cricketr plays the ODIs!

Published in R bloggers: cricketr plays the ODIs

Introduction

In this post my package ‘cricketr’ takes a swing at One Day Internationals(ODIs). Like test batsman who adapt to ODIs with some innovative strokes, the cricketr package has some additional functions and some modified functions to handle the high strike and economy rates in ODIs. As before I have chosen my top 4 ODI batsmen and top 4 ODI bowlers.

If you are passionate about cricket, and love analyzing cricket performances, then check out my racy book on cricket ‘Cricket analytics with cricketr and cricpy – Analytics harmony with R & Python’! This book discusses and shows how to use my R package ‘cricketr’ and my Python package ‘cricpy’ to analyze batsmen and bowlers in all formats of the game (Test, ODI and T20). The paperback is available on Amazon at $21.99 and the kindle version at $9.99/Rs 449/-. A must read for any cricket lover! Check it out!!

Important note 1: The latest release of ‘cricketr’ now includes the ability to analyze performances of teams now!! See Cricketr adds team analytics to its repertoire!!!

Important note 2 : Cricketr can now do a more fine-grained analysis of players, see Cricketr learns new tricks : Performs fine-grained analysis of players

Important note 3: Do check out the python avatar of cricketr, ‘cricpy’ in my post ‘Introducing cricpy:A python package to analyze performances of cricketers”

Do check out my interactive Shiny app implementation using the cricketr package – Sixer – R package cricketr’s new Shiny avatar

You can also read this post at Rpubs as odi-cricketr. Dowload this report as a PDF file from odi-cricketr.pdf

Important note: Do check out my other posts using cricketr at cricketr-posts

Note: If you would like to do a similar analysis for a different set of batsman and bowlers, you can clone/download my skeleton cricketr template from Github (which is the R Markdown file I have used for the analysis below). You will only need to make appropriate changes for the players you are interested in. Just a familiarity with R and R Markdown only is needed.
Batsmen

Virendar Sehwag (Ind)
AB Devilliers (SA)
Chris Gayle (WI)
Glenn Maxwell (Aus)

Bowlers

Mitchell Johnson (Aus)
Lasith Malinga (SL)
Dale Steyn (SA)
Tim Southee (NZ)

I have sprinkled the plots with a few of my comments. Feel free to draw your conclusions! The analysis is included below

The profile for Virender Sehwag is 35263. This can be used to get the ODI data for Sehwag. For a batsman the type should be “batting” and for a bowler the type should be “bowling” and the function is getPlayerDataOD()

The package can be installed directly from CRAN

if (!require("cricketr")){ 
    install.packages("cricketr",lib = "c:/test") 
} 
library(cricketr)

or from Github

library(devtools)
install_github("tvganesh/cricketr")
library(cricketr)

The One day data for a particular player can be obtained with the getPlayerDataOD() function. To do you will need to go to ESPN CricInfo Player and type in the name of the player for e.g Virendar Sehwag, etc. This will bring up a page which have the profile number for the player e.g. for Virendar Sehwag this would be http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/35263.html. Hence, Sehwag’s profile is 35263. This can be used to get the data for Virat Sehwag as shown below

sehwag <- getPlayerDataOD(35263,dir="..",file="sehwag.csv",type="batting")

Analyses of Batsmen

The following plots gives the analysis of the 4 ODI batsmen

Virendar Sehwag (Ind) – Innings – 245, Runs = 8586, Average=35.05, Strike Rate= 104.33
AB Devilliers (SA) – Innings – 179, Runs= 7941, Average=53.65, Strike Rate= 99.12
Chris Gayle (WI) – Innings – 264, Runs= 9221, Average=37.65, Strike Rate= 85.11
Glenn Maxwell (Aus) – Innings – 45, Runs= 1367, Average=35.02, Strike Rate= 126.69

Plot of 4s, 6s and the scoring rate in ODIs

The 3 charts below give the number of

4s vs Runs scored
6s vs Runs scored
Balls faced vs Runs scored

A regression line is fitted in each of these plots for each of the ODI batsmen A. Virender Sehwag

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsman4s("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")
batsman6s("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")
batsmanScoringRateODTT("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

B. AB Devilliers

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsman4s("./devilliers.csv","Devillier")
batsman6s("./devilliers.csv","Devillier")
batsmanScoringRateODTT("./devilliers.csv","Devillier")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

C. Chris Gayle

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsman4s("./gayle.csv","Gayle")
batsman6s("./gayle.csv","Gayle")
batsmanScoringRateODTT("./gayle.csv","Gayle")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

D. Glenn Maxwell

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsman4s("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")
batsman6s("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")
batsmanScoringRateODTT("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Relative Mean Strike Rate

In this first plot I plot the Mean Strike Rate of the batsmen. It can be seen that Maxwell has a awesome strike rate in ODIs. However we need to keep in mind that Maxwell has relatively much fewer (only 45 innings) innings. He is followed by Sehwag who(most innings- 245) also has an excellent strike rate till 100 runs and then we have Devilliers who roars ahead. This is also seen in the overall strike rate in above

par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
frames <- list("./sehwag.csv","./devilliers.csv","gayle.csv","maxwell.csv")
names <- list("Sehwag","Devilliers","Gayle","Maxwell")
relativeBatsmanSRODTT(frames,names)

Relative Runs Frequency Percentage

Sehwag leads in the percentage of runs in 10 run ranges upto 50 runs. Maxwell and Devilliers lead in 55-66 & 66-85 respectively.

frames <- list("./sehwag.csv","./devilliers.csv","gayle.csv","maxwell.csv")
names <- list("Sehwag","Devilliers","Gayle","Maxwell")
relativeRunsFreqPerfODTT(frames,names)

Percentage of 4s,6s in the runs scored

The plot below shows the percentage of runs made by the batsmen by ways of 1s,2s,3s, 4s and 6s. It can be seen that Sehwag has the higheest percent of 4s (33.36%) in his overall runs in ODIs. Maxwell has the highest percentage of 6s (13.36%) in his ODI career. If we take the overall 4s+6s then Sehwag leads with (33.36 +5.95 = 39.31%),followed by Gayle (27.80+10.15=37.95%)

Percent 4’s,6’s in total runs scored

The plot below shows the contrib

frames <- list("./sehwag.csv","./devilliers.csv","gayle.csv","maxwell.csv")
names <- list("Sehwag","Devilliers","Gayle","Maxwell")
runs4s6s <-batsman4s6s(frames,names)

print(runs4s6s)

##                Sehwag Devilliers Gayle Maxwell
## Runs(1s,2s,3s)  60.69      67.39 62.05   62.11
## 4s              33.36      24.28 27.80   24.53
## 6s               5.95       8.32 10.15   13.36

Runs forecast

The forecast for the batsman is shown below.

par(mfrow=c(2,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanPerfForecast("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")
batsmanPerfForecast("./devilliers.csv","Devilliers")
batsmanPerfForecast("./gayle.csv","Gayle")
batsmanPerfForecast("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

3D plot of Runs vs Balls Faced and Minutes at Crease

The plot is a scatter plot of Runs vs Balls faced and Minutes at Crease. A prediction plane is fitted

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
battingPerf3d("./sehwag.csv","V Sehwag")
battingPerf3d("./devilliers.csv","AB Devilliers")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
battingPerf3d("./gayle.csv","C Gayle")
battingPerf3d("./maxwell.csv","G Maxwell")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Predicting Runs given Balls Faced and Minutes at Crease

A multi-variate regression plane is fitted between Runs and Balls faced +Minutes at crease.

