Why Rian and Gareth should bat again

This season has seen many a game played with less than 8 players. Therefore, it has seen many opportunities for Popped Collars players to have a extra innings, or to bowl some extra overs. This week, we ask the question:

How well do different players perform when they are chosen (or choose themselves!) to bat or bowl the additional inning/overs?


To begin, the batting stats.

Here's the table showing two batting averages for each player. First, their averages when they are in their "regular" innings (their first time batting in each match). Second, their average when they are batting for a second (or even third) time, due to the team being short of players.

The last column shows the difference between the two - a positive number means they do better when they are a "sub".

Batter	Regular Innings	Regular Avg	Sub Innings	Sub Avg	Difference
Gareth	108	15.56	3	27.33	+11.78
Rian	113	23.31	7	34.71	+11.4
Daniel	35	18.14	4	24.75	+6.61
Andy	133	18.29	19	24.47	+6.19
Brad	134	22.42	8	24.13	+1.71
Sanjit	110	13.61	6	14.33	+0.72
Matt S	53	11.04	10	8.40	-2.64
Jake	72	17.39	4	13.00	-4.39
Xavier	144	23.77	7	18.71	-5.06
Jim	28	17.25	2	5.50	-11.75
Julian	82	22.33	1	9.00	-13.33

First, we will all be happy to see the proof of Andy's massive hogging of the additional time at the crease. With a respectable batting average, we can assume that most of those 19 additional innings were of his own choosing.

Secondly, why are Rian and Gareth not batting more often. A solid batting pair as it is, it appears that if we were short of players, and sent them in together a second time, they would average above 60!

I'm going to assume that Rian's monstrous average of almost 35 when batting as a fill-in is due to the circumstances in which he would be batting. No team who cared about winning a match would choose Rian to bat again, so presumably he gets an easier time than normal. Having said that, it is a huge average to maintain under any circumstances.

At the other end of the scale, apart from Julian and Jim, who have very rarely had to re-bat, it appears that I am the one with some explaining to do. Perhaps other teams can tell when I'm having an off day.



On to the bowling. Here's the same table again with runs per over. Again, in the last column, a positive number means that the player performs batter (less runs/over) when they are a "sub"

Batter	Regular Overs	Regular Avg	Sub Innings	Sub Avg	Difference
Sanjit	222	7.19	16	5.81	+1.38
Daniel	70	8.64	9	7.44	+1.20
Rian	225	5.26	11	4.45	+0.80
Gareth	217	6.34	19	6.47	-0.13
Xavier	288	6.37	8	6.63	-0.25
Brad	271	7.37	30	8.63	-1.26
Julian	166	8.76	5	11.80	-3.04
Matt S	107	10.00	15	13.73	-3.73
Jake	146	8.01	7	12.14	-4.13
Andy	267	6.25	13	12.46	-6.21
Jim	56	3.95	1	11.00	-7.05

This time Sanjit and Daniel are the big improvers. This time, my theory is that they are the bowlers who look more harmless than they are. Batsman choose them, expecting an easy time, and are done by their own cockiness and the unexpected quality of the bowling. Having both kept wicket and observed our bowlers from the field, I would certainly believe that this is a good explanation.

Most people actually end up worse off when bowling additional overs. Again ignoring Jim's single over, this time the A.Ragg is the worst offender. This one has an easy explanation... rebowling of wides, anyone?