STBR Stats

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.

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.

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?

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?

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!

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 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?"