BF <- seq( 10, 200,length=10)
Mins <- seq(30,220,length=10)
newDF <- data.frame(BF,Mins)

sehwag <- batsmanRunsPredict("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag",newdataframe=newDF)
devilliers <- batsmanRunsPredict("./devilliers.csv","Devilliers",newdataframe=newDF)
gayle <- batsmanRunsPredict("./gayle.csv","Gayle",newdataframe=newDF)
maxwell <- batsmanRunsPredict("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell",newdataframe=newDF)

The fitted model is then used to predict the runs that the batsmen will score for a hypotheticial Balls faced and Minutes at crease. It can be seen that Maxwell sets a searing pace in the predicted runs for a given Balls Faced and Minutes at crease followed by Sehwag. But we have to keep in mind that Maxwell has only around 1/5th of the innings of Sehwag (45 to Sehwag’s 245 innings). They are followed by Devilliers and then finally Gayle

batsmen <-cbind(round(sehwag$Runs),round(devilliers$Runs),round(gayle$Runs),round(maxwell$Runs))
colnames(batsmen) <- c("Sehwag","Devilliers","Gayle","Maxwell")
newDF <- data.frame(round(newDF$BF),round(newDF$Mins))
colnames(newDF) <- c("BallsFaced","MinsAtCrease")
predictedRuns <- cbind(newDF,batsmen)
predictedRuns

##    BallsFaced MinsAtCrease Sehwag Devilliers Gayle Maxwell
## 1          10           30     11         12    11      18
## 2          31           51     33         32    28      43
## 3          52           72     55         52    46      67
## 4          73           93     77         71    63      92
## 5          94          114    100         91    81     117
## 6         116          136    122        111    98     141
## 7         137          157    144        130   116     166
## 8         158          178    167        150   133     191
## 9         179          199    189        170   151     215
## 10        200          220    211        190   168     240

Highest runs likelihood

The plots below the runs likelihood of batsman. This uses K-Means It can be seen that Devilliers has almost 27.75% likelihood to make around 90+ runs. Gayle and Sehwag have 34% to make 40+ runs. A. Virender Sehwag

A. Virender Sehwag

batsmanRunsLikelihood("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")

## Summary of  Sehwag 's runs scoring likelihood
## **************************************************
## 
## There is a 35.22 % likelihood that Sehwag  will make  46 Runs in  44 balls over 67  Minutes 
## There is a 9.43 % likelihood that Sehwag  will make  119 Runs in  106 balls over  158  Minutes 
## There is a 55.35 % likelihood that Sehwag  will make  12 Runs in  13 balls over 18  Minutes

B. AB Devilliers

batsmanRunsLikelihood("./devilliers.csv","Devilliers")

## Summary of  Devilliers 's runs scoring likelihood
## **************************************************
## 
## There is a 30.65 % likelihood that Devilliers  will make  44 Runs in  43 balls over 60  Minutes 
## There is a 29.84 % likelihood that Devilliers  will make  91 Runs in  88 balls over  124  Minutes 
## There is a 39.52 % likelihood that Devilliers  will make  11 Runs in  15 balls over 21  Minutes

C. Chris Gayle

batsmanRunsLikelihood("./gayle.csv","Gayle")

## Summary of  Gayle 's runs scoring likelihood
## **************************************************
## 
## There is a 32.69 % likelihood that Gayle  will make  47 Runs in  51 balls over 72  Minutes 
## There is a 54.49 % likelihood that Gayle  will make  10 Runs in  15 balls over  20  Minutes 
## There is a 12.82 % likelihood that Gayle  will make  109 Runs in  119 balls over 172  Minutes

D. Glenn Maxwell

batsmanRunsLikelihood("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")

## Summary of  Maxwell 's runs scoring likelihood
## **************************************************
## 
## There is a 34.38 % likelihood that Maxwell  will make  39 Runs in  29 balls over 35  Minutes 
## There is a 15.62 % likelihood that Maxwell  will make  89 Runs in  55 balls over  69  Minutes 
## There is a 50 % likelihood that Maxwell  will make  6 Runs in  7 balls over 9  Minutes

Average runs at ground and against opposition

A. Virender Sehwag

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanAvgRunsGround("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")
batsmanAvgRunsOpposition("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

B. AB Devilliers

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanAvgRunsGround("./devilliers.csv","Devilliers")
batsmanAvgRunsOpposition("./devilliers.csv","Devilliers")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

C. Chris Gayle

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanAvgRunsGround("./gayle.csv","Gayle")
batsmanAvgRunsOpposition("./gayle.csv","Gayle")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

D. Glenn Maxwell

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanAvgRunsGround("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")
batsmanAvgRunsOpposition("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Moving Average of runs over career

The moving average for the 4 batsmen indicate the following

1. The moving average of Devilliers and Maxwell is on the way up.
2. Sehwag shows a slight downward trend from his 2nd peak in 2011
3. Gayle maintains a consistent 45 runs for the last few years

par(mfrow=c(2,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanMovingAverage("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")
batsmanMovingAverage("./devilliers.csv","Devilliers")
batsmanMovingAverage("./gayle.csv","Gayle")
batsmanMovingAverage("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Check batsmen in-form, out-of-form

Maxwell, Devilliers, Sehwag are in-form. This is also evident from the moving average plot
Gayle is out-of-form

checkBatsmanInForm("./sehwag.csv","Sehwag")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 143  Mean of population: 33.76 
## Sample size: 16  Mean of sample: 37.44 SD of sample: 55.15 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Sehwag 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Sehwag 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Sehwag 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.603525  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBatsmanInForm("./devilliers.csv","Devilliers")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 111  Mean of population: 43.5 
## Sample size: 13  Mean of sample: 57.62 SD of sample: 40.69 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Devilliers 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Devilliers 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Devilliers 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.883541  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBatsmanInForm("./gayle.csv","Gayle")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 140  Mean of population: 37.1 
## Sample size: 16  Mean of sample: 17.25 SD of sample: 20.25 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Gayle 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Gayle 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Gayle 's Form Status: Out-of-Form because the p value: 0.000609  is less than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBatsmanInForm("./maxwell.csv","Maxwell")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 28  Mean of population: 25.25 
## Sample size: 4  Mean of sample: 64.25 SD of sample: 36.97 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Maxwell 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Maxwell 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Maxwell 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.948744  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

Analysis of bowlers

Mitchell Johnson (Aus) – Innings-150, Wickets – 239, Econ Rate : 4.83
Lasith Malinga (SL)- Innings-182, Wickets – 287, Econ Rate : 5.26
Dale Steyn (SA)- Innings-103, Wickets – 162, Econ Rate : 4.81
Tim Southee (NZ)- Innings-96, Wickets – 135, Econ Rate : 5.33

Malinga has the highest number of innings and wickets followed closely by Mitchell. Steyn and Southee have relatively fewer innings.

