Hi, Cricket Insider🐧#66

By Cricket Insider

October 22, 2023

Happy Weekend! This is the State of Cricket. Brought to you by Cricket Huddle. The Newsletter that makes cricket fans smarter with every single read. It’s World Cup Cricket time and we already have upsets lined up. So with that - let's get right into it. Here's what we got this week.

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INSIGHT 🤔
England Cricket and its Over-reliance on Data : Naseer Hussain

It’s not the three losses. The three losses will hurt you. They lost three in the last World Cup, in the middle of that, but it was the way they were playing. You felt in that World Cup those three losses, so that was an England side that had confidence or years, and were playing the style and brand of cricket that they could bounce back from. This side, at the moment, looks like a side that has no confidence and has gone away from what they’ve always done.

“I think they could do it (win the remaining five matches), but they’ve left themselves a whole heap to do. They’ve got to win every game and they’ve got to get, anyone could be beaten, anyone could have a bad day, a bad tournament, to get your decision-making right off the field.

Against South Africa, England played with just one spinner, Adil Rashid, leaving out both Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali. Hussain explained that the move, while backed by historical data at the venue, was not necessarily right.

“I’m trying to explain things to you at home. Why would they leave out Livingstone and Moeen Ali at seven? Because the stats tell them that the seamer does better than the spinner here. So if they play another spinner in Livingstone or Ali, then they’re leaving a seamer out. So they play the extra seamer down there, but that leaves them vulnerable at No.7.”

After the game, England coach Matthew Mott said that they had elected to field first looking at historical numbers of the venue, but it might have been the wrong decision in hindsight.

Hussain said that the over-dependence on numbers might be harming England: “And then the stats with chasing. The only thing with the stats with chasing here, a lot of those would be IPL stats where the game’s still going on now (9 pm local time) and the dew is coming down now. But the game finished early again.

“So the stats… have that gut feel, just look up at the heat and humidity and go, ‘You know what? This is a belter of a pitch. We are a very good batting side, we are going hard, we’re going to play Livingstone at seven.’ Livingstone on this small ground could win you a game. Go hard and win the game that way and put them under pressure in the field.”

“I keep repeating it. The quality of performance was not good enough, but get your decision-making right off the field. That wasn’t right today.”

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X FACTOR ✨
VIDEO 🎦

While it's not a good idea to bring religion into the game, all competitive sport is about passion. To expect a crowd to not be heavily partisan, particularly when India and Pakistan play on each other's turf, is a fantasy.

QUOTE 🗨️

“It’s time to tell the world how good South Africans are under pressure”

Heinrich Klaasen

That's a wrap. Stay thirsty and keep sipping your favorite chai you cricket nerds and romantics and see you next week. Have a wonderful weekend, all.

❤️ 🐧

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