Last night saw the return of Pearson to the Popped Collars line-up. It also saw the return of our old mate Rob, who hasn't set foot on an indoor court for many years now. But because we love him so much, today's post is all about Pearson. He started his innings last night with 3 sevens in the first 2 overs, and from the sideline, we urged him to "Go for the record!".
So he did. And he got out a lot attempting it. And so the question arose... who has the lowest score while hitting the most sevens.
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
EXTRA! EXTRA!
The new season is off to a good start in that Popped Collars have racked up 3 wins from 3 games, including a great batting performance last night to knock off last season's premiers, DILLIGAFS. But it probably shouldn't have taken such a batting performance to get there. With the ball, PC racked up all sorts of records in the category of bowling extras.
Saturday, 18 September 2010
End Of Season 2010: Season Averages and Comparisons
This is the second last season wrap-up post. After yesterday looking at season totals, today I'll be going through the averages - and also having a look at how people's performances have changed from season one to season two.
Friday, 17 September 2010
End Of Season 2010: Season Totals
And now it's time to look at the statistical totals for the season as a whole. Most runs, most wickets, and all that jazz.
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
End Of Season 2010: Semi Final Stats
Following on from yesterday's match-report, today I present some specific stats, facts and figures from the match. A few records were set, or came very close to being set - mostly of the unsuccessful variety. However, several goals were achieved and milestones reached during the game to ensure that it wasn't all bad... just the result of the game was. The individual performances are shown in the "stat of the week" section on the left of the page.
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
End of season 2010: Semi-Final Match Report
The 2010 winter season came to an end last night for the Popped Collars, and so today I present the first in a series of end-of-season posts, beginning with a write-up of all the excitement from last night's game...
Monday, 13 September 2010
Most In An Innings
During the one-season lifetime of our Friday night team, GG, there was often a need for our players to compete among themselves - because the opposition were not providing any challenge. The most common game was for the batters in a particular pair to see who could hit the most sevens in their four overs.
On the other side of the coin, Popped Collars, our "pro team", are occasionally excited about (or bagging out the opposition for) playing "pro-style indoor" - that is, hitting lots of safe twos.
So today I'm going to check out the most of each scoring shot that has been achieved by a batsman in an innings.
On the other side of the coin, Popped Collars, our "pro team", are occasionally excited about (or bagging out the opposition for) playing "pro-style indoor" - that is, hitting lots of safe twos.
So today I'm going to check out the most of each scoring shot that has been achieved by a batsman in an innings.
Monday, 30 August 2010
GG Premiership Victory!
Following the success of the Popped Collars last season, Friday night saw the claiming of a second consecutive premiership for the team through their offshoot 6-a-side institution, GG. The Grand Final victory was made all the more sweet by the fact that it was over a extremely vocal Indian Kangaroos - the team's arch rivals throughout the competition.
GG and the Kangaroos had met twice during the regular season, and had been in a constant struggle for top place on the ladder. On the first occasion the Kangaroos defeated a rather understrenth GG team quite comfortably. In the second encounter, the Kangaroos pulled off the narrowest of victories by scoring a three (doubled to make six) off the final ball of the match to win by 2 runs. They also held on to top spot on the ladder by a narrow margin for almost the entire season - in the end holding the position by just 6 points over GG.
The two teams dominated the competition; the only other team that looked like being a chance were the Wickies who were unfortunately disdvantaged by being placed in the top grade for the first portion of the season, and then were only able to come back enough to finish 5th.
The Grand Final itself started with an extremely lucky batting pair for the Indian Kangaroos. They managed to poke around with shots off the edge, shots off the body, awkward bounces of the ball out of net corners, missed chances by the fielders, and at least one umpiring decision in their favour. Through all of that they lost no wickets and scored 47 to give the Kangaroos a solid start to the game.
From there it all went to GG. The second pair played more aggressively, and the bowlers and fielders took advantage, keeping them below 30. The third pair played more aggresively still, and scored less runs still - unable to even reach 20.
Chasing an opposition total of just 92, it was the captain leading from the front. Brad and Sanjit batted first with plenty of safe play interspersed with the occasional putting away of a bad delivery. Brad made a solid 43 in a partnership of almost 60.
Rian and Xavier continued accumulating runs by incorporating the much-unloved "pro indoor" style of play. It was unexciting, but with the Kangaroos persisting with 2 fielders on the back net for the entire game, it was ridiculously easy to rack up the runs.
The final over of this pair brought some life back to the game. Rian popped the first ball up on the off side, but the fielder completely misjudged a catching chance. Xavier mishit a shot to the back net, presenting a sitter of a catch to the fielder there, who proceeded to drop it. The bowler was ropeable. And then... on the final ball... the game came alive! Xavier, with his team clearly on ttrack for victory, was looking to bring some excitement back to the match. He charged, swung, was beaten by a slower spinning ball, and was stumped, for -10 runs.
...and the Kangaroos bowler celebrated. Well, celebrated may be an understatement - he was down on one knee, he was pumping his fists, he was roaring with jubilation. Never have I seen such an exquisitely out-of-proportion (but still genuine) celebration of a wicket. GG still led by a run with an entire batting pair still to come, but the excitement was that of a man who had just taken a wicket from the last ball of the match to claim victory.
Even the umpire on the next court was enthralled by the celebration, and decided that this game must be the one to watch.
Throughout the final batting pair, with the result of the cricket game beyond doubt, there was a new competition underway... which team could roar the loudest in approval of and support for themselves. But the Indian Kangaroos could not even win this battle. While they cheered, high-fived, back-patted, and jumped around at the fall of every wicket, GG (and their small cheer squad) were screaming at everything else. Twos, singles, dot-balls, leaves outside the off stump, wides... everything that didn't lose them runs brought a roar of approval. GG officially claimed victory in the shouting match when some guys off-court in another game called for them to "Shut The F#@& Up!!"
The final over was subdued , but Andy continued to strike blows in the mental battle by asking for all 4 wides to be rebowled by the man who started the outrageous celebrations 4 overs before.
Upstairs after the game, GG indulged in jugs of beer, plates of wedges, beer glasses of victory and premiership shirts of glory. The unfortunate part of it all was that Gareth - the man whose oft-injured groin was the namesake and mascot of the team - was not around to share in the moment.
GG shall now be retired from indoor cricket with a 100% premiership record.
GG and the Kangaroos had met twice during the regular season, and had been in a constant struggle for top place on the ladder. On the first occasion the Kangaroos defeated a rather understrenth GG team quite comfortably. In the second encounter, the Kangaroos pulled off the narrowest of victories by scoring a three (doubled to make six) off the final ball of the match to win by 2 runs. They also held on to top spot on the ladder by a narrow margin for almost the entire season - in the end holding the position by just 6 points over GG.
The two teams dominated the competition; the only other team that looked like being a chance were the Wickies who were unfortunately disdvantaged by being placed in the top grade for the first portion of the season, and then were only able to come back enough to finish 5th.
The Grand Final itself started with an extremely lucky batting pair for the Indian Kangaroos. They managed to poke around with shots off the edge, shots off the body, awkward bounces of the ball out of net corners, missed chances by the fielders, and at least one umpiring decision in their favour. Through all of that they lost no wickets and scored 47 to give the Kangaroos a solid start to the game.
From there it all went to GG. The second pair played more aggressively, and the bowlers and fielders took advantage, keeping them below 30. The third pair played more aggresively still, and scored less runs still - unable to even reach 20.
Chasing an opposition total of just 92, it was the captain leading from the front. Brad and Sanjit batted first with plenty of safe play interspersed with the occasional putting away of a bad delivery. Brad made a solid 43 in a partnership of almost 60.
Rian and Xavier continued accumulating runs by incorporating the much-unloved "pro indoor" style of play. It was unexciting, but with the Kangaroos persisting with 2 fielders on the back net for the entire game, it was ridiculously easy to rack up the runs.
The final over of this pair brought some life back to the game. Rian popped the first ball up on the off side, but the fielder completely misjudged a catching chance. Xavier mishit a shot to the back net, presenting a sitter of a catch to the fielder there, who proceeded to drop it. The bowler was ropeable. And then... on the final ball... the game came alive! Xavier, with his team clearly on ttrack for victory, was looking to bring some excitement back to the match. He charged, swung, was beaten by a slower spinning ball, and was stumped, for -10 runs.
...and the Kangaroos bowler celebrated. Well, celebrated may be an understatement - he was down on one knee, he was pumping his fists, he was roaring with jubilation. Never have I seen such an exquisitely out-of-proportion (but still genuine) celebration of a wicket. GG still led by a run with an entire batting pair still to come, but the excitement was that of a man who had just taken a wicket from the last ball of the match to claim victory.
