculate dot ball percentages for batters and/or bowlers. However, this was not regarded as helpful as they are greatly influenced by the fielding restrictions which are applying when the bowling takes place. Hitting boundaries – and boundaries (struck by batters) conceded by a bowler – was arguably a better statistic. Coaches however often ask for other measure such as 2s hit by a batter; or successive dot balls bowled by a bowler. Again, the sub-group agreed to give further thought to any recommendations, especially a Bowling Impact metric.