To get the bowler’s data use

malinga <- getPlayerDataOD(49758,dir=".",file="malinga.csv",type="bowling")

Wicket Frequency percentage

This plot gives the percentage of wickets for each wickets (1,2,3…etc)

par(mfrow=c(1,4))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerWktsFreqPercent("./mitchell.csv","J Mitchell")
bowlerWktsFreqPercent("./malinga.csv","Malinga")
bowlerWktsFreqPercent("./steyn.csv","Steyn")
bowlerWktsFreqPercent("./southee.csv","southee")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Wickets Runs plot

The plot below gives a boxplot of the runs ranges for each of the wickets taken by the bowlers. M Johnson and Steyn are more economical than Malinga and Southee corroborating the figures above

par(mfrow=c(1,4))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))

bowlerWktsRunsPlot("./mitchell.csv","J Mitchell")
bowlerWktsRunsPlot("./malinga.csv","Malinga")
bowlerWktsRunsPlot("./steyn.csv","Steyn")
bowlerWktsRunsPlot("./southee.csv","southee")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Average wickets in different grounds and opposition

A. Mitchell Johnson

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerAvgWktsGround("./mitchell.csv","J Mitchell")
bowlerAvgWktsOpposition("./mitchell.csv","J Mitchell")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

B. Lasith Malinga

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerAvgWktsGround("./malinga.csv","Malinga")
bowlerAvgWktsOpposition("./malinga.csv","Malinga")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

C. Dale Steyn

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerAvgWktsGround("./steyn.csv","Steyn")
bowlerAvgWktsOpposition("./steyn.csv","Steyn")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

D. Tim Southee

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerAvgWktsGround("./southee.csv","southee")
bowlerAvgWktsOpposition("./southee.csv","southee")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Relative bowling performance

The plot below shows that Mitchell Johnson and Southee have more wickets in 3-4 wickets range while Steyn and Malinga in 1-2 wicket range

frames <- list("./mitchell.csv","./malinga.csv","steyn.csv","southee.csv")
names <- list("M Johnson","Malinga","Steyn","Southee")
relativeBowlingPerf(frames,names)

Relative Economy Rate against wickets taken

Steyn had the best economy rate followed by M Johnson. Malinga and Southee have a poorer economy rate

frames <- list("./mitchell.csv","./malinga.csv","steyn.csv","southee.csv")
names <- list("M Johnson","Malinga","Steyn","Southee")
relativeBowlingERODTT(frames,names)

Moving average of wickets over career

Johnson and Steyn career vs wicket graph is on the up-swing. Southee is maintaining a reasonable record while Malinga shows a decline in ODI performance

par(mfrow=c(2,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerMovingAverage("./mitchell.csv","M Johnson")
bowlerMovingAverage("./malinga.csv","Malinga")
bowlerMovingAverage("./steyn.csv","Steyn")
bowlerMovingAverage("./southee.csv","Southee")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Wickets forecast

par(mfrow=c(2,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerPerfForecast("./mitchell.csv","M Johnson")
bowlerPerfForecast("./malinga.csv","Malinga")
bowlerPerfForecast("./steyn.csv","Steyn")
bowlerPerfForecast("./southee.csv","southee")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Check bowler in-form, out-of-form

All the bowlers are shown to be still in-form

checkBowlerInForm("./mitchell.csv","J Mitchell")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 135  Mean of population: 1.55 
## Sample size: 15  Mean of sample: 2 SD of sample: 1.07 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : J Mitchell 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : J Mitchell 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "J Mitchell 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.937917  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBowlerInForm("./malinga.csv","Malinga")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 163  Mean of population: 1.58 
## Sample size: 19  Mean of sample: 1.58 SD of sample: 1.22 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Malinga 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Malinga 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Malinga 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.5  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBowlerInForm("./steyn.csv","Steyn")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 93  Mean of population: 1.59 
## Sample size: 11  Mean of sample: 1.45 SD of sample: 0.69 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Steyn 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Steyn 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Steyn 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.257438  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBowlerInForm("./southee.csv","southee")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 86  Mean of population: 1.48 
## Sample size: 10  Mean of sample: 0.8 SD of sample: 1.14 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : southee 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : southee 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "southee 's Form Status: Out-of-Form because the p value: 0.044302  is less than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

***************

Key findings

Here are some key conclusions ODI batsmen

AB Devilliers has high frequency of runs in the 60-120 range and the highest average
Sehwag has the most number of innings and good strike rate
Maxwell has the best strike rate but it should be kept in mind that he has 1/5 of the innings of Sehwag. We need to see how he progress further
Sehwag has the highest percentage of 4s in the runs scored, while Maxwell has the most 6s
For a hypothetical Balls Faced and Minutes at creases Maxwell will score the most runs followed by Sehwag
The moving average of indicates that the best is yet to come for Devilliers and Maxwell. Sehwag has a few more years in him while Gayle shows a decline in ODI performance and an out of form is indicated.

ODI bowlers

Malinga has the highest played the highest innings and also has the highest wickets though he has poor economy rate
M Johnson is the most effective in the 3-4 wicket range followed by Southee
M Johnson and Steyn has the best overall economy rate followed by Malinga and Steyn 4 M Johnson and Steyn’s career is on the up-swing,Southee maintains a steady consistent performance, while Malinga shows a downward trend

Hasta la vista! I’ll be back!
Watch this space!

Also see my other posts in R

Introducing cricketr! : An R package to analyze performances of cricketers

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
Ulysses by Alfred Tennyson

Introduction

This is an initial post in which I introduce a cricketing package ‘cricketr’ which I have created. This package was a natural culmination to my earlier posts on cricket and my finishing 10 modules of Data Science Specialization, from John Hopkins University at Coursera. The thought of creating this package struck me some time back, and I have finally been able to bring this to fruition.

So here it is. My R package ‘cricketr!!!’

Untitled

This package uses the statistics info available in ESPN Cricinfo Statsguru. The current version of this package can handle all formats of the game including Test, ODI and Twenty20 cricket.

You should be able to install the package from CRAN and use many of the functions available in the package. Please be mindful of ESPN Cricinfo Terms of Use

(Note: This page is also hosted as a GitHub page at cricketr and also at RPubs as cricketr: A R package for analyzing performances of cricketers

You can download this analysis as a PDF file from Introducing cricketr

You can clone the cricketr code from Github at cricketr

(Take a look at my short video tutorial on my R package cricketr on Youtube – R package cricketr – A short tutorial)

Do check out my interactive Shiny app implementation using the cricketr package – Sixer – R package cricketr’s new Shiny avatar

Please look at my recent post, which includes updates to this post, and 8 new functions added to the cricketr package “Re-introducing cricketr: An R package to analyze the performances of cricketers”

Important note 1: The latest release of ‘cricketr’ now includes the ability to analyze performances of teams now!! See Cricketr adds team analytics to its repertoire!!!