Even the umpire on the next court was enthralled by the celebration, and decided that this game must be the one to watch.
Throughout the final batting pair, with the result of the cricket game beyond doubt, there was a new competition underway... which team could roar the loudest in approval of and support for themselves. But the Indian Kangaroos could not even win this battle. While they cheered, high-fived, back-patted, and jumped around at the fall of every wicket, GG (and their small cheer squad) were screaming at everything else. Twos, singles, dot-balls, leaves outside the off stump, wides... everything that didn't lose them runs brought a roar of approval. GG officially claimed victory in the shouting match when some guys off-court in another game called for them to "Shut The F#@& Up!!"
The final over was subdued , but Andy continued to strike blows in the mental battle by asking for all 4 wides to be rebowled by the man who started the outrageous celebrations 4 overs before.
Upstairs after the game, GG indulged in jugs of beer, plates of wedges, beer glasses of victory and premiership shirts of glory. The unfortunate part of it all was that Gareth - the man whose oft-injured groin was the namesake and mascot of the team - was not around to share in the moment.
GG shall now be retired from indoor cricket with a 100% premiership record.
Friday, 20 August 2010
Stat Of The Moment: Election Spending
And now for something completely different...
This comes from an article detailing the amount of money spent on television advertising by the various parties during this election campaign. Hidden among the "...millions of dollars" spent and "...thousands of advertisements" screened by the major parties comes this pure-gold statistic:
"the Communist Alliance recorded the most modest spend, airing one advertisement, just once, for an estimated outlay of $76"
This comes from an article detailing the amount of money spent on television advertising by the various parties during this election campaign. Hidden among the "...millions of dollars" spent and "...thousands of advertisements" screened by the major parties comes this pure-gold statistic:
"the Communist Alliance recorded the most modest spend, airing one advertisement, just once, for an estimated outlay of $76"
Eventful Innings
First things first - I'm moving house this week, and so the cricket scorecards are all packed away, and so I'm still using stats that are a few weeks behind. But that's fine.
This week's question comes from someone on the team. I don't remember who, and it took me a long time to remember what it was. The question was this:
Who has been out the most times while still mangaging to make a positive score?
So we are looking for innings containing both many wickets and many runs. Eventful innings. Let's start from the top of the "most wickets lost" list and see when we find our first positive score...
8 wickets
Let's start at the very bottom of the pile - the most times a person has been out in an innings is 8. That was by our mate Bren, from the Boonies. He has also played for us a few times, but fortunately he was playing against us on the day he racked up a total of -30.
7 wickets
A few people have managed to lose 7 wickets - Sanjit and Jake are the only offenders from the Popped Collars - and in one instance, a bloke going by the name "Jarvo" managed to finish with a score of -2. So close to the record we're looking for. He faced 16 balls that day, meaning he racked up 33 runs off his 9 non-wicket balls.
6 wickets
However we have to drop to the 6-wicket list before we find a positive score. Aidan (from the team Just 1 More) and Simon (Big 4 Bandits) managed to make scores of 1 and 3 respectively despite losing 6 wickets.
Both of them were mainly helped by facing a lot of balls (18 and 19 respectively). In Simon's case, he faced 4 extras (including a no-ball hit for 7) and scored an overthrow to hog the strike some more.
5 wickets
Looking at the next teir (5-wickets) we find what I believe are the two most impressive performances. Both B.Lockley and A.Pearson have had a turn at losing 5 wickets in an innings, while managing to make totals above 20!
This means both of them hit almost 50 runs... and then lost more than half. Brad actually made it to 3/19 in two overs. Pearson faced only 17 balls including 5 wickets and 6 back-net shots.
The Reverse situation
So what about this:
What is the least number of wickets lost while still making a negative score?
That dubious honour goes to Phil's Floggers player, Darren. 2 wickets lost, and a total score of -1. And he didn't even get out on the jackpot ball! He faced 14 balls: 2 wickets, 5 dots, 5 singles, 2 twos.
For Popped Collars, Sanjit is close to this record, having acheived a 2/0. A player for the Boonies has also done a 2/0 which included hitting a five!
This week's question comes from someone on the team. I don't remember who, and it took me a long time to remember what it was. The question was this:
Who has been out the most times while still mangaging to make a positive score?
So we are looking for innings containing both many wickets and many runs. Eventful innings. Let's start from the top of the "most wickets lost" list and see when we find our first positive score...
8 wickets
Let's start at the very bottom of the pile - the most times a person has been out in an innings is 8. That was by our mate Bren, from the Boonies. He has also played for us a few times, but fortunately he was playing against us on the day he racked up a total of -30.
7 wickets
A few people have managed to lose 7 wickets - Sanjit and Jake are the only offenders from the Popped Collars - and in one instance, a bloke going by the name "Jarvo" managed to finish with a score of -2. So close to the record we're looking for. He faced 16 balls that day, meaning he racked up 33 runs off his 9 non-wicket balls.
6 wickets
However we have to drop to the 6-wicket list before we find a positive score. Aidan (from the team Just 1 More) and Simon (Big 4 Bandits) managed to make scores of 1 and 3 respectively despite losing 6 wickets.
Both of them were mainly helped by facing a lot of balls (18 and 19 respectively). In Simon's case, he faced 4 extras (including a no-ball hit for 7) and scored an overthrow to hog the strike some more.
5 wickets
Looking at the next teir (5-wickets) we find what I believe are the two most impressive performances. Both B.Lockley and A.Pearson have had a turn at losing 5 wickets in an innings, while managing to make totals above 20!
This means both of them hit almost 50 runs... and then lost more than half. Brad actually made it to 3/19 in two overs. Pearson faced only 17 balls including 5 wickets and 6 back-net shots.
The Reverse situation
So what about this:
What is the least number of wickets lost while still making a negative score?
That dubious honour goes to Phil's Floggers player, Darren. 2 wickets lost, and a total score of -1. And he didn't even get out on the jackpot ball! He faced 14 balls: 2 wickets, 5 dots, 5 singles, 2 twos.
For Popped Collars, Sanjit is close to this record, having acheived a 2/0. A player for the Boonies has also done a 2/0 which included hitting a five!
Monday, 16 August 2010
Coming soon: Greatest moments of Indoor
Rian, once again, offers the inspiration for today's post by suggesting something unrelated to statistics. After the infamous organisational skills of the NICC were displayed yet again on Friday night, Rian asked for a list of some of the great stuff-ups of everyone's "favourite" indoor cricket centre.
While such disorganisation has been common, I am struggling to recall any such incidents that would stand out as being "great". In fact, there's been so many minor stuff-ups that I can't really remember any of them specifically.
I'm therefore gunning for something more exciting, and something that all of you, my dedicated readers, can contribute to. A list of the "greatest" moment in indoor cricket... or at least, moments in the history of indoor cricket that we have been involved with.
Post a comment, or send me an email reminding me of (or describing, if for some reason I wasn't around at the time) some of the great indoor cricket tales.
It could be a thrilling match, an epic individual performance, an unlikely turn of events, a humerous off-court anecdote, an extraordinary single moment in time, a classic ongoing gag, a memorable character from the past... or whatever else you feel is appropriate. It could be from Popped Collars, or any of its predecessor teams - or from any other team or time in our, or your, past.
I already have a short list that I am compiling on my own, but I would appreciate anything that others have to say. Having played somewhere in the vicinity of 500 games of indoor in my life, and umpired another couple of hundred, I'm bound to forget plenty of the best parts.
...and more stats shall be coming later in the week, after tonight's Popped Collars game!
While such disorganisation has been common, I am struggling to recall any such incidents that would stand out as being "great". In fact, there's been so many minor stuff-ups that I can't really remember any of them specifically.
I'm therefore gunning for something more exciting, and something that all of you, my dedicated readers, can contribute to. A list of the "greatest" moment in indoor cricket... or at least, moments in the history of indoor cricket that we have been involved with.
Post a comment, or send me an email reminding me of (or describing, if for some reason I wasn't around at the time) some of the great indoor cricket tales.
It could be a thrilling match, an epic individual performance, an unlikely turn of events, a humerous off-court anecdote, an extraordinary single moment in time, a classic ongoing gag, a memorable character from the past... or whatever else you feel is appropriate. It could be from Popped Collars, or any of its predecessor teams - or from any other team or time in our, or your, past.
I already have a short list that I am compiling on my own, but I would appreciate anything that others have to say. Having played somewhere in the vicinity of 500 games of indoor in my life, and umpired another couple of hundred, I'm bound to forget plenty of the best parts.
...and more stats shall be coming later in the week, after tonight's Popped Collars game!
