May 13, 2009

Stumped!

IPL is very closely connected to both my salary and my husband's, so don't blame me for being interested. I don't understand the game, I don't have a TV, and I have barely-there team loyalty, so it's mostly a number-fest out there as far as I'm concerned.

Here are some statistics I culled out (manually) for the last few matches. (Note that the washed-out matches were number 7 and 13!)

Toss Winners:

  • 23 won the match, 17 lost the match
  • 27 chose to bat first, 13 to field first
  • Of those who fielded first, 8 won the match, 5 lost the match
  • Of those who batted first, 15 won the match, 12 lost the match

Now this looks fairly straightforward, assuming those who make a decision after the toss have some sense and it really means something to be able to choose. But that second stat, it's very numerically skewed. Possible reasons:

  1. The pitches are good for batting first. This is probably the actual reason.
  2. Viewership is higher and more focused in the second innings of an exciting match, and sponsors urge the team to fill the field with their logos at that point. This is the theory that makes me fear I will go mad or write saas-bahu scripts in the near future.




1 comment:

Abhishek Saha said...

If you add up your numbers then you will find that 20 matches were won by teams batting first and 20 by teams fielding first. Comments?