Important note 2 : Cricketr can now do a more fine-grained analysis of players, see Cricketr learns new tricks : Performs fine-grained analysis of players

Important note 3: Do check out the python avatar of cricketr, ‘cricpy’ in my post ‘Introducing cricpy:A python package to analyze performances of cricketers”

The cricketr package

The cricketr package has several functions that perform several different analyses on both batsman and bowlers. The package has functions that plot percentage frequency runs or wickets, runs likelihood for a batsman, relative run/strike rates of batsman and relative performance/economy rate for bowlers are available.

Other interesting functions include batting performance moving average, forecast and a function to check whether the batsman/bowler is in in-form or out-of-form.

The data for a particular player can be obtained with the getPlayerData() function from the package. To do this you will need to go to ESPN CricInfo Player and type in the name of the player for e.g Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar etc. This will bring up a page which have the profile number for the player e.g. for Sachin Tendulkar this would be http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/35320.html. Hence, Sachin’s profile is 35320. This can be used to get the data for Tendulkar as shown below

The cricketr package is now available from CRAN!!!. You should be able to install directly with

if (!require("cricketr")){ 
    install.packages("cricketr",lib = "c:/test") 
} 
library(cricketr)

?getPlayerData

## 
## getPlayerData(profile, opposition='', host='', dir='./data', file='player001.csv', type='batting', homeOrAway=[1, 2], result=[1, 2, 4], create=True)
##     Get the player data from ESPN Cricinfo based on specific inputs and store in a file in a given directory
##     
##     Description
##     
##     Get the player data given the profile of the batsman. The allowed inputs are home,away or both and won,lost or draw of matches. The data is stored in a .csv file in a directory specified. This function also returns a data frame of the player
##     
##     Usage
##     
##     getPlayerData(profile,opposition="",host="",dir="./data",file="player001.csv",
##     type="batting", homeOrAway=c(1,2),result=c(1,2,4))
##     Arguments
##     
##     profile     
##     This is the profile number of the player to get data. This can be obtained from http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/index.html. Type the name of the player and click search. This will display the details of the player. Make a note of the profile ID. For e.g For Sachin Tendulkar this turns out to be http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/35320.html. Hence the profile for Sachin is 35320
##     opposition  
##     The numerical value of the opposition country e.g.Australia,India, England etc. The values are Australia:2,Bangladesh:25,England:1,India:6,New Zealand:5,Pakistan:7,South Africa:3,Sri Lanka:8, West Indies:4, Zimbabwe:9
##     host        
##     The numerical value of the host country e.g.Australia,India, England etc. The values are Australia:2,Bangladesh:25,England:1,India:6,New Zealand:5,Pakistan:7,South Africa:3,Sri Lanka:8, West Indies:4, Zimbabwe:9
##     dir 
##     Name of the directory to store the player data into. If not specified the data is stored in a default directory "./data". Default="./data"
##     file        
##     Name of the file to store the data into for e.g. tendulkar.csv. This can be used for subsequent functions. Default="player001.csv"
##     type        
##     type of data required. This can be "batting" or "bowling"
##     homeOrAway  
##     This is a vector with either 1,2 or both. 1 is for home 2 is for away
##     result      
##     This is a vector that can take values 1,2,4. 1 - won match 2- lost match 4- draw
##     Details
##     
##     More details can be found in my short video tutorial in Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9uMPFVsXsI
##     
##     Value
##     
##     Returns the player's dataframe
##     
##     Note
##     
##     Maintainer: Tinniam V Ganesh <tvganesh.85@gmail.com>
##     
##     Author(s)
##     
##     Tinniam V Ganesh
##     
##     References
##     
##     http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/stats/index.html
##     https://gigadom.wordpress.com/
##     
##     See Also
##     
##     getPlayerDataSp
##     
##     Examples
##     
##     ## Not run: 
##     # Both home and away. Result = won,lost and drawn
##     tendulkar = getPlayerData(35320,dir=".", file="tendulkar1.csv",
##     type="batting", homeOrAway=c(1,2),result=c(1,2,4))
##     
##     # Only away. Get data only for won and lost innings
##     tendulkar = getPlayerData(35320,dir=".", file="tendulkar2.csv",
##     type="batting",homeOrAway=c(2),result=c(1,2))
##     
##     # Get bowling data and store in file for future
##     kumble = getPlayerData(30176,dir=".",file="kumble1.csv",
##     type="bowling",homeOrAway=c(1),result=c(1,2))
##     
##     #Get the Tendulkar's Performance against Australia in Australia
##     tendulkar = getPlayerData(35320, opposition = 2,host=2,dir=".", 
##     file="tendulkarVsAusInAus.csv",type="batting")

The cricketr package includes some pre-packaged sample (.csv) files. You can use these sample to test functions as shown below

# Retrieve the file path of a data file installed with cricketr
pathToFile ,"Sachin Tendulkar")

Alternatively, the cricketr package can be installed from GitHub with

if (!require("cricketr")){ 
    library(devtools) 
    install_github("tvganesh/cricketr") 
}
library(cricketr)

The pre-packaged files can be accessed as shown above.
To get the data of any player use the function getPlayerData()

tendulkar <- getPlayerData(35320,dir="..",file="tendulkar.csv",type="batting",homeOrAway=c(1,2),
                           result=c(1,2,4))

Important Note This needs to be done only once for a player. This function stores the player’s data in a CSV file (for e.g. tendulkar.csv as above) which can then be reused for all other functions. Once we have the data for the players many analyses can be done. This post will use the stored CSV file obtained with a prior getPlayerData for all subsequent analyses

Sachin Tendulkar’s performance – Basic Analyses

The 3 plots below provide the following for Tendulkar

Frequency percentage of runs in each run range over the whole career
Mean Strike Rate for runs scored in the given range
A histogram of runs frequency percentages in runs ranges

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanRunsFreqPerf("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")
batsmanMeanStrikeRate("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")
batsmanRunsRanges("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

More analyses

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsman4s("./tendulkar.csv","Tendulkar")
batsman6s("./tendulkar.csv","Tendulkar")
batsmanDismissals("./tendulkar.csv","Tendulkar")

3D scatter plot and prediction plane

The plots below show the 3D scatter plot of Sachin’s Runs versus Balls Faced and Minutes at crease. A linear regression model is then fitted between Runs and Balls Faced + Minutes at crease

battingPerf3d("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")

Average runs at different venues

The plot below gives the average runs scored by Tendulkar at different grounds. The plot also displays the number of innings at each ground as a label at x-axis. It can be seen Tendulkar did great in Colombo (SSC), Melbourne ifor matches overseas and Mumbai, Mohali and Bangalore at home

batsmanAvgRunsGround("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")

Average runs against different opposing teams

This plot computes the average runs scored by Tendulkar against different countries. The x-axis also gives the number of innings against each team

batsmanAvgRunsOpposition("./tendulkar.csv","Tendulkar")

