APPLIED INSIGHT & INTELLIGENCE Season Preview 2019 Welcome 2018 was an exciting year for OptaPro’s cricket department, the highlight of which being the Page 3-10 Specsavers County Championship 2018 launch of the new innovative professional analytics tool - ProVision. Page 3 Competition Overview Page 4 Individual Batting - Key Batting Performances Ahead of the 2019 campaign, we have used ProVision to look back at the 2018 season using Page 5 Rory Burns Season Spotlight bespoke statistics and metrics to highlight performances, both on an individual and team Page 6 Individual Bowling – Key Performances level, in a way that a traditional scorecard doesn’t allow us. Page 7 Individual Bowling – Chances vs Dot Balls Page 8 Team Batting I hope you enjoy extracting some interesting insights from this review and if you would like to Page 9 Overs bowled vs Runs scored – Scatter graph discuss any of the content or ProVision further please contact us at [email protected] Page 10 Team Bowling Page 11-15 Royal London One-Day Cup 2018 Page 11 Overview Page 12 Individual Batting Page 13 Team Batting Page 14 Team Bowling Ben Mackriell Francois Vainker EVP, Head of OptaPro Commercial Manager, Cricket 2 Competition Overview Division 1 Division 1 Division 2 Division 2 Average 1st Average run Average 1st Average run innings score rate innings score rate 266 3.3 242 3.2 Division 1 Division 1 Division 2 Division 2 Catch Total maidens Catch Total maidens percentage bowled percentage bowled 85.6% 3,015 83.9% 3,558 3 Key Batting Performances Batsmen with highest percentage contribution to team runs In his first season as captain, Rory Burns led Surrey to their first Balls Faced Total Runs Dot Ball % Chances Outs in 1st % Contribution title in 16 years. Key to that success were his contributions with (per innings) Against* 20 Balls to Team the bat at the top of the order - he scored 19.8% of Surrey’s runs in the County Championship and was rewarded with a Rory Burns 120 1359 75% 340 3 19.8% first call up to the England side, replacing Alastair Cook at the top of the order for the tour of Sri Lanka. Keaton Jennings 91 709 78% 150 3 18.5% Ben Slater 82 1025 78% 310 2 17.2% Burns faced 120 balls per innings in 2018 and was only dismissed in the first 20 balls of his innings 3 times over the Matthew Renshaw* 74 513 72% 148 2 17% course of the season. His England opening partner during the winter, Keaton Jennings ranked second in % of team Alastair Cook 68 412 76% 94 4 16.8% runs (18.5%). Gary Ballance 65 906 73% 214 6 16.4% James Hildreth scored 1000 runs in the season for the seventh time in his career, however he also displayed a vulnerability James Vince 67 962 75% 200 5 16.3% during the early stages of an innings. Over the course of Colin Ackermann* 65 876 74% 192 7 16.2% 2018, he was dismissed ten times during the first twenty balls he faced. James Hildreth 64 1089 69% 212 10 16.2% Opposition captains may wish to take note and attack the Ollie Pope 81 986 70% 192 0 15.9% Somerset man early on, as he proved much harder to dismiss once through that tricky early spell. League Average 41 273 77% 78 5 12.9% Highest Ranked Lowest Ranked * 2nd Division 4 Rory Burns Season Spotlight 1359 1st Runs scored 64.71 7th Average 1st Balls Faced 51.5 2637 83rd Strike rate 19.8% 3 2nd Percentage of team runs* 29th Out in 1st 20 *Minimum 3 games 5 Key Bowling Performances This table shows the 10 bowlers who dismissed the most Wickets Wickets in 1st Dot Ball % Balls per Chances batsman in the first 20 balls of their innings – a potentially 20 Balls Boundary created useful statistic for captains looking to go for the jugular or hoping to spark a collapse. Kent’s Matt Henry proved the Matt Henry 75 44 76% 16 475 most dangerous bowler for players new to the crease with 44 victims before they’d been able to play themselves in. Chris Rushworth 60 33 76% 12 522 Ollie Robinson 74 33 76% 13 579 The ‘Chances Created’ metric uses Opta’s granular data points to dig deeper than just wicket totals. By including Graham Onions 57 32 75% 13 446 detailed data points such as ‘connection types against’, ‘uncontrolled aerial shots’ and dropped catches we can Jamie Porter 57 32 75% 12 481 identify bowlers who have been creating the most chances for their teams, regardless of whether those chances have Jofra Archer 42 30 77% 13 320 been taken. Tim Murtagh 58 29 79% 16 374 It is worth noting that whilst Sussex seamer Ollie Robinson Darren Stevens 42 28 79% 14 291 created over 100 more chances than Henry over the course of the season, the Kent man finished the season with more Ben Sanderson 60 28 81% 12 524 wickets, suggesting he was strongly backed up in the field by his teammates and his captain. Morne Morkel 59 28 80% 13 466 League average 15 6.5 75% 14 114 Highest Ranked Lowest Ranked 6 Key Bowling Performances This scatter graph shows the amount of chances the selected bowlers