Friday, 6 August 2010
Jackpot Master (part 2)
Note: I've just realised I'm getting all the stats for this weeks posts from a version of my database that is a few games behind. But that's fine, we'll just pretend I wrote it a few weeks ago. I'll make sure I check which version I'm using in future...
...And now for a look at the performance of batsmen on jackpot balls.
Let's start at the bottom. James, the Jackpot God we proclaimed yesterday, just seems to attract the negative-tens. Yesterday we discovered he's bowled 3 jackpot balls for 3 wickets - today we discover he has faced 3 jackpot balls, for 2 wickets, and sits comfortably at the bottom of the batting list, 16 runs behind Pearson, the only other person with a negative total.
Of the regulars, Julian is the mixed bag - he is the equal leader in both sevens hit and in wickets lost... although admittedly neither number is very big. He joins Xavier and Jake as the players who have been out 3 times each, and our team has only hit a seven on 3 occasions - Julian, Rian and Andy having one each.
But the inconsistent approach seems to not be working so well for him - counting average runs per ball, Jules sits second-last out of the 8 standard players.
The players at the top of the list are all about consistency. Unsurprisingly, the first thing we see is that the top two players are also the two players who have never lost a jackpot-wicket. Sanjit, in second place, has probably been helped by the fact that he's only faced 8 jackpots, easily the least of the regular players. But Andy, who has faced 28 jackpots (second only to Brad's 33), has also never lost a wicket! This puts A.Ragg firmly on top of the batting jackpot list.
But wait a minute... how can someone face 28 balls, all with double score, without losing a wicket, and only have an average of less than 3 runs per ball??
The answer is: by taking the test match approach. Plenty of leaving-outside-off, play-and-miss and padding-up (9 dot-balls, 5 wides) and poking around for 1s and 2s. Apart from his single seven (aka fourteen), and a single three (aka six), the A-Ragg has hit nothing more than a two (aka four) in 26 balls. Boring? Sure. Effective? Indeed...
...and combined with his bowling stats... All-Round Jackpot Master? Absolutely.
...And now for a look at the performance of batsmen on jackpot balls.
Let's start at the bottom. James, the Jackpot God we proclaimed yesterday, just seems to attract the negative-tens. Yesterday we discovered he's bowled 3 jackpot balls for 3 wickets - today we discover he has faced 3 jackpot balls, for 2 wickets, and sits comfortably at the bottom of the batting list, 16 runs behind Pearson, the only other person with a negative total.
Of the regulars, Julian is the mixed bag - he is the equal leader in both sevens hit and in wickets lost... although admittedly neither number is very big. He joins Xavier and Jake as the players who have been out 3 times each, and our team has only hit a seven on 3 occasions - Julian, Rian and Andy having one each.
But the inconsistent approach seems to not be working so well for him - counting average runs per ball, Jules sits second-last out of the 8 standard players.
The players at the top of the list are all about consistency. Unsurprisingly, the first thing we see is that the top two players are also the two players who have never lost a jackpot-wicket. Sanjit, in second place, has probably been helped by the fact that he's only faced 8 jackpots, easily the least of the regular players. But Andy, who has faced 28 jackpots (second only to Brad's 33), has also never lost a wicket! This puts A.Ragg firmly on top of the batting jackpot list.
| Name | Balls | Runs | Runs/Ball |
| Andy | 28 | 78 | 2.79 |
| Sanjit | 8 | 20 | 2.50 |
| Rian | 19 | 46 | 2.42 |
| Brad | 33 | 74 | 2.24 |
| Xavier | 21 | 34 | 1.62 |
| Gareth | 20 | 30 | 1.50 |
| Julian | 20 | 24 | 1.20 |
| Jake | 17 | 12 | 0.71 |
But wait a minute... how can someone face 28 balls, all with double score, without losing a wicket, and only have an average of less than 3 runs per ball??
The answer is: by taking the test match approach. Plenty of leaving-outside-off, play-and-miss and padding-up (9 dot-balls, 5 wides) and poking around for 1s and 2s. Apart from his single seven (aka fourteen), and a single three (aka six), the A-Ragg has hit nothing more than a two (aka four) in 26 balls. Boring? Sure. Effective? Indeed...
...and combined with his bowling stats... All-Round Jackpot Master? Absolutely.
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Jackpot Master
In recent posts I've looked at "Going For The 9" and "Rage" (multiple types). Today we investigate the validity of another common catch-cry of the Popped Collars team, by finding out who truly holds the title of "Jackpot Master"
In the beginning, there was the jackpot ball. And Gareth said "let there be wickets upon the jackpot ball". And there was wickets upon the jackpot ball.
Early days
As I recall, the early title of "Jackpot Master" went to Gareth, for his apparently high success rate when bowling the jackpot ball (the first ball of each batting pair which is worth double-score). However, the stats show that this may have been an inaccurate conclusion on our part. The "Jackpot Master" crown in the early days should actually have gone to Brad, who in 2009 (our first 17 matches) had bowled 6 jackpot-balls for a total of -14 runs. He was the only regular player to have a negative total to his name. Unfortunately for Brad, 2010 arrived (more on that later).
Jackpot-pair
I had a theory that perhaps it was a single great performance that had given Gareth the unofficial title - perhaps he had a single match where he bowled two jackpot-balls for two wickets... but no - the only person to have acheived that for Popped Collars is Andy, in the first game of 2010.
Team-effort
The best team effort in a match is 3 jackpot-wickets. In the same game that Andy claimed a pair, Gareth also picked up a jackpot-wicket. In the ultimate irony, the only jackpot-ball that was not a wicket in that match was the first ball of the match - and indeed, the first ball of the year - which was bowled by the reigning 2009 Jackpot Master, Brad.... and it was hit for 7.
Conclusions
"Jackpot Master" : Andy
Of the 8 regular players, Andy currently has the best average runs/ball when bowling the jackpot. He is closely followed by Brad, who is being held up by his dominance in the early days.
"Jackpot God" : James
Just as many humans look beyond the earthly realm for something greater than themselves, so do I look beyond our regular team for divine performances. And there I find James. In his small number of games, he has bowled 3 jackpot balls, and maintained a perfect record. -30 runs.
"Jackpot Devil" : Steve (the real one, not to be confused with Sanjit's alter-ego)
If James is God, then logically Steve must be Satan. Being the opposite of James, he as the unenviable record of having bowled just one jackpot ball, for a total of 14 runs.
In the beginning, there was the jackpot ball. And Gareth said "let there be wickets upon the jackpot ball". And there was wickets upon the jackpot ball.
Early days
As I recall, the early title of "Jackpot Master" went to Gareth, for his apparently high success rate when bowling the jackpot ball (the first ball of each batting pair which is worth double-score). However, the stats show that this may have been an inaccurate conclusion on our part. The "Jackpot Master" crown in the early days should actually have gone to Brad, who in 2009 (our first 17 matches) had bowled 6 jackpot-balls for a total of -14 runs. He was the only regular player to have a negative total to his name. Unfortunately for Brad, 2010 arrived (more on that later).
Jackpot-pair
I had a theory that perhaps it was a single great performance that had given Gareth the unofficial title - perhaps he had a single match where he bowled two jackpot-balls for two wickets... but no - the only person to have acheived that for Popped Collars is Andy, in the first game of 2010.
Team-effort
The best team effort in a match is 3 jackpot-wickets. In the same game that Andy claimed a pair, Gareth also picked up a jackpot-wicket. In the ultimate irony, the only jackpot-ball that was not a wicket in that match was the first ball of the match - and indeed, the first ball of the year - which was bowled by the reigning 2009 Jackpot Master, Brad.... and it was hit for 7.
Conclusions
"Jackpot Master" : Andy
Of the 8 regular players, Andy currently has the best average runs/ball when bowling the jackpot. He is closely followed by Brad, who is being held up by his dominance in the early days.
"Jackpot God" : James
Just as many humans look beyond the earthly realm for something greater than themselves, so do I look beyond our regular team for divine performances. And there I find James. In his small number of games, he has bowled 3 jackpot balls, and maintained a perfect record. -30 runs.
"Jackpot Devil" : Steve (the real one, not to be confused with Sanjit's alter-ego)
If James is God, then logically Steve must be Satan. Being the opposite of James, he as the unenviable record of having bowled just one jackpot ball, for a total of 14 runs.
| Name | Balls | Runs against | Runs/Ball |
| Andy | 16 | 14 | 0.88 |
| Brad | 20 | 24 | 1.2 |
| Xavier | 18 | 42 | 2.33 |
| Sanjit | 16 | 38 | 2.38 |
| Jake | 44 | 106 | 2.41 |
| Gareth | 24 | 60 | 2.5 |
| Julian | 8 | 20 | 2.5 |
| Rian | 22 | 58 | 2.64 |
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Rage analysis (bowling)
As a continuation from the previous post, we're now looking at which bowlers recover best from a bad delivery. What are people's stats on the ball after they get hit for seven?