Highest Runs Likelihood

The plot below shows the Runs Likelihood for a batsman. For this the performance of Sachin is plotted as a 3D scatter plot with Runs versus Balls Faced + Minutes at crease using. K-Means. The centroids of 3 clusters are computed and plotted. In this plot. Sachin Tendulkar’s highest tendencies are computed and plotted using K-Means

batsmanRunsLikelihood("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")

## Summary of  Sachin Tendulkar 's runs scoring likelihood
## **************************************************
## 
## There is a 16.51 % likelihood that Sachin Tendulkar  will make  139 Runs in  251 balls over 353  Minutes 
## There is a 58.41 % likelihood that Sachin Tendulkar  will make  16 Runs in  31 balls over  44  Minutes 
## There is a 25.08 % likelihood that Sachin Tendulkar  will make  66 Runs in  122 balls over 167  Minutes

A look at the Top 4 batsman – Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting and Sangakkara

The batsmen with the most hundreds in test cricket are

Sachin Tendulkar :Average:53.78,100’s – 51, 50’s – 68
Jacques Kallis : Average: 55.47, 100’s – 45, 50’s – 58
Ricky Ponting : Average: 51.85, 100’s – 41 , 50’s – 62
Kumara Sangakarra: Average: 58.04 ,100’s – 38 , 50’s – 52

in that order.

The following plots take a closer at their performances. The box plots show the mean (red line) and median (blue line). The two ends of the boxplot display the 25th and 75th percentile.

Box Histogram Plot

This plot shows a combined boxplot of the Runs ranges and a histogram of the Runs Frequency. The calculated Mean differ from the stated means possibly because of data cleaning. Also not sure how the means were arrived at ESPN Cricinfo for e.g. when considering not out..

batsmanPerfBoxHist("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")

batsmanPerfBoxHist("./kallis.csv","Jacques Kallis")

batsmanPerfBoxHist("./ponting.csv","Ricky Ponting")

batsmanPerfBoxHist("./sangakkara.csv","K Sangakkara")

Contribution to won and lost matches

The plot below shows the contribution of Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting and Sangakarra in matches won and lost. The plots show the range of runs scored as a boxplot (25th & 75th percentile) and the mean scored. The total matches won and lost are also printed in the plot.

All the players have scored more in the matches they won than the matches they lost. Ricky Ponting is the only batsman who seems to have more matches won to his credit than others. This could also be because he was a member of strong Australian team

For the next 2 functions below you will have to use the getPlayerDataSp() function. I
have commented this as I already have these files

tendulkarsp

par(mfrow=c(2,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanContributionWonLost("tendulkarsp.csv","Tendulkar")
batsmanContributionWonLost("kallissp.csv","Kallis")
batsmanContributionWonLost("pontingsp.csv","Ponting")
batsmanContributionWonLost("sangakkarasp.csv","Sangakarra")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Performance at home and overseas

From the plot below it can be seen
Tendulkar has more matches overseas than at home and his performance is consistent in all venues at home or abroad. Ponting has lesser innings than Tendulkar and has an equally good performance at home and overseas.Kallis and Sangakkara’s performance abroad is lower than the performance at home.

This function also requires the use of getPlayerDataSp() as shown above

par(mfrow=c(2,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanPerfHomeAway("tendulkarsp.csv","Tendulkar")
batsmanPerfHomeAway("kallissp.csv","Kallis")
batsmanPerfHomeAway("pontingsp.csv","Ponting")
batsmanPerfHomeAway("sangakkarasp.csv","Sangakarra")
dev.off()

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Relative Mean Strike Rate plot

The plot below compares the Mean Strike Rate of the batsman for each of the runs ranges of 10 and plots them. The plot indicate the following Range 0 – 50 Runs – Ponting leads followed by Tendulkar Range 50 -100 Runs – Ponting followed by Sangakkara Range 100 – 150 – Ponting and then Tendulkar

frames <- list("./tendulkar.csv","./kallis.csv","ponting.csv","sangakkara.csv")
names <- list("Tendulkar","Kallis","Ponting","Sangakkara")
relativeBatsmanSR(frames,names)

Relative Runs Frequency plot

The plot below gives the relative Runs Frequency Percetages for each 10 run bucket. The plot below show

Sangakkara leads followed by Ponting

frames <- list("./tendulkar.csv","./kallis.csv","ponting.csv","sangakkara.csv")
names <- list("Tendulkar","Kallis","Ponting","Sangakkara")
relativeRunsFreqPerf(frames,names)

Moving Average of runs in career

Take a look at the Moving Average across the career of the Top 4. Clearly . Kallis and Sangakkara have a few more years of great batting ahead. They seem to average on 50. . Tendulkar and Ponting definitely show a slump in the later years

par(mfrow=c(2,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanMovingAverage("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")
batsmanMovingAverage("./kallis.csv","Jacques Kallis")
batsmanMovingAverage("./ponting.csv","Ricky Ponting")
batsmanMovingAverage("./sangakkara.csv","K Sangakkara")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Future Runs forecast

Here are plots that forecast how the batsman will perform in future. In this case 90% of the career runs trend is uses as the training set. the remaining 10% is the test set.

A Holt-Winters forecating model is used to forecast future performance based on the 90% training set. The forecated runs trend is plotted. The test set is also plotted to see how close the forecast and the actual matches

Take a look at the runs forecasted for the batsman below.

Tendulkar’s forecasted performance seems to tally with his actual performance with an average of 50
Kallis the forecasted runs are higher than the actual runs he scored
Ponting seems to have a good run in the future
Sangakkara has a decent run in the future averaging 50 runs

par(mfrow=c(2,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
batsmanPerfForecast("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")
batsmanPerfForecast("./kallis.csv","Jacques Kallis")
batsmanPerfForecast("./ponting.csv","Ricky Ponting")
batsmanPerfForecast("./sangakkara.csv","K Sangakkara")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Check Batsman In-Form or Out-of-Form

The below computation uses Null Hypothesis testing and p-value to determine if the batsman is in-form or out-of-form. For this 90% of the career runs is chosen as the population and the mean computed. The last 10% is chosen to be the sample set and the sample Mean and the sample Standard Deviation are caculated.

The Null Hypothesis (H0) assumes that the batsman continues to stay in-form where the sample mean is within 95% confidence interval of population mean The Alternative (Ha) assumes that the batsman is out of form the sample mean is beyond the 95% confidence interval of the population mean.

