Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics - RSA OCD1

There was a time that cricketers’ fascination with statistics could only be satisfied in the depths of winter after Derek Scott had extracted all the relevant data from hundreds of handwritten scorecards and newspaper reports. The advent of technology and the use of electronic scoring have allowed this process to be completed much sooner. It still requires clubs to submit the necessary match reports in time and takes a lot of work from Paul Reynolds and Gerry Byrne to produce the published results.

Today anyway we turn to the performance of teams. It is now common for representative teams, and indeed some clubs, to produce detailed match reports that can account for just about everything that happened on the field of play. It may not be of general interest but coaches can make good use of information on the number of scoring shots during particular periods of the match, boundaries achieved, batting and bowling wagon wheels, where catches are taken in the field and so on.

For the cricketing public this is too much but some statistics on how teams are performing may be of interest. Who, for example, are the most generous team in Leinster [perhaps a new category for the end of season Awards Night], on what grounds are the most runs scored, which team has the best record in terms of catches taken etc.

The information under relates to league matches in Open Competitions Division 1 and to the completed first cycle of matches. As might be expected Merrion, with seven wins out of seven [before their ten run series of wins in all competitions was ended by Pembroke last weekend], have the best ratio [runs per wicket] of batting to bowling. They are also the most generous side in terms of extras. Terenure the most parsimonious. Pembroke, as befitting a young side, have taken the most catches. Terenure have used players  than anyone else[19] so far this season, while North County, The Hills and Merrion the least [14]. The most batting friendly ground would appear to be Anglesea Road, followed by the Vineyard, although this in part reflects batting strengths and requires more data and further analysis. The same can be said about the strength of bowling when one sees Claremount Road has the lowest runs per over.

North County have the highest aggregate of runs and Merrion taken the greatest number of wickets – not what one might have expected. The Hills have conceded the most runs. All clubs have played seven matches.