Rage Analysis (batting)

We all know that rage is a big part of life among the Popped Collars players. Captain Brad leads from the front in the raging stakes - the most famous being the time he played it safe on the final ball of a skin by leaving the ball alone, only to be given out LBW, and lose the skin.

While there are no stats kept on actual rage levels reached by players during the game, we can assume that - when batting - the rage builds in any player after they lose a wicket. So in this - the first of 5 mini-blogs for the week - I will look at which batsmen perform the best on the ball after they lose a wicket.

You might say that this stat will show us who bats better when bringing the rage, or you might say that it's who has the cool head, and is able to calmly put aside the events of the previous ball and carry on batting well. The stats are inconclusive....

Name	Balls	Runs	Runs/Ball
Brad	70	129	1.84
Xavier	74	119	1.61
Sanjit	77	97	1.26
Jake	71	82	1.15
Julian	56	64	1.14
Gareth	59	58	0.98
Rian	57	49	0.86
Andy	69	56	0.81

So there you go, Brad scores the most runs per ball when he has just lost a wicket. Seems to prove the theory that "we play better when there's more rage!"

But is that true. After all, Brad scores the most runs per ball usually anyway. So what about this... who shows the greatest IMPROVEMENT when they've just lost a wicket. Let's compare the numbers above to people's overall averages...

Name	R/B overall	R/B after-wicket	Comparison (%)
Sanjit	0.7	1.26	181.2
Xavier	1.29	1.61	124.7
Brad	1.52	1.84	121.4
Jake	0.98	1.15	117.8
Gareth	0.99	0.98	99.3
Julian	1.42	1.14	80.4
Andy	1.07	0.81	75.6
Rian	1.41	0.86	61.2

Domination from Sanjit!! The big-fella's batting skills are almost doubled after he's just been out! Perhaps this could be employed as a strategy for the opposition (don't get Sanjit out - he'll punish you next ball). Or perhaps a coaching technique (Sanjit, every ball, imagine that you just got out last ball!). Or a strategy to improve performance (take Stevejit into the next net before he goes into bat and bowl him out a few times).

I find it hard to believe that Sanj is the epitomy of rage in our team, so I'm going to take this as an indication of cool-headedness, and the ability to put poor performance behind him.