There's some very interesting results here. First and foremost, it provides proof of something that we all knew already... The Brage doesn't work with bowling. After being hit for seven, Brad's average runs per ball is around 1.5x worse. It also shows that my theory of Sanjit's ability to recover after a bad ball only applied to batting.
The numbers that really stand out, however, come from X and G. They both have a negative average runs per ball after being hit for a so-called "maximum".
Don't foget, though, that the ball after a seven will usually be bowled to the opposite batsman to the one who hit the seven. So maybe this is saying something about the psychological factors surrounding watching your batting partner do well. Hmmm, sounds a bit deep and meaningful for this blog... so instead, here's a table of numbers:
There's some very interesting results here. First and foremost, it provides proof of something that we all knew already... The Brage doesn't work with bowling. After being hit for seven, Brad's average runs per ball is around 1.5x worse. It also shows that my theory of Sanjit's ability to recover after a bad ball only applied to batting.
The numbers that really stand out, however, come from X and G. They both have a negative average runs per ball after being hit for a so-called "maximum".
Don't foget, though, that the ball after a seven will usually be bowled to the opposite batsman to the one who hit the seven. So maybe this is saying something about the psychological factors surrounding watching your batting partner do well. Hmmm, sounds a bit deep and meaningful for this blog... so instead, here's a table of numbers:
| Name | Runs/Ball overall | Runs/Ball after7 | Compare (%) | Compare (+/-) |
| Xavier | 0.58 | -0.81 | -139.4 | -1.40 |
| Gareth | 0.75 | -0.17 | -23.2 | -0.92 |
| Andy | 0.82 | 0.33 | 40.8 | -0.48 |
| Julian | 1.24 | 1.14 | 92.2 | -0.10 |
| Rian | 0.81 | 0.75 | 93.1 | -0.06 |
| Brad | 0.95 | 1.38 | 145.4 | +0.43 |
| Sanjit | 0.98 | 1.69 | 173.4 | +0.72 |
| Jake | 0.98 | 1.71 | 174.1 | +0.73 |
Monday, 2 August 2010
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....
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...
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.
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.
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Outdoor Stats
This week's question sprouted from an email conversation about last weeks stats. People were getting stuck into their batting partners about strike farming, and Gareth decided that it's perfectly fine to claim more of the strike, so long as you are scoring plenty of runs from those balls. He therefore wanted to know about players' strike rates.
So let's check out strike rates, along with a few other stats that are usually associated with regular (outdoor) cricket, but have less meaning when examining the indoor version.
Strike Rate
First up is classic outdoor-cricket-style strike rate. Number of runs you score per 100 balls - not counting negative runs for getting out, not counting doubles for jackpot ball. Just the straight number of runs you accumulate in between getting out. The only thing different from the outdoor version is that is does count extras on to your score, and does count extras as a ball faced.
And G, it looks like you were right... asking about this stat did indeed come back to bite you.
And now we'll count "indoor strike rate" which counts negative runs and doubled runs. It's simply total career score compared to balls faced.
Outdoor average
This is looking at the number of runs a batsman scores for each time he gets out. Once again, we are not counting negative runs for losing a wicket or doubled runs for jackpot balls; only counting the runs a batter accumulates between the fall of his own wickets.
5-Wicket Hauls
The standard milesotne for bowlers to acheive in a single game is the 5-wicket-innings. Let's see how often that has happened for Popped Collars players in the indoor game.
Batting milestones
With the bat, it's all about scoring multiples of 50 in the outdoor game. What about indoor... looking at 50s and 100s would give some very uninteresting stats. So I've chosen multiples of 10 as the benchmark. Starting at 20 - I don't think scoring 10 is much of an acheivement. For most people.
So let's check out strike rates, along with a few other stats that are usually associated with regular (outdoor) cricket, but have less meaning when examining the indoor version.
Strike Rate
First up is classic outdoor-cricket-style strike rate. Number of runs you score per 100 balls - not counting negative runs for getting out, not counting doubles for jackpot ball. Just the straight number of runs you accumulate in between getting out. The only thing different from the outdoor version is that is does count extras on to your score, and does count extras as a ball faced.
And G, it looks like you were right... asking about this stat did indeed come back to bite you.
| Name | Balls | Runs | S/R |
| Brad | 703 | 1470 | 209.1 |
| Xavier | 761 | 1384 | 181.9 |
| Julian | 617 | 1118 | 181.2 |
| Rian | 611 | 1051 | 172.0 |
| Jake | 602 | 993 | 165.0 |
| Andy | 702 | 1124 | 160.1 |
| Gareth | 617 | 945 | 153.2 |
| Sanjit | 611 | 824 | 134.9 |
And now we'll count "indoor strike rate" which counts negative runs and doubled runs. It's simply total career score compared to balls faced.
| Name | Balls | Score | S/R |
| Brad | 703 | 1070 | 152.2 |
| Xavier | 761 | 979 | 128.6 |
| Julian | 617 | 793 | 128.5 |
| Rian | 611 | 731 | 119.6 |
| Jake | 602 | 598 | 99.3 |
| Gareth | 617 | 610 | 98.9 |
| Andy | 702 | 610 | 86.9 |
| Sanjit | 611 | 424 | 69.4 |
Outdoor average
This is looking at the number of runs a batsman scores for each time he gets out. Once again, we are not counting negative runs for losing a wicket or doubled runs for jackpot balls; only counting the runs a batter accumulates between the fall of his own wickets.
| Name | Runs | Wkts | Average |
| Brad | 1234 | 77 | 16.03 |
| Julian | 943 | 62 | 15.21 |
| Rian | 924 | 62 | 14.90 |
| Xavier | 1140 | 78 | 14.62 |
| Gareth | 798 | 65 | 12.28 |
| Andy | 925 | 76 | 12.17 |
| Jake | 874 | 76 | 11.50 |
| Sanjit | 628 | 80 | 7.85 |
5-Wicket Hauls
The standard milesotne for bowlers to acheive in a single game is the 5-wicket-innings. Let's see how often that has happened for Popped Collars players in the indoor game.
| Name | 5WM |
| Gareth | 5 |
| Xavier | 4 |
| Andy | 3 |
| Brad | 2 |
| Jake | 2 |
| Rian | 1 |
| Josh | 1 |
| James | 1 |
Batting milestones
With the bat, it's all about scoring multiples of 50 in the outdoor game. What about indoor... looking at 50s and 100s would give some very uninteresting stats. So I've chosen multiples of 10 as the benchmark. Starting at 20 - I don't think scoring 10 is much of an acheivement. For most people.
| Name | 20s | 30s | 40s | 50s |
| Brad | 30 | 13 | 4 | - |
| Xavier | 26 | 17 | 2 | 1 |
| Julian | 25 | 7 | - | - |
| Rian | 19 | 8 | 3 | 1 |
| Jake | 15 | 3 | - | - |
| Andy | 20 | 7 | 2 | - |
| Gareth | 15 | 3 | 1 | - |
| Sanjit | 8 | 1 | - | - |
Monday, 5 July 2010
Gareth's self-confidence booster
The question of the week this week, was very simple. Gareth began by asking which bowlers had taken the most wickets for our team, and was disappointed to learn that Xavier and Brad led the way, simply because they have played the most games.
And so the question was refined: Which bowler has the most wickets per over?
A simple question... and so I generalised it, and shall investigate a range of questions of the form
Who [does something] [most/least often] per [unit of time/cricket]?
1. Who takes the most wickets per over?
It quickly became apparent that Gareth had a good reason for asking his question... he wanted to make himself look good. Here's the table of results
2. Who hits the most 7s per innings?
Here’s the sloggers. Or at least, the most successful sloggers. If only there were stats for ‘attempted 7s’
3. Who faces the most balls per innings?
With this question we’re revealing the strike-hoggers. The people who face more than their fair share of the 32 balls each pair gets when they go in to bat.
4. Who gets the most extra turns at batting and bowling?
There were a few sceptics last week when Brad went back in to bat when we were a player short. And this stat gives justification to those people who can now see that our leader bowls and bats for missing players much more often than anyone else. Is this leading from the front and putting himself in the firing line – showing how it’s done with additional inspirational captains knocks? Or is it just abuse of power?
And so the question was refined: Which bowler has the most wickets per over?
A simple question... and so I generalised it, and shall investigate a range of questions of the form
Who [does something] [most/least often] per [unit of time/cricket]?
