England cricket team seem to be the favourites to win the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, which is being held in England. "English cricket team are the clear favourites!" We keep hearing this from a lot of cricket experts and panelists. This is not just based on the current form of the English players, but it’s also because of the fearless approach which is adopted by the top 7 English batsmen, while batting.
I always wondered, since the time I started following cricket, that why is it that 300+ scores are not scored more frequently by teams who boast of a strong, formidable batting line up? Why?
When we were growing up, we used to play cricket in our colony. If it was raining or very hot outside, we used to play cricket in the common gallery within our building or sometimes even on our terrace. When we were playing cricket, as kids, we used to have these rules that if the cricket ball even touches the bat, the batsman had to take a run. It was a mandate. If the batsman failed in completing a run you could run him out. We called this the "Tipi-Run" game. We used to play normal cricket also, which used to be deprived of this run-if-bat-had-touched-the-ball rule. But this 'Tipi-Run' would make it more exciting hence we would play it more often.
So if we were playing a short 5 over match between two small teams, we used to mostly have a 40+ score that needed to be chased. In 5 overs, if 5*6 = 30 legal deliveries were bowled, it would result in at least 26-28 balls which would at least touch the bat, even if the batsman had only defended. Apart from this, the batsman would take a double or 3 runs in one stroke on some deliveries bowled. There would be deliveries which would have boundaries scored off them. Not to forget the wide/no balls bowled. It means a strong batting team should end up scoring at least 40+ runs in a 5 over match, 80+ runs in a 10 over match and so on.
If you apply this concept in the ODI matches, 50 overs bowled means 50*6 = 300 legal deliveries bowled. A few extras which would come from No/Wide deliveries bowled. Add the boundaries which would be hit from the 1st to the 50th over bowled. A batting side which is considered strong should be able to easily score at least 300+ score six out of 10 times that they bat first. If it is a destructive batting line up which has fearsome batsmen like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell in it's batting line up expect 300+ runs scored frequently and with more brutality.
The catch here is that the batsmen, who are considered as top quality international batsmen, should have been taught and need to learn this from an early age that they should not be playing dot balls and wasting deliveries. Or the number of dot balls played should be very very less.
I believe the current England Cricket Team is working on this concept of playing a negligible amount of dot deliveries. They rotate the strike very well. Even if a wicket goes down, the incoming batsman does not get bogged down. Or the 'set' batsman maintains a fair strike rate, scoring some brisk boundaries after a wicket has fallen down. This ensures that the scoring rate does not go down.
This is what separates the current England cricket team from the other teams. All top teams like India, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, West Indies have explosive batsmen. But the English batsmen are good in rotating strike, play very less dot deliveries and don't get bogged down if a wicket goes down.
Among the globally famous, explosive batsmen like M.S. Dhoni - considered to be the best finisher in limited overs cricket, Rohit Sharma - nicknamed the Hitman because of his liking for big shots and sixers, Chris Gayle - the Universe Boss, David Warner etc. some batsmen take up a lot of deliveries to 'settle down' and get used to the pace & bounce of the pitch and conditions. Then they make up for it by playing big shots. If they are successful, the team gets a big score. If they get out before slogging then their team suffers.
If you check any top order destructive batsman who has scored a century, normally this will be the summary of his century scored. Let's say he scored exactly 100 and got out. He scored it in 110 deliveries. It would be considered a good innings with respect to an ODI innings in the contemporary scenario. Further he has hit 12 boundaries (4's) and 3 sixes(6's). Which means 12*4 + 3*6 = 66 runs scored off the 15 deliveries which were hit for boundaries. To score the next 100-66 = 34 runs, 110 - 15 = 95 deliveries were consumed. If you say no double or triple run scoring shot was hit then it wound mean you take 34 deliveries to shore 34 runs, which is good enough. So 95 - 34 gives us 61 deliveries left. 61 deliveries were dot deliveries. Off 61 deliveries, not a single run was scored. That's what a normal, 'good' rated ODI innings looks like.
If the number of 'dot deliveries' can be reduced, I think it can bring in a sea of a change in the sorting rates and the targets set/chased in ODI's.
Remember the famous ODI in which Australia set 434 and South Africa chased it down with ease? In the chase, the South African batsmen played a negligible amount of dot deliveries, kept rotating the strike and kept finding the boundaries.
This culture of playing less deliveries can't be developed overnight. I believe I have been witnessing England batsmen cutting down or making endeavours to cut down on the dot balls since quite some time. It's been beginning to show in their results since 2015.
I think that the England team or English batsmen are best equipped to breach the 500+ runs scored in an ODI team. It's because of the approach that all of their top 7 batsmen apply in every match. Maybe in this world cup, may be after the world cup. But this England cricket team is the best equipped to make history by being the first team to score 500+ runs in an ODI.
There are other teams like West Indies, Australia, India, New Zealand. All these teams make 300+ scores and have frequently chased down 300+ scores while batting second. In fact India and Australia were the top 2 teams to have scored 300+ maximum number of times in ODI's.
But in the contemporary scenario, England are best equipped and are more consistent. They should be the most feared among all. Though England team can have a bad day in the knock out stage or someone from the opposite team can play the innings of his lifetime and take the game away from England, single handedly, in a knock out game.
But this England team looks good. There are many good fielding and bowling sides. England are one of them. The English batsmen take the England team above every other team, as you can see from their recent records and performances.