A significance value of 0.05 is chosen and p-value us computed If p-value >= .05 – Batsman In-Form If p-value < 0.05 – Batsman Out-of-Form

Note Ideally the p-value should be done for a population that follows the Normal Distribution. But the runs population is usually left skewed. So some correction may be needed. I will revisit this later

This is done for the Top 4 batsman

checkBatsmanInForm("./tendulkar.csv","Sachin Tendulkar")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 294  Mean of population: 50.48 
## Sample size: 33  Mean of sample: 32.42 SD of sample: 29.8 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Sachin Tendulkar 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Sachin Tendulkar 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Sachin Tendulkar 's Form Status: Out-of-Form because the p value: 0.000713  is less than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBatsmanInForm("./kallis.csv","Jacques Kallis")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 240  Mean of population: 47.5 
## Sample size: 27  Mean of sample: 47.11 SD of sample: 59.19 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Jacques Kallis 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Jacques Kallis 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Jacques Kallis 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.48647  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBatsmanInForm("./ponting.csv","Ricky Ponting")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 251  Mean of population: 47.5 
## Sample size: 28  Mean of sample: 36.25 SD of sample: 48.11 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Ricky Ponting 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Ricky Ponting 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Ricky Ponting 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.113115  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBatsmanInForm("./sangakkara.csv","K Sangakkara")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 193  Mean of population: 51.92 
## Sample size: 22  Mean of sample: 71.73 SD of sample: 82.87 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : K Sangakkara 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : K Sangakkara 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "K Sangakkara 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.862862  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

3D plot of Runs vs Balls Faced and Minutes at Crease

The plot is a scatter plot of Runs vs Balls faced and Minutes at Crease. A prediction plane is fitted

par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
battingPerf3d("./tendulkar.csv","Tendulkar")
battingPerf3d("./kallis.csv","Kallis")
par(mfrow=c(1,2))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
battingPerf3d("./ponting.csv","Ponting")
battingPerf3d("./sangakkara.csv","Sangakkara")
dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Predicting Runs given Balls Faced and Minutes at Crease

A multi-variate regression plane is fitted between Runs and Balls faced +Minutes at crease. A sample sequence of Balls Faced(BF) and Minutes at crease (Mins) is setup as shown below. The fitted model is used to predict the runs for these values

BF <- seq( 10, 400,length=15)
Mins <- seq(30,600,length=15)
newDF <- data.frame(BF,Mins)
tendulkar <- batsmanRunsPredict("./tendulkar.csv","Tendulkar",newdataframe=newDF)
kallis <- batsmanRunsPredict("./kallis.csv","Kallis",newdataframe=newDF)
ponting <- batsmanRunsPredict("./ponting.csv","Ponting",newdataframe=newDF)
sangakkara <- batsmanRunsPredict("./sangakkara.csv","Sangakkara",newdataframe=newDF)

The fitted model is then used to predict the runs that the batsmen will score for a given Balls faced and Minutes at crease. It can be seen Ponting has the will score the highest for a given Balls Faced and Minutes at crease.

Ponting is followed by Tendulkar who has Sangakkara close on his heels and finally we have Kallis. This is intuitive as we have already seen that Ponting has a highest strike rate.

batsmen <-cbind(round(tendulkar$Runs),round(kallis$Runs),round(ponting$Runs),round(sangakkara$Runs))
colnames(batsmen) <- c("Tendulkar","Kallis","Ponting","Sangakkara")
newDF <- data.frame(round(newDF$BF),round(newDF$Mins))
colnames(newDF) <- c("BallsFaced","MinsAtCrease")
predictedRuns <- cbind(newDF,batsmen)
predictedRuns

##    BallsFaced MinsAtCrease Tendulkar Kallis Ponting Sangakkara
## 1          10           30         7      6       9          2
## 2          38           71        23     20      25         18
## 3          66          111        39     34      42         34
## 4          94          152        54     48      59         50
## 5         121          193        70     62      76         66
## 6         149          234        86     76      93         82
## 7         177          274       102     90     110         98
## 8         205          315       118    104     127        114
## 9         233          356       134    118     144        130
## 10        261          396       150    132     161        146
## 11        289          437       165    146     178        162
## 12        316          478       181    159     194        178
## 13        344          519       197    173     211        194
## 14        372          559       213    187     228        210
## 15        400          600       229    201     245        226

Checkout my book ‘Deep Learning from first principles Second Edition- In vectorized Python, R and Octave’. My book is available on Amazon as paperback ($18.99) and in kindle version($9.99/Rs449).

You may also like my companion book “Practical Machine Learning with R and Python:Second Edition- Machine Learning in stereo” available in Amazon in paperback($12.99) and Kindle($9.99/Rs449) versions.

Analysis of Top 3 wicket takers

The top 3 wicket takes in test history are
1. M Muralitharan:Wickets: 800, Average = 22.72, Economy Rate – 2.47
2. Shane Warne: Wickets: 708, Average = 25.41, Economy Rate – 2.65
3. Anil Kumble: Wickets: 619, Average = 29.65, Economy Rate – 2.69

How do Anil Kumble, Shane Warne and M Muralitharan compare with one another with respect to wickets taken and the Economy Rate. The next set of plots compute and plot precisely these analyses.

Wicket Frequency Plot

This plot below computes the percentage frequency of number of wickets taken for e.g 1 wicket x%, 2 wickets y% etc and plots them as a continuous line

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerWktsFreqPercent("./kumble.csv","Anil Kumble")
bowlerWktsFreqPercent("./warne.csv","Shane Warne")
bowlerWktsFreqPercent("./murali.csv","M Muralitharan")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Wickets Runs plot

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerWktsRunsPlot("./kumble.csv","Kumble")
bowlerWktsRunsPlot("./warne.csv","Warne")
bowlerWktsRunsPlot("./murali.csv","Muralitharan")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Average wickets at different venues

The plot gives the average wickets taken by Muralitharan at different venues. Muralitharan has taken an average of 8 and 6 wickets at Oval & Wellington respectively in 2 different innings. His best performances are at Kandy and Colombo (SSC)

bowlerAvgWktsGround("./murali.csv","Muralitharan")

Average wickets against different opposition

The plot gives the average wickets taken by Muralitharan against different countries. The x-axis also includes the number of innings against each team

bowlerAvgWktsOpposition("./murali.csv","Muralitharan")

Relative Wickets Frequency Percentage

The Relative Wickets Percentage plot shows that M Muralitharan has a large percentage of wickets in the 3-8 wicket range

frames <- list("./kumble.csv","./murali.csv","warne.csv")
names <- list("Anil KUmble","M Muralitharan","Shane Warne")
relativeBowlingPerf(frames,names)

Relative Economy Rate against wickets taken

Clearly from the plot below it can be seen that Muralitharan has the best Economy Rate among the three

frames <- list("./kumble.csv","./murali.csv","warne.csv")
names <- list("Anil KUmble","M Muralitharan","Shane Warne")
relativeBowlingER(frames,names)

Wickets taken moving average

From th eplot below it can be see 1. Shane Warne’s performance at the time of his retirement was still at a peak of 3 wickets 2. M Muralitharan seems to have become ineffective over time with his peak years being 2004-2006 3. Anil Kumble also seems to slump down and become less effective.

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerMovingAverage("./kumble.csv","Anil Kumble")
bowlerMovingAverage("./warne.csv","Shane Warne")
bowlerMovingAverage("./murali.csv","M Muralitharan")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Future Wickets forecast

Here are plots that forecast how the bowler will perform in future. In this case 90% of the career wickets trend is used as the training set. the remaining 10% is the test set.