1. Who takes the most wickets per over?
It quickly became apparent that Gareth had a good reason for asking his question... he wanted to make himself look good. Here's the table of results
2. Who hits the most 7s per innings?
Here’s the sloggers. Or at least, the most successful sloggers. If only there were stats for ‘attempted 7s’
3. Who faces the most balls per innings?
With this question we’re revealing the strike-hoggers. The people who face more than their fair share of the 32 balls each pair gets when they go in to bat.
4. Who gets the most extra turns at batting and bowling?
There were a few sceptics last week when Brad went back in to bat when we were a player short. And this stat gives justification to those people who can now see that our leader bowls and bats for missing players much more often than anyone else. Is this leading from the front and putting himself in the firing line – showing how it’s done with additional inspirational captains knocks? Or is it just abuse of power?
Monday, 28 June 2010
Going for the 9
An ongoing joke among the Popped Collars chaps is to challenge each other to “Go for the 9!” - which is to go out to bat and attempt to get out via all 9 different types of wicket that exist in Indoor Cricket. The 9 ways are: bowled, caught, stumped, run-out, LBW, third-ball, hit-wicket, interference, mankad.
There are 4 types that are far-and-away the most common wicket types: caught, run-out, bowled and stumped. The other 5 are rarities.
No one has yet seriously attempted the feat, but today's question-of-the-week arose from the idea of seeing who has gone the closest...
Who has been out in the most different ways in a single innings?
Monday, 24 May 2010
Representative Cricket... a grade below
Round 2 of the 2010 Super League, and Weston Blast were looking for more players, and Popped Collars players were again the target of the "selectors". Brad this week made his debut, joining 1-match vetrans Xavier and Andy. But this week their services were required in division 3 - one level below what the boys played last week.
And what a difference one grade made!
Division 2 seemed a competition that truly involved the most skilled of players from the various cricket centres. Both the Weston and Goulburn team involved in last weeks matches were composed of players that even the best of the Popped Collars would have (or did) only just have the skills to be competitive - and the Lyneham team on the court next door (of which I know most of the players) would have been even better than both of us.
Division 3 was... well... laughable. Quite literally as far as I was concerned; I spent a lot of time between balls chuckling at the goings on. Both the Weston team we were playing for and the Kambah team we were playing against would have been (or were) better off having even the weakest of the Popped Collars players on board. The overall quality of the game was below what we experience every week in the standard Monday night competition.
Brad's concerns about his bowling were irrelevant as he continually beat the bat and picked up wickets. Andy was bowling too quick for anyone to get onto properly. Mis-fields went by without concern or comment, as it was the norm. Brad and Xavier put on a partnership of 69 without ever getting above about 2nd gear.
Weston won the game, but if the match was representative of the rest of the grade, the Popped Collars could take them all down and win this competition any day.
And what a difference one grade made!
Division 2 seemed a competition that truly involved the most skilled of players from the various cricket centres. Both the Weston and Goulburn team involved in last weeks matches were composed of players that even the best of the Popped Collars would have (or did) only just have the skills to be competitive - and the Lyneham team on the court next door (of which I know most of the players) would have been even better than both of us.
Division 3 was... well... laughable. Quite literally as far as I was concerned; I spent a lot of time between balls chuckling at the goings on. Both the Weston team we were playing for and the Kambah team we were playing against would have been (or were) better off having even the weakest of the Popped Collars players on board. The overall quality of the game was below what we experience every week in the standard Monday night competition.
Brad's concerns about his bowling were irrelevant as he continually beat the bat and picked up wickets. Andy was bowling too quick for anyone to get onto properly. Mis-fields went by without concern or comment, as it was the norm. Brad and Xavier put on a partnership of 69 without ever getting above about 2nd gear.
Weston won the game, but if the match was representative of the rest of the grade, the Popped Collars could take them all down and win this competition any day.
Monday, 17 May 2010
Representative Cricket
Last Friday night a phone call came in asking Xavier and Andy to play for the Weston team in the ACT Super-League competition. For the uninformed, this is a competition between the various indoor cricket centres in the region (Lyneham, Weson, Kambah and Goulburn) - ideally consisting of the "best" players from each centre. It's played in 3 grades with centres able to enter multiple teams per division if they want.
This was not the most ordinary way to be spending a Saturday night, but Xavier and Andy accepted the invitation (aka selection) and showed up to give it a go. The match was a low-scoring encounter in the 'twos' (ie second division) competition against the team from Goulburn, under the watchful eye of everyone's favourite Lyneham umpire, Dean. Weston Blast were victorious 70-45.
Pre-game, the Popped Collars boys gleaned much amusement from the team huddles that were taking place after each over and/or wicket... and more amusement when they realised that their own team would be doing it as well! Indeed, the games and teams were/are even more serious than Brad or Jake at their most serious. Xavier took a few attempts to work out what the boys were chanting at the break-up of each of the huddles (turned out it was "Blast!", the team name). Andy, meanwhile, did know the correct exclamation, but decided to mix it up a bit by saying whatever other rhyming word he could come up with at the time... "Fast!"... "Last!"... "Cast!"...
For the record, Andy bowled 3/5 and Xavier 4/-6 with two absolute sitters also dropped off his bowling... no fielders names shall be mentioned, but Andy did comment after the game that he now "knows how Sanjit feels" having been placed fielding at point, and forced to deal with balls bouncing out of the corners. They then scored 2 and 4 respectively with the bat in a failed attempt to chase a skin of 13. The bowlers were no better than the good bowlers that the Popped Collars would encounter week to week, but the new challenge was dealing with a full team of good fielders, in strategic and well placed fielding locations.
The best demonstration of this was the final ball they faced, which Xavier punched to the side net for a safe two, to tie the skin. That is, it would have been safe in any regular game - but on this occasion, the fielder in close jumped up and batted the ball back to the 'keeper for a direct hit with one stump to aim at. Andy was short of his ground and the expected tied skin turned into a 7-run loss.
Good times, but Saturday night and $17 a game... not something to be done too regularly... espeically when one is already playing Friday and Monday nights as it is!
This was not the most ordinary way to be spending a Saturday night, but Xavier and Andy accepted the invitation (aka selection) and showed up to give it a go. The match was a low-scoring encounter in the 'twos' (ie second division) competition against the team from Goulburn, under the watchful eye of everyone's favourite Lyneham umpire, Dean. Weston Blast were victorious 70-45.
Pre-game, the Popped Collars boys gleaned much amusement from the team huddles that were taking place after each over and/or wicket... and more amusement when they realised that their own team would be doing it as well! Indeed, the games and teams were/are even more serious than Brad or Jake at their most serious. Xavier took a few attempts to work out what the boys were chanting at the break-up of each of the huddles (turned out it was "Blast!", the team name). Andy, meanwhile, did know the correct exclamation, but decided to mix it up a bit by saying whatever other rhyming word he could come up with at the time... "Fast!"... "Last!"... "Cast!"...
For the record, Andy bowled 3/5 and Xavier 4/-6 with two absolute sitters also dropped off his bowling... no fielders names shall be mentioned, but Andy did comment after the game that he now "knows how Sanjit feels" having been placed fielding at point, and forced to deal with balls bouncing out of the corners. They then scored 2 and 4 respectively with the bat in a failed attempt to chase a skin of 13. The bowlers were no better than the good bowlers that the Popped Collars would encounter week to week, but the new challenge was dealing with a full team of good fielders, in strategic and well placed fielding locations.
The best demonstration of this was the final ball they faced, which Xavier punched to the side net for a safe two, to tie the skin. That is, it would have been safe in any regular game - but on this occasion, the fielder in close jumped up and batted the ball back to the 'keeper for a direct hit with one stump to aim at. Andy was short of his ground and the expected tied skin turned into a 7-run loss.
Good times, but Saturday night and $17 a game... not something to be done too regularly... espeically when one is already playing Friday and Monday nights as it is!
Monday, 10 May 2010
Jake's Question Of The Week
The Popped Collars tonight dished up the first loss of the season for arch rivals 4-Skins. Arch rivals... perhaps. Or perhaps one could call us their 'bogey team'. The last time they lost a game was the grand final last season.
As the Popped Collars were out chasing down the 120 required for victory, Jake was on the sidelines asking the hard-hitting questions. Never has he been one to shy away from controversy, and tonight was no exception as he posed: "Has Brad done anything useful recently?"
Questioning the form of the captain... dangerous territory. What do the stats tell us?
In the last 3 games, our fearless leader has the following figures:
Batting: 5, 12, 11
Bowling: 3/2, 0/28, 3/16
Contribution: +3, -16, -5
I will leave it to you, good reader, to judge for yourself. Personally, I think 3/2 are "useful" bowling figures from tonight's game.
