A story of match tactics
The news came through as I sat at home, the fire flickering in the corner. Notification pinged up on my phone. I stopped short of rubbing my eyes in disbelief, but shook my head in horror. The latest team effort had just come through. The game time had meant I was unable to play in this one. Part of me wonders if it would have made any difference. It is certainly our biggest defeat, and in my decade and a bit of playing this sport, is probably the highest score I’ve seen on a scoreboard.
207 – -12.
No. That’s not a typo. Two hundred and seven against negative twelve.
Those not familiar with the game; when you lose a wicket instead of the batsman walking off, they continue playing but lose 5 runs. This allows for some interesting statistics, and in this case, negative scores.
In the grade we play in, a score of 150-160 is considered a high total. On average, teams will score between 90 and 120.
207.
Now; it is entirely possible that there was an issue with the grading games, and a team has ended up in the wrong grade. Or maybe there was a relegation with the need to move a team up. Regardless, we had lost a game by one of the largest margins in our team’s history.
The Final Rematch
We had made it through the rest of the season with fairly usual scorelines. We had played 11, won 3 and lost 8. The opposition topped out the table with 11 games, 11 wins. No one had beaten them all season.
Needless to say, when the opportunity to play against them at the end of the season came up, I was relatively reluctant to sign myself up to the team sheet. However, with several players away, I was called up and instated as on-field captain for the game.
It couldn’t be as bad as it was in that first game – surely. We had played them again with less of a thrashing – 126 to 91 – although I wasn’t present for that game either.
Game Tactics
There are certain aspects of the game that can impact on the outcome more than just performances on the field. I’ve collected the scorecards from every game and collated them into a database. Think Moneyball with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, but for Cricket. For the first 10 years, the batting order and partnerships were chosen at random using playing cards – so I can safely deduce the batters each player bats well with, which position in the batting order they perform best at, and even what game time we play best at.
- Batting First
- Start Strong
- Create Pressure
- Scoreboard Pressure
Batting First
As a player, I much prefer batting second. All through high school as the team capatain, I would always try to bat second. The main reason being was completely selfish, in that the game seemed to last longer, or you stayed involved for longer.
I know from the decade worth of stats that our team averages 97 when we bat first, and 94 when we bat second. This might not seem much, but when you consider the number of games that contribute to that average, it’s definitely worthwhile batting first. So that was my first aim. Of course, winning the toss is what it is, and as it happened; I called heads and watched it land with the queen’s portrait looking up. “We’ll bat first” were the only three words I needed to say.
Start Strong
Two batters who were warmed up, who were keen to bat together put on their gloves and headed into the cauldron. They didn’t do anything spectacular. They took their time, chose their shots and didn’t lose a wicket. They kept the score ticking over, and no doubt the left-hand / right hand combination was frustrating the bowlers. They walked off with 46, putting us in a strong position right off the bat. Considering we’re used to only putting up 20’s for each partnership, 46 was outstanding.
The next partnerships were 15 and 9 respectively, before myself and Sam went out and added 27 on the scorecard. We ended with a very respectable 97 – our highest score against them yet. But that 201 loomed in the background and we knew we would be up against it in the field.
Create Pressure
By starting off strong with a big score like 46, we could approach the game in two ways. One is to go skin hunting. A skin is a bonus point for having the highest score in each of the 4 partnerships. We could probably defend 46 with bowling an over or two of our lesser abled bowlers in that partnership and get the skin, whilst also then saving our better bowlers to try and win the 15 skin and the 27 skin. The 9 skin would be a bit out of reach.
However, there was something better at stake. We had nothing to lose. And skins were worth less and less given the time in the season and the fact we were just off last place on the table.
So instead, we decided to create pressure. We bowl our top line bowlers first. Lock them down. Take wickets. Blitz them. And that’s what we did. Well, sort of.
After three of their four overs they were on 29, having lost no wickets and scoring 9, 10 and 10 off the overs. I took the ball at the top of my run up and took a breath. 18 runs to save the skin. That’s all I had to do – and considering my average is in single figures, I wasn’t too worried about them getting there. But at the same time, we hadn’t really put a lot of pressure on them.
Especially when my first ball floated down leg-side for a wide.
But what followed was as good an over as you can have without taking 6 wickets in a row. The over was as follows:
Wide, Dot, Wicket, Dot, Wicket, Dot.