created over the Championship season plotted against their dot ball percentage. At first glance there seems to be little correlation between dot balls and chances created, but on closer inspection two distinct groups emerge, each with a strong correlation - bowlers who have a low dot ball % but a high number of chances and bowlers with a high dot ball % and high number of chances. This suggests that there are two different ways to create chances. Bowling attacking lines and lengths, which may result in fewer dot balls but high chances, or defensive bowling which brings about chances as a result of the sustained pressure a high number of dot balls brings. Attacking Bowler Defensive Bowler 600 Ollie Robinson 550 Chris Rushworth Ben Sanderson 500 Jamie Porter Matt Henry Morne Morkel 450 Graham Onions 400 Tim Murtagh 350 Chances Jofra Archer 300 Darren Stevens 250 200 74% 75% 76% 77% 78% 79% 80% 81% 82% Dot Ball % 7 Batting – 1st innings The importance of first innings runs was underlined by the fact both Division 1 champions Surrey and Division 2 winners Warwickshire ranked top in average1st innings total and length of 1st innings. Division One RunScr Avg 1st Inns Total Average v Seam Average v Spin Overs per 1st innings Dot ball % vs Spin Surrey 4614 330 33.0 32.5 95.6 73.6% Somerset 4197 300 27.6 39.6 85.7 72.0% Essex 3592 276 29.1 42.4 82.9 74.3% Hampshire 3279 234 23.0 30.9 80.3 77.0% Lancashire 3417 244 24.6 25.8 77.2 73.0% Worcestershire 3638 260 25.4 33.9 76.5 69.7% Yorkshire 3251 250 23.7 36.0 75.5 74.4% Nottinghamshire 3291 235 23.9 24.1 67.0 71.6% Division Two RunScr Avg 1st Inns Total Average v Seam Average v Spin Overs per 1st innings Dot ball % vs Spin Warwickshire 4635 331 32.2 39.2 103.1 72.6% Kent 3295 235 21.7 56.4 69.7 63.8% Sussex 4096 293 27.5 59.9 80.5 66.8% Middlesex 2933 210 20.5 37.2 65.4 65.7% Gloucestershire 2864 205 18.5 44 79.5 75.2% Leicestershire 3473 248 23.8 34.5 83.1 69.8% Derbyshire 3921 280 29.5 25.5 85.6 69.5% Durham 2744 211 20.3 32.7 70.1 79.1% Northamptonshire 2705 208 18.8 50.9 62.8 68.2% Glamorgan 2728 195 20.1 23.1 63.2 74.2% Highest Ranked Lowest Ranked 8 Batting – 1st innings Whilst Warwickshire, boosted by their new openers Will Rhodes and Dom Sibley, comfortably batted for the longest number of overs during 2018, Kent secured promotion to the top flight despite only averaging 235 runs during their first innings. The Kent batsmen averaged only 21.71 against seam and their average first innings total was boosted in part by a positive approach when facing spin. Their weakness against seam may be something that opposing captains look to exploit in the 2019 Championship. 110 Warwickshire 100 90 Derbyshire Leicestershire 80 Gloucestershire Sussex 70 Durham Kent Overs per 1st innings Middlesex Glamorgan ottinghamshire 60 50 170 190 210 230 250 270 290 310 330 350 Avg 1st Inns Total 9 Bowling – 1st innings Despite forcing the joint fewest false shots per innings (69) Lancashire had the most efficient attack, fielding for the fewest average overs (73) in the 1st innings. In Division Two, Kent possessed the most incisive attack, taking an average of just 62 overs to bowl the opposition out. As a unit, their bowlers had the best economy rate across both divisions against top four opposition batsmen and they were particularly effective at not allowing a new batter to settle – 71 of all their first innings wickets came during the first twenty balls of a player’s innings. Team AVG 1st Innings Overs RunConc Wickets FalseShotPerInns Wkt1st20Ball Avg1st4Bat Econ1st4Bat Surrey 79 3386 136 79 51 25.3 2.8 Somerset 79 3535 132 69 52 30.5 3.1 Essex 77 2903 126 75 49 28.3 2.9 Yorkshire 86 3774 125 71 56 40.1 3.4 Hampshire 78 3699 132 73 54 33.1 3.3 Nottinghamshire 88 4065 139 75 44 31.1 3.3 Lancashire 73 3095 134 69 59 25.7 3.0 Worcestershire 82 3806 132 78 55 39.1 3.3 Team AVG 1st Innings Overs RunConc Wickets FalseShotPerInns Wkt1st20Ball Avg1st4Bat Econ1st4Bat Warwickshire 68 3031 137 65 56 20.6 2.9 Kent 62 2401 137 65 71 20.9 2.7 Sussex 77 3048 136 75 57 33.4 3.0 Middlesex 74 3223 134 78 53 30.9 3.1 Gloucestershire 82 3514 135 65 57 35.7 3.2 Leicestershire 75 3159 135 63 57 25.2 2.8 Derbyshire 89 4027 138 74 49 31.5 3.1 Durham 86 3577 130 84 50 36.0 3.3 Northamptonshire 64 2388 130 70 53 16.9 2.8 Glamorgan 87 3763 136 67 57 34.9 3.2 Highest Ranked Lowest Ranked 10 Competition Overview Average 1st st Average 1 innings score in Average Balls per innings score wins Powerplay total boundary 272 295 50 9.8 Games won Games won by Teams that Catch by side that side that won won the toss and Percentage batted second the toss elected to bowl first 53% 38% 57% 83.2% 11 Key Batting Performances Top run scorers in winning chases Kent duo Heino Kuhn and Joe Denly were the leading run Balls Faced Total Runs Runs Per Powerplay Outs in 1st Runs in scorers in successful run chases during the 2018 competition.