Last week, Brad also bowled an extra over, which brought 0/5, and allowed him to join the "5 dot balls" club - an elite list of people who have bowled a single over containing 5 dot-balls. Due to the 'third dot ball' rule of indoor cricket, the most it is possible to bowl in an 8-ball-over is 6. No one has yet achieved this maximum in Popped Collars history.
The 5-dot-balls have been bowled by Gareth (twice), Andy, Rian, Julian, Brad, and Xavier (who did it in his second over of tonight). No opposition bowler has done it against us yet.
As the Popped Collars were out chasing down the 120 required for victory, Jake was on the sidelines asking the hard-hitting questions. Never has he been one to shy away from controversy, and tonight was no exception as he posed: "Has Brad done anything useful recently?"
Questioning the form of the captain... dangerous territory. What do the stats tell us?
In the last 3 games, our fearless leader has the following figures:
Batting: 5, 12, 11
Bowling: 3/2, 0/28, 3/16
Contribution: +3, -16, -5
I will leave it to you, good reader, to judge for yourself. Personally, I think 3/2 are "useful" bowling figures from tonight's game.
Last week, Brad also bowled an extra over, which brought 0/5, and allowed him to join the "5 dot balls" club - an elite list of people who have bowled a single over containing 5 dot-balls. Due to the 'third dot ball' rule of indoor cricket, the most it is possible to bowl in an 8-ball-over is 6. No one has yet achieved this maximum in Popped Collars history.
The 5-dot-balls have been bowled by Gareth (twice), Andy, Rian, Julian, Brad, and Xavier (who did it in his second over of tonight). No opposition bowler has done it against us yet.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
7 sevens. And more sevens.
A couple of weeks ago the Popped Collars racked up a big win (237-87), with only 6 players, over “6 & Out” (the team one of our occasional subs, Matt, plays for). After the game I noted in an email to team-mates a few records that we appeared to have set during the game. With my stats not up to date, however, I was unable to confirm that they were in fact records. I will do this now...
Potential record #1
Most sevens in a match by the team (14)
Status: Confirmed
Most sevens in a match by the team (14)
Status: Confirmed
Prior to this game, the most sevens we’ve hit in an innings is 12... and the most a team has hit against us is also 12... and they were both in the same game. Unfortunately for our opponents on that day (“Just 1 More”), they also fell victim to the most wickets we’ve taken in an innings (26), and we beat them 231-104.
Potential record #2
Most sevens in an over (4)
Status: Confirmed
Most sevens in an over (4)
Status: Confirmed
Rian and Andrew (Pearson) not only slapped 4 of them off the final over of the innings, but in fact hit them from the final 5 balls of the innings (7,7,2,7,7). The only other time we’ve seen 4 sevens in an over was in the first game after our grand final win when we had a century partnership scored against us. In the final over of that partnership Sanjit get taken for 35 runs - including 3 sevens and an eight.
Potential record #3
Most sevens in a match by a player (7)
Status: Confirmed
Most sevens in a match by a player (7)
Status: Confirmed
Now this could be considered a bit dodgy by some, as Pearson batted twice in the match. But nevertheless, you can’t argue that hitting 7 sevens in a match is quite impressive. He hit 4 of them in his first bat, almost making our teams top score for the day, and then went in to bat a second time and racked up 3 more. The next best in a match (and also the equal-best in a single bat) is 4.
Potential record #4
Highest individual score without hitting a seven (38)
Status: Confirmed
Highest individual score without hitting a seven (38)
Status: Confirmed
While everyone else was hitting sevens, Xavier was taking the opposite approach. He hit 3 side-backs and 2 fives in his 38 runs, but never a seven. This beats the old record of 36 by 2 runs. The score of 36 has actually been made 9 times in Popped Collars matches, and 4 of those times have been seven-less.
Special mention here must go here to Andy, the owner of one of those old scores of 36 which I note still holds another, similar but more impressive, record. His particular 36 consisted of no back net scores at all! He faced: 3 dot-balls, 2 singles, 4 twos, 6 threes and 4 extras. The second best back-net-less score is 31.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
On with the stats
Indeed, I have been a bit slack on the ol' stats recently. I've always been thinking that I need to build the X-treme Stats program more and more, but doing that takes a lot of time, which I don't usually have. So I've decided to take a new approach. I will still endeavor to upgrade the program when I can, but I will also be handing out all sorts of interesting numbers here, inspired by events and achievements in recent games, recent records, or whatever other random things I feel like looking at for the week.
After getting a bit behind the times over the change-of-season, I've now updated my database with all the Popped Collars matches. The GG team info is still in the form of a pile of scorecards on my desk at the moment. So for the time being, stats will only come from the original team.
If you still want to use the X-treme Stats program, I've uploaded the latest data file. So you can still check out your up-to-date graphs and basic stats. See the link at the top right of the blog.
For now, I shall set to work compiling my first batch of awesome stats, facts and lists for you, which shall appear in the coming days.
And just like Steven, from at the CricInfo website, feel free to send me your Popped Collars related questions.
After getting a bit behind the times over the change-of-season, I've now updated my database with all the Popped Collars matches. The GG team info is still in the form of a pile of scorecards on my desk at the moment. So for the time being, stats will only come from the original team.
If you still want to use the X-treme Stats program, I've uploaded the latest data file. So you can still check out your up-to-date graphs and basic stats. See the link at the top right of the blog.
For now, I shall set to work compiling my first batch of awesome stats, facts and lists for you, which shall appear in the coming days.
And just like Steven, from at the CricInfo website, feel free to send me your Popped Collars related questions.
Monday, 19 April 2010
A Trio Of Centuries
I've been putting off writing this post because we always seem to have an upcoming match which could potentially turn the current "trio" into a "quad" or more. Indeed, the match the other day gave plenty of opportunities which no one was able to cash in on. Anyway... on with today's article....
Having played and umpired a lot of indoor cricket in my time, I can safely say that a batting partnership scoring a century is a very rare occurrence. And yet, in the last few weeks the Popped Collars and GG teams saw three of them scored in the space of 4 matches!
Friday, 16 April 2010
A match to remember
For anyone who wasn't there, sit right back and listen to the tale of tonight's indoor cricket game. For anyone who was there, sit back and re-live the event.
The story begins with the incomprehensible revelation earlier in the week that our Friday night 6-a-side team, "GGs", had been placed into D-Grade. That's right, a team made up mostly of players from a team which won the top division premiership last season at Weston had been placed in the 3rd of 4 grades at Lyneham. Don't forget that a couple of years ago the team abandoned Lyneham due to continued frustrations over their incompetence in grading teams properly. Well, now we are back, and that same incompetence has this time gone in our favour, rather than against us.
The story continues with a lot of people being unavailable to play, and no one being able to find people to fill in. Xavier and Brad decided that it didn't matter, and it would be an interesting challenge to try to take on a D-Grade team with only 4 players. So they did.
The story begins with the incomprehensible revelation earlier in the week that our Friday night 6-a-side team, "GGs", had been placed into D-Grade. That's right, a team made up mostly of players from a team which won the top division premiership last season at Weston had been placed in the 3rd of 4 grades at Lyneham. Don't forget that a couple of years ago the team abandoned Lyneham due to continued frustrations over their incompetence in grading teams properly. Well, now we are back, and that same incompetence has this time gone in our favour, rather than against us.
The story continues with a lot of people being unavailable to play, and no one being able to find people to fill in. Xavier and Brad decided that it didn't matter, and it would be an interesting challenge to try to take on a D-Grade team with only 4 players. So they did.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
GRAPHS!
A new version of X-treme Stats is now uploaded. And it features GRAPHS!
Check out the classic bar graph showing players scores per innings over time. Also available for bowling performances.
Graphs can be found in 'Player Profiles' - there is a button on the batting tab, and another on the bowling tab. Very pretty.
At the moment it's just very simple. I just made sure it was working, and showing graphs correctly, but haven't added any detail or bonus features yet. More features to be added to this soon, including the line that shows how the players average changes over time.
Download here, or on the side-bar under "Latest Version"
Monday, 22 March 2010
Special PREMIERSHIP Edition
Before we begin... the latest Stats Program and Stats Data are now permanently available in some links on the right hand side-bar of the blog ---->>
Popped Collars tonight showed that the key to success at indoor cricket is SERIOUSNESS! After spending many seasons, under many names, at various indoor cricket centers, unable to have any kind of success, the Popped Collars this season decided it was time to get serious - and it has payed off immediately, claiming the top grade premiership in their first "serious" season.
Victory tonight was comprehensive, after restricting minor premiers "4 Skins" to a team total of just 35. The bowlers took advantage of the new and good quality balls used for finals, and the fielding was near-flawless. The 4-Skins were a player short, but given the way the two teams performed on the night, it probably didn't alter the final result.