Their partnership finished on 21 – less than half the runs that we had scored at the same stage.
Scoreboard Pressure
What this does is creates scoreboard pressure. That is, when the opposition looks up at the scoreboard and sees how many runs they need to get, they feel pressure in how many deliveries they have left in which to score those runs.
What I hadn’t banked on was four incredible overs that brought about a mini-collapse. Three of the overs took two wickets in each. 2 for -1, 2 for -6 and 2 for -2. They ended with a score of 10 after taking 19 off the other over. 10 chasing 15 for our second skin of the night. Total of 31 half way through their innings chasing 97.
Their next partnership came out and batted sensibly, but we kept taking our chances and the fourth over by Claude followed a similar pattern to my first effort with W, Dot, Dot, Wicket, Dot, Wicket. They finished with a respectable 25, increasing their total to 56. That left 42 for their final batters to get.
THAT is scoreboard pressure.
Final Overs
Mathematically, 42 isn’t too hard. Scoring twos by hitting the ball into the side net every ball for four overs will get you 48 runs. But, that’s not how the brain works when it’s under pressure. It sees 42 runs and thinks it has to come out and smash the ball everywhere and get as many runs as you can.
The final four overs featured 3 of the 4 bowlers that I’d used in the first partnership, defending 42 off 24.
We got off to a flyer, with 2 back to back run outs in the first over. Only 6 runs scored. 36 off 18. The second over finished with two dot balls, but did include a seven to the back net, with 16 on the scoreboard. 26 off 12 remaining.
Step up to the plate; Glyn. Two singles off his first two deliveries. Then came the magic. A fuller delivery just outside off. Clipped the bottom edge of the hopeful swing to the back net, chopping the ball onto his stumps. The following delivery was copy & paste, sending the bails rattling after getting chopped on again. The hattrick ball was similar, except the batsman got hold of it, absolutely middling it… straight back to the bowler who took the catch and secured his first hattrick in any form of the game. Finishing the over with 3 for -11. They now needed 37 off 6 deliveries.
Now, in outdoor, that scoreline is impossible unless there is a wide or a no-ball. In indoor, due to hitting the back net on the full for 6, plus the one you run for 7, 37 is achievable.
But not when you have to face up to my bowling. For a few years now, the final over has been given to me – I think initially because I’m fairly accurate and don’t accrue the extra deliveries that are possible in the final over of the indoor game. But also because I average less than 6 runs an over off my bowling over my career.
Admittedly, my worse figures are 0 for 50 off my two overs. Both overs went for around 25. I would have to bowl my worst ever over to go for 37.
The first ball was hit into the off side, picked up, flicked to the keeper and bails were off before the batters could do anything. Now the game was ours. One run off the next ball and a dot ball followed. The next ball was hit to the back off the side net for four.
The penultimate delivery was hit straight to the back net fielder who took the catch. They finished with 2 runs off the last ball, though there was a definite appeal for a run out, which would have been close if there were cameras and a third umpire. They finished their partnership with 2 out of the 42 runs they needed.
I finished the game with figures of 4 for -11, and coupled with my 14 runs off the bat, came away with the Man of the Match (judged by highest contribution* across both teams).
*contribution is batting runs – runs off your bowling.
Final Thoughts
There are some pretty amazing facts that came out of the game:
- Not only had we won the game, but we had taken 3 skins. 97 – 58.
- We had given the unbeaten team at the top of the table their first, and only loss for the season.
- Their previous lowest score was 91. We had rolled them for over 30 runs less than that.
- We were second to bottom of the league at the time.
We won. Against all odds, we won.
Well… almost.
See – the odds within cricket can be swayed in your favour. The tactics outlined above contributed hugely to the outcome of the game. Batting first. Starting strong. Creating pressure and using scoreboard pressure are all things that teams can do to assist you to winning games.
I used this game as a lesson with my class. I showed them the game. I showed them the scorecard. I showed them the points table and the previous result. I told them the story. I explained to them that initially I didn’t even want to play, but walked away at the end probably playing my best game in recent history and coming away with a phenomenal win given the circumstances and previous results. I explained that it would have been easy to just give up. But we had resilience. I explained that regardless of what had happened in the past, all we could do is go out there and do our best. And at the end of it, what happened? We won. We did it.