A Holt-Winters forecating model is used to forecast future performance based on the 90% training set. The forecated wickets trend is plotted. The test set is also plotted to see how close the forecast and the actual matches

Take a look at the wickets forecasted for the bowlers below. – Shane Warne and Muralitharan have a fairly consistent forecast – Kumble forecast shows a small dip

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerPerfForecast("./kumble.csv","Anil Kumble")
bowlerPerfForecast("./warne.csv","Shane Warne")
bowlerPerfForecast("./murali.csv","M Muralitharan")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Contribution to matches won and lost

The plot below is extremely interesting
1. Kumble wickets range from 2 to 4 wickets in matches wons with a mean of 3
2. Warne wickets in won matches range from 1 to 4 with more matches won. Clearly there are other bowlers contributing to the wins, possibly the pacers
3. Muralitharan wickets range in winning matches is more than the other 2 and ranges ranges 3 to 5 and clearly had a hand (pun unintended) in Sri Lanka’s wins

As discussed above the next 2 charts require the use of getPlayerDataSp()

kumblesp

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerContributionWonLost("kumblesp.csv","Kumble")
bowlerContributionWonLost("warnesp.csv","Warne")
bowlerContributionWonLost("muralisp.csv","Murali")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Performance home and overseas

From the plot below it can be seen that Kumble & Warne have played more matches overseas than Muralitharan. Both Kumble and Warne show an average of 2 wickers overseas, Murali on the other hand has an average of 2.5 wickets overseas but a slightly less number of matches than Kumble & Warne

par(mfrow=c(1,3))
par(mar=c(4,4,2,2))
bowlerPerfHomeAway("kumblesp.csv","Kumble")
bowlerPerfHomeAway("warnesp.csv","Warne")
bowlerPerfHomeAway("muralisp.csv","Murali")

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Check for bowler in-form/out-of-form

The below computation uses Null Hypothesis testing and p-value to determine if the bowler is in-form or out-of-form. For this 90% of the career wickets is chosen as the population and the mean computed. The last 10% is chosen to be the sample set and the sample Mean and the sample Standard Deviation are caculated.

The Null Hypothesis (H0) assumes that the bowler continues to stay in-form where the sample mean is within 95% confidence interval of population mean The Alternative (Ha) assumes that the bowler is out of form the sample mean is beyond the 95% confidence interval of the population mean.

A significance value of 0.05 is chosen and p-value us computed If p-value >= .05 – Batsman In-Form If p-value < 0.05 – Batsman Out-of-Form

Note: The check for the form status of the bowlers indicate 1. That both Kumble and Muralitharan were out of form. This also shows in the moving average plot 2. Warne is still in great form and could have continued for a few more years. Too bad we didn’t see the magic later

checkBowlerInForm("./kumble.csv","Anil Kumble")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 212  Mean of population: 2.69 
## Sample size: 24  Mean of sample: 2.04 SD of sample: 1.55 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Anil Kumble 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Anil Kumble 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Anil Kumble 's Form Status: Out-of-Form because the p value: 0.02549  is less than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBowlerInForm("./warne.csv","Shane Warne")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 240  Mean of population: 2.55 
## Sample size: 27  Mean of sample: 2.56 SD of sample: 1.8 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : Shane Warne 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : Shane Warne 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "Shane Warne 's Form Status: In-Form because the p value: 0.511409  is greater than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

checkBowlerInForm("./murali.csv","M Muralitharan")

## *******************************************************************************************
## 
## Population size: 207  Mean of population: 3.55 
## Sample size: 23  Mean of sample: 2.87 SD of sample: 1.74 
## 
## Null hypothesis H0 : M Muralitharan 's sample average is within 95% confidence interval 
##         of population average
## Alternative hypothesis Ha : M Muralitharan 's sample average is below the 95% confidence
##         interval of population average
## 
## [1] "M Muralitharan 's Form Status: Out-of-Form because the p value: 0.036828  is less than alpha=  0.05"
## *******************************************************************************************

dev.off()

## null device 
##           1

Key Findings

The plots above capture some of the capabilities and features of my cricketr package. Feel free to install the package and try it out. Please do keep in mind ESPN Cricinfo’s Terms of Use.
Here are the main findings from the analysis above

Analysis of Top 4 batsman

The analysis of the Top 4 test batsman Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting and Sangakkara show the folliwing

Sangakkara has the highest average, followed by Tendulkar, Kallis and then Ponting.
Ponting has the highest strike rate followed by Tendulkar,Sangakkara and then Kallis
The predicted runs for a given Balls faced and Minutes at crease is highest for Ponting, followed by Tendulkar, Sangakkara and Kallis
The moving average for Tendulkar and Ponting shows a downward trend while Kallis and Sangakkara retired too soon
Tendulkar was out of form about the time of retirement while the rest were in-form. But this result has to be taken along with the moving average plot. Ponting was clearly on the way out.
The home and overseas performance indicate that Tendulkar is the clear leader. He has the highest number of matches played overseas and his performance has been consistent. He is followed by Ponting, Kallis and finally Sangakkara

Analysis of Top 3 legs spinners

The analysis of Anil Kumble, Shane Warne and M Muralitharan show the following

Muralitharan has the highest wickets and best economy rate followed by Warne and Kumble
Muralitharan has higher wickets frequency percentage between 3 to 8 wickets
Muralitharan has the best Economy Rate for wickets between 2 to 7
The moving average plot shows that the time was up for Kumble and Muralitharan but Warne had a few years ahead
The check for form status shows that Muralitharan and Kumble time was over while Warne still in great form
Kumble’s has more matches abroad than the other 2, yet Kumble averages of 3 wickets at home and 2 wickets overseas liek Warne . Murali has played few matches but has an average of 4 wickets at home and 3 wickets overseas.

Final thoughts

Here are my final thoughts

Batting

Among the 4 batsman Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting and Sangakkara the clear leader is Tendulkar for the following reasons

Tendulkar has the highest test centuries and runs of all time.Tendulkar’s average is 2nd to Sangakkara, Tendulkar’s predicted runs for a given Balls faced and Minutes at Crease is 2nd and is behind Ponting. Also Tendulkar’s performance at home and overseas are consistent throughtout despite the fact that he has a highest number of overseas matches
Ponting takes the 2nd spot with the 2nd highest number of centuries, 1st in Strike Rate and 2nd in home and away performance.
The 3rd spot goes to Sangakkara, with the highest average, 3rd highest number of centuries, reasonable run frequency percentage in different run ranges. However he has a fewer number of matches overseas and his performance overseas is significantly lower than at home
Kallis has the 2nd highest number of centuries but his performance overseas and strike rate are behind others
Finally Kallis and Sangakkara had a few good years of batting still left in them (pity they retired!) while Tendulkar and Ponting’s time was up

Bowling

Muralitharan leads the way followed closely by Warne and finally Kumble. The reasons are

Muralitharan has the highest number of test wickets with the best Wickets percentage and the best Economy Rate. Murali on average gas taken 4 wickets at home and 3 wickets overseas
Warne follows Murali in the highest wickets taken, however Warne has less matches overseas than Murali and average 3 wickets home and 2 wickets overseas
Kumble has the 3rd highest wickets, with 3 wickets on an average at home and 2 wickets overseas. However Kumble has played more matches overseas than the other two. In that respect his performance is great. Also Kumble has played less matches at home otherwise his numbers would have looked even better.
Also while Kumble and Muralitharan’s career was on the decline , Warne was going great and had a couple of years ahead.