Jake began the match by clean bowling 4-Skin opener Chris on the opening jackpot ball. From there on things never got much better for the batting team. The opening pair made 7, and the second poked around for 28. Jake ended with figures of 3/-9, while Xavier, bowling late in the game, troubled the last 2 pairs as he took 4/-11 in helping to restrict the last two batting pairs to 9 and -9.
Even when the 4-Skins weren't getting out, they were also having trouble making runs. The back net was only hit twice during the entire innings, and both of them took the side-back route.
A change in batting order for the Popped Collars saw Rian and Gareth open, and despite starting the game with a dot ball and then a run-out, they made their way to a total of 33. Brad and Andrew kept the game interesting as they struggled to get things right and made a 4-Skin-esque total of -14. But the game never really looked like going any way other than a Popped Collars victory. Jake and Andy guided the ball around for a solid 46, including 36 from Jake earning him the player-of-the-match award. Jules and Xavier brought it home with a 59 - assisted by being able to choose 2 of their bowlers, and the opposition already having given up on the match.
See this week's 'Stat of the Week' on the right for individual performances from the GF.
Popped Collars tonight showed that the key to success at indoor cricket is SERIOUSNESS! After spending many seasons, under many names, at various indoor cricket centers, unable to have any kind of success, the Popped Collars this season decided it was time to get serious - and it has payed off immediately, claiming the top grade premiership in their first "serious" season.
Victory tonight was comprehensive, after restricting minor premiers "4 Skins" to a team total of just 35. The bowlers took advantage of the new and good quality balls used for finals, and the fielding was near-flawless. The 4-Skins were a player short, but given the way the two teams performed on the night, it probably didn't alter the final result.
Jake began the match by clean bowling 4-Skin opener Chris on the opening jackpot ball. From there on things never got much better for the batting team. The opening pair made 7, and the second poked around for 28. Jake ended with figures of 3/-9, while Xavier, bowling late in the game, troubled the last 2 pairs as he took 4/-11 in helping to restrict the last two batting pairs to 9 and -9.
Even when the 4-Skins weren't getting out, they were also having trouble making runs. The back net was only hit twice during the entire innings, and both of them took the side-back route.
A change in batting order for the Popped Collars saw Rian and Gareth open, and despite starting the game with a dot ball and then a run-out, they made their way to a total of 33. Brad and Andrew kept the game interesting as they struggled to get things right and made a 4-Skin-esque total of -14. But the game never really looked like going any way other than a Popped Collars victory. Jake and Andy guided the ball around for a solid 46, including 36 from Jake earning him the player-of-the-match award. Jules and Xavier brought it home with a 59 - assisted by being able to choose 2 of their bowlers, and the opposition already having given up on the match.
See this week's 'Stat of the Week' on the right for individual performances from the GF.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Friday debut, semi-final, and golf
First off, you can download the new data file here, which now has the semi-final from Monday night included in it. Just replace the old "data.icd" file with this one.
Victory in the semi-final (against "Just One More", rather than "501" as I thought last week) takes us to the GRAND FINAL next week. Once again at our favourite time of 6:00!
Last Friday saw the debut of the Popped Collars subsidiary, GG, in the six-a-side comp at Lyneham. Some terrible fielding meant we began with a solid loss, but against a team who must undoubtedly be one of the top sides in the usually low-quality Friday comp. Once we get used to the ways of 6-a-side cricket, I think we should have no problem being fairly competitive in the top grade. I predict a top 4 finish.
And next, apparently, Popped Collars are branching out even beyond indoor cricket and into golf. We'll see how that goes.
Victory in the semi-final (against "Just One More", rather than "501" as I thought last week) takes us to the GRAND FINAL next week. Once again at our favourite time of 6:00!
Last Friday saw the debut of the Popped Collars subsidiary, GG, in the six-a-side comp at Lyneham. Some terrible fielding meant we began with a solid loss, but against a team who must undoubtedly be one of the top sides in the usually low-quality Friday comp. Once we get used to the ways of 6-a-side cricket, I think we should have no problem being fairly competitive in the top grade. I predict a top 4 finish.
And next, apparently, Popped Collars are branching out even beyond indoor cricket and into golf. We'll see how that goes.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Version 0.0.07
Download here
This isn't really a new "version"... it's got nothing new from last time. But the data is now up to date. 4 new matches are in the database from last time - including both matches from tonight. So you can go back and relive, ball-by-ball the glory of G and X making -4 against a D-Grade team. Relive the double-header where we lost to a D-Grade team, and then went and beat the team who's coming 3rd in B-Grade.
So we finish 2nd on the ladder for the season... semi-finals next week, where we will play "501" again in the 2nd v 3rd match. At 6:00.... back to the good ol' time.
By the way, for you interest, our 7:20 and 8:40 double-header tonight broke a streak of 8 consecutive 6:00 matches.
This isn't really a new "version"... it's got nothing new from last time. But the data is now up to date. 4 new matches are in the database from last time - including both matches from tonight. So you can go back and relive, ball-by-ball the glory of G and X making -4 against a D-Grade team. Relive the double-header where we lost to a D-Grade team, and then went and beat the team who's coming 3rd in B-Grade.
So we finish 2nd on the ladder for the season... semi-finals next week, where we will play "501" again in the 2nd v 3rd match. At 6:00.... back to the good ol' time.
By the way, for you interest, our 7:20 and 8:40 double-header tonight broke a streak of 8 consecutive 6:00 matches.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Version 0.0.06
Download here
It's the same as last week except that it works this time - and the scorecards now load in about 3-6 seconds, rather than 10-20 seconds. That's all I've had time for this week.
There are a few little things not quite right with the scorecards that need to be fixed. The yellow squares are supposed to indicate who was on strike each ball. But it doesn't seem to be picking up on balls where one player was on strike, but the other player got out (eg run-out). That's very minor - plus I want to think of a better way to show it than bright yellow squares anyway!
It also doesn't add additional balls to overs where extras get rebowled. The "!" symbol indicates that a ball was rebowled, but at the moment it's not adding those extra balls in to the card for you to see. Again, that's a minor thing (except in matches where Andy bowled the final over of course).
And so that inspired me to post "Most Extras Bowled" as the Stat-Of-The-Week. And in fact, it shows that it is not Andy who is king of the wides...
It's the same as last week except that it works this time - and the scorecards now load in about 3-6 seconds, rather than 10-20 seconds. That's all I've had time for this week.
There are a few little things not quite right with the scorecards that need to be fixed. The yellow squares are supposed to indicate who was on strike each ball. But it doesn't seem to be picking up on balls where one player was on strike, but the other player got out (eg run-out). That's very minor - plus I want to think of a better way to show it than bright yellow squares anyway!
It also doesn't add additional balls to overs where extras get rebowled. The "!" symbol indicates that a ball was rebowled, but at the moment it's not adding those extra balls in to the card for you to see. Again, that's a minor thing (except in matches where Andy bowled the final over of course).
And so that inspired me to post "Most Extras Bowled" as the Stat-Of-The-Week. And in fact, it shows that it is not Andy who is king of the wides...
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Version 0.0.05
(Edit: it doesn't work... I forgot to change one of my lines of code from the testing version to the for-everyone-else version... so it only works on my home computer... Get the next version instead)
As the 2009/10 season draws to a close, you can now go back and re-live every game
New in this version:
Scorecards! The complete scorecard for every game in the database can now be viewed. The only problem is that it's really REALLY SLOW... don't know why yet. But just be patient for now. It takes about 15 seconds to put together a scorecard on my computer. I'll get around to fixing it up later. It shouldn't take anywhere near that long.
Behind the scenes:
I'm finally able to mark batters and bowlers as "subs" when they are chosen to bat or bowl additional times in a game (when the team is short of players or someone is injured). Before this it was a pain in the neck having to go in and manually enter a bunch of data into the database by hand.
Coming soon:
As the 2009/10 season draws to a close, you can now go back and re-live every game
New in this version:
Scorecards! The complete scorecard for every game in the database can now be viewed. The only problem is that it's really REALLY SLOW... don't know why yet. But just be patient for now. It takes about 15 seconds to put together a scorecard on my computer. I'll get around to fixing it up later. It shouldn't take anywhere near that long.
Behind the scenes:
I'm finally able to mark batters and bowlers as "subs" when they are chosen to bat or bowl additional times in a game (when the team is short of players or someone is injured). Before this it was a pain in the neck having to go in and manually enter a bunch of data into the database by hand.
Coming soon:
- More player stats - there's so many little things in the player profiles that I'll be slowly adding whenever I can't be bothered adding large chunks of new functionality.
