Ashes 2013 - A network theory analysis of Cricket strategies

TL;DR

This paper applies complex network theory to analyze cricket strategies in the Ashes 2013 series, revealing differences in team connectivity and batting order reliance through network analysis of partnership data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel network-based approach to analyze cricket team strategies using partnership data, providing visual and quantitative insights into batting patterns.

Findings

England is highly connected with significant lower order contributions.

Australia relies heavily on top order batsmen.

Network analysis identifies potential batting order weaknesses.

Abstract

We demonstrate in this paper the use of tools of complex network theory to describe the strategy of Australia and England in the recently concluded Ashes 2013 Test series. Using partnership data made available by cricinfo during the Ashes 2013 Test series, we generate batting partnership network (BPN) for each team, in which nodes correspond to batsmen and links represent runs scored in partnerships between batsmen. The resulting network display a visual summary of the pattern of run-scoring by each team, which helps us in identifying potential weakness in a batting order. We use different centrality scores to quantify the performance, relative importance and effect of removing a player from the team. We observe that England is an extremely well connected team, in which lower order batsmen consistently contributed significantly to the team score. Contrary to this Australia showed dependence on their top order batsmen.