You can download this analysis at Introducing cricketr

Hope you have fun using the cricketr package as I had in developing it. Do take a look at my follow up post Taking cricketr for a spin – Part 1

Important note: Do check out my other posts using cricketr at cricketr-posts

Do take a look at my 2nd package “The making of cricket package yorkr – Part 1”

Also see
1. My book “Deep Learning from first principles” now on Amazon
2. My book ‘Practical Machine Learning with R and Python’ on Amazon
3. Taking cricketr for a spin – Part 1
4. cricketr plays the ODIs
5. cricketr adapts to the Twenty20 International
6. Analyzing cricket’s batting legends – Through the mirage with R
7. Masters of spin: Unraveling the web with R
8. Mirror,mirror …best batsman of them all

Analyzing cricket’s batting legends – Through the mirage with R

In this post I do a deep dive into the records of the all-time batting legends of cricket to identify interesting information about their achievements. In my opinion, the usual currency for batsman’s performance like most number of centuries or highest batting average are too gross in their significance. I wanted something finer where we can pin-point specific strengths of different players

This post will answer the following questions.
– How many times has a batsman scored runs in a specific range say 20-40 or 80-100 and so on?
– How do different batsmen compare against each other?
– Which of the batsmen stayed well beyond their sell-by date?
– Which of the batsmen retired too soon?
– What is the propensity for a batsman to get caught, bowled run out etc?

For this analysis I have chosen the batsmen below for the following reasons
Sir Don Bradman : With a batting average of 99.94 Bradman was an obvious choice
Sunil Gavaskar is one of India’s batting icons who amassed 774 runs in his debut against the formidable West Indies in West Indies
Brian Lara : A West Indian batting hero who has double, triple and quadruple centuries under his belt
Sachin Tendulkar: A prolific run getter, India’s idol, who holds the record for most test centuries by any batsman (51 centuries)
Ricky Ponting:A dangerous batsman against any bowling attack and who can demolish any bowler on his day
Rahul Dravid: He was India’s most dependable batsman who could weather any storm in a match single-handedly
AB De Villiers : The destructive South African batsman who can pulverize any attack when he gets going

The analysis has been performed on these batsmen on various parameters. Clearly different batsmen have shone in different batting aspects. The analysis focuses on each of these to see how the different players stack up against each other.

The data for the above batsmen has been taken from ESPN Cricinfo. Only the batting statistics of the above batsmen in Test cricket has been taken. The implementation for this analysis has been done using the R language. The R implementation, datasets and the plots can be accessed at GitHub at analyze-batting-legends. Feel free to fork or clone the code. You should be able to use the code with minor modifications on other players. Also go ahead make your own modifications and hack away!

If you are passionate about cricket, and love analyzing cricket performances, then check out my 2 racy books on cricket! In my books, I perform detailed yet compact analysis of performances of both batsmen, bowlers besides evaluating team & match performances in Tests , ODIs, T20s & IPL. You can buy my books on cricket from Amazon at $12.99 for the paperback and $4.99/$6.99 respectively for the kindle versions. The books can be accessed at Cricket analytics with cricketr and Beaten by sheer pace-Cricket analytics with yorkr A must read for any cricket lover! Check it out!!

Important note: Do check out the python avatar of cricketr, ‘cricpy’ in my post ‘Introducing cricpy:A python package to analyze performances of cricketers”

Key insights from my analysis below
a) Sir Don Bradman’s unmatchable record of 99.94 test average with several centuries, double and triple centuries makes him the gold standard of test batting as seen in the ‘All-time best batsman below’
b) Sunil Gavaskar is the king of batting in India, followed by Rahul Dravid and finally Sachin Tendulkar. See the charts below for details
c) Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid had at least 2 more years of good test cricket in them. Their retirement was premature. This is based on the individual batsmen’s career graph (moving average below)
d) Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Vivian Richards retired at a time when their batting was clearly declining. The writing on the wall was clear and they had to go (see moving average below)
e) The biggest hitter of 4’s was Vivian Richards. In the 2nd place is Brian Lara. Tendulkar & Dravid follow behind. Dravid is a surprise as he has the image of a defender.
e) While Sir Don Bradman made huge scores, the number of 4’s in his innings was significantly less. This could be because the ground in those days did not carry the ball far enough
f) With respect to dismissals Richards was able to keep his wicket intact (11%) of the times , followed by Ponting Tendulkar, De Villiers, Dravid (10%) who carried the bat, and Gavaskar & Bradman (7%)

A) Runs frequency table and charts
These plots normalize the batting performance of different batsman, since the number of innings played ranges from 89 (Bradman) to 348 (Tendulkar), by calculating the percentage frequency the batsman scores runs in a particular range. For e.g. Sunil Gavaskar made scores between 60-80 10% of his total innings

This is shown in a tabular form below

The individual charts for each of the players are shwon belowThe top performers after removing ranges 0-20 & 20-40 are
Between 40-60 runs – 1) Ricky Ponting (16.4%) 2) Brian lara (15.8%) 3) AB De Villiers (14.6%)
Between 60-80 runs – 1) Vivian Richards (18%) 2) AB De Villiers (10.2%) 3) Sunil Gavaskar (10%)
Between 80-100 runs – 1) Rahul Dravid (7.6%) 2) Brian Lara (7.4%) 3) AB De Villiers (6.4%)
Between 100 -120 runs – 1) Sunil Gavaskar (7.5%) 2) Sir Don Bradman (6.8%) 3) Vivian Richards (5.8%)
Between 120-140 runs – 1) Sir Don Bradman (6.8%) 2) Sachin Tendulkar (2.5%) 3) Vivian Richards (2.3%)

The percentage frequency for Brian Lara is included below
1) Brian Lara

The above chart shows out of the total number of innings played by Brian Lara he scored runs in the range (40-60) 16% percent of the time. The chart also shows that Lara scored between 0-20, 40% while also scoring in the ranges 360-380 & 380-400 around 1%.
The same chart is displayed as continuous graph below

The run frequency charts for other batsman are
2) Sir Don Bradman
a) Run frequency

Note: Notice the significant contributions by Sir Don Bradman in the ranges 120-140,140-160,220-240,all the way up to 340
b) Performance

3) Sunil Gavaskar
a) Runs frequency chart

b) Performance chart

4) Sachin Tendulkar
a) Runs frequency chart

b) Performance chart

5) Ricky Ponting
a) Runs frequency

b) Performance

6) Rahul Dravid
a) Runs frequency chart

b) Performance