- Partnership stats - I've been thinking about the best way to implement this - and now the time has come to put it in. Will probably be the next addition to the program.
- Stats by season - for anyone who doesn't like how they've performed so far, a chance to start over. Once we get into the season, I'll be putting in a way to view only stats from only a certain sub-set of matches - starting with "matches from a certain season".
- Records per time-period - following on from the above idea, you should also be able to view records along the lines of "Most runs in a season", "Most wickets in a calendar year", etc.
And finally - yes, I skipped version 0.0.04, but who cares... I missed a week as well. The numbers don't mean much yet anyway.
And double finally, the scores from Monday's game are not in there. Just because I haven't got around to it with all the other things I'm trying to do. So I'm 1 game behind. But that's still 1 game more than there was last time I gave you stats!
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Previous Highlights
I'm now expanding the blog to include a bit of a write-up of some classic moments from the indoor cricket matches of Popped Collars.
For example, last night we saw some great umpiring when Sanjit was given out LBW despite playing a shot. Sure, it wasn't much of a shot - just a wristy little leg glance - but there was definite movement of the bat in a clear attempt to make contact with the ball. I didn't actually see it, but I'm assured it was a terrible decision.
As well as an LBW, we also saw a Hit Wicket. Throw in the Interference wicket from a few weeks ago, and it leaves Mankad as the only type of dismissal now not seen in our current set of stats. Even "angry dude" from last week was unable to pull off a Mankad, despite trying twice. The first time the umpire "didn't see" if X was out of his crease or not (he was, by the way) - and the second time, Rian was sitting down in his crease at the non-strikers end to ensure that no run was taken off the final ball, to ensure Popped Collars held on to win.
Special mention also goes to Jules' catch. With the batters on third-ball, and a bit of a gumby on strike, Jules raced up from back-net-leg-side to the half-way line on the off-side (while the bowler was running in!), and the ball was popped up beautifully to him to take an absolute sitter.
However, the most talked about incident last night was the 2nd "LBW" in the match. Final ball of the game, A.Ragg on strike. He played a... well, I'm not really sure what the shot was, but he managed to hit it kind of into the groud(?) into himself(?)... yeah it was a bit unorthodox and not very effective - but somehow the umpire decided he should be given out. "Bat Before Wicket" Andy called it. Now there's a rule that'll make it tough for batsmen!
For example, last night we saw some great umpiring when Sanjit was given out LBW despite playing a shot. Sure, it wasn't much of a shot - just a wristy little leg glance - but there was definite movement of the bat in a clear attempt to make contact with the ball. I didn't actually see it, but I'm assured it was a terrible decision.
As well as an LBW, we also saw a Hit Wicket. Throw in the Interference wicket from a few weeks ago, and it leaves Mankad as the only type of dismissal now not seen in our current set of stats. Even "angry dude" from last week was unable to pull off a Mankad, despite trying twice. The first time the umpire "didn't see" if X was out of his crease or not (he was, by the way) - and the second time, Rian was sitting down in his crease at the non-strikers end to ensure that no run was taken off the final ball, to ensure Popped Collars held on to win.
Special mention also goes to Jules' catch. With the batters on third-ball, and a bit of a gumby on strike, Jules raced up from back-net-leg-side to the half-way line on the off-side (while the bowler was running in!), and the ball was popped up beautifully to him to take an absolute sitter.
However, the most talked about incident last night was the 2nd "LBW" in the match. Final ball of the game, A.Ragg on strike. He played a... well, I'm not really sure what the shot was, but he managed to hit it kind of into the groud(?) into himself(?)... yeah it was a bit unorthodox and not very effective - but somehow the umpire decided he should be given out. "Bat Before Wicket" Andy called it. Now there's a rule that'll make it tough for batsmen!
Version 0.0.03
Download here
New in this version:
More player stats are now available. You can see how players are dismissed and how they take their wickets, as well as what kinds of scoring shots people play, and have played off their bowling.
You can see, for example, that Rian is the King Of The 7s, being the only player to average more than 1 per innings. Meanwhile, Gareth holds the same title for being run-out (fortunately for him, he rarely gets out any other way).
Most importantly, Rian is no longer known as 'Brian' - I finally decided to change it.
Behind the scenes:
I've been tinkering with the database, and so it now is able to easily track when people are batting or bowling additional times in a match. This means that I'll be able to change the MVP calculator to ensure that someone who bats twice in a game doesn't get incorrectly given an MVP just because they scored twice as many runs as everyone else. Similarly for people who bowl additional overs and may end up with figures of 4 overs 3/50... or something.
Coming next:
Scorecards. This is almost ready to go - next update should have the ability to choose a match and view the full scorecard.
New in this version:
More player stats are now available. You can see how players are dismissed and how they take their wickets, as well as what kinds of scoring shots people play, and have played off their bowling.
You can see, for example, that Rian is the King Of The 7s, being the only player to average more than 1 per innings. Meanwhile, Gareth holds the same title for being run-out (fortunately for him, he rarely gets out any other way).
Most importantly, Rian is no longer known as 'Brian' - I finally decided to change it.
Behind the scenes:
I've been tinkering with the database, and so it now is able to easily track when people are batting or bowling additional times in a match. This means that I'll be able to change the MVP calculator to ensure that someone who bats twice in a game doesn't get incorrectly given an MVP just because they scored twice as many runs as everyone else. Similarly for people who bowl additional overs and may end up with figures of 4 overs 3/50... or something.
Coming next:
Scorecards. This is almost ready to go - next update should have the ability to choose a match and view the full scorecard.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Version 0.0.02
Two more matches worth of scores have been added to the stats. Despite Rian's best attempts to give us all the same name, the umpire gave out enough info to easily put in the stats for this week.
I was going to change his name back to Rian this week, but as punishment for that little name-antics last night, he gets to remain as Brian for another week. When you're good, I'll change it back :)
New in this version:
There's not actually any extra functionality that you'll see in this build. I haven't finished anything new to put in yet. You will notice, however, that the data file is now 1.5MB in size - rather than 8.5MB as last week. I realised that all my data I was using for testing was still sitting in there... so I got rid of it all... makes quite a difference!
There's also a now three files making up the program rather than two. The extra file is just a security file for the database... nothing very exciting.
Planned upcoming additions:
- Partnership stats
- Full scorecards
- The rest of the stats in the player profiles
GO THE STATS!
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Version 0.0.01
My next decision was to look very professional by giving the Stats Program a version number :)
So here it is... the link to download "X-treme Stats" version 0.0.01
How to run it:
It's just a zip file with 2 files in it. Save it, extract it, and run the exe file (you have to extract it it or it won't work - you can't run it straight from inside the zip file.) Also, make sure the 'exe' file and the 'data' file are always in the same folder.. or else it won't work.
How to use it:
You don't need instructions... just play around with it... click some buttons and check out some stats. You'll find your way around pretty easy - especially given there's not a lot in there yet.
Basically, pick a category from the main window. On each window that comes up there'll be a green panel at the top where you choose your stats and options that you want to see. Click 'Show stats' or whatever the button is called, and they shall appear!
About the program:
This super-early version has just the major popular stats in it. But there will be a bit more added to it each week. I have grand visions of what this will be like once it's got everything in it that I want. Hence the grand name of the program!
But seriously.. the stats have all the match information stored BALL-BY-BALL... so pretty much any stats you could ever want will eventually be possible!
What it has so far:
- Main stats for each player
- A short list of popular records (eg. high scores, best bowling, best partnership scores...)
- MVP (and LVP) counts
What I plan to have coming next:
- Partnership career stats
- Team stats (wins/losses, runs scored, etc)
- More detailed player stats (including graphs)
- Ability to look at the full scorecard for every game
As a final note.. I hope it works. It runs perfectly on my home computer, and on my computer at work. I think any reasonably up-to-date Windows computer will be fine. Although I have had trouble with things like this looking bad (ie. becoming unreadable) when going between WinXP and later versions... my home computer has Vista and we have Windows 7 at work. So hopefully older windows will be fine, too.
Let me know if there's any problems.
Why is this here?
Dear Popped Collars,
Although I initially thought it would be good to email them out, all my email accounts don't let me send 'exe' files. Even if they're in a zip file. Even if I rename them from 'exe' to something weird like 'xav' or something innocent sounding like 'doc'... the email knows!!!
So I put the file on the web.
I also could send you the link to the file to download. Problem with that is that most of the email addresses I have for you are work ones. So you might not be able to go get it anyway. Or not be able to run it if you do get it. Who knows what strange security things work-places like to implement.
Then I was going to make a web-site. But decided a blog was quicker and easier to make. So here it is... the Popped Collars Indoor Cricket Stats Blog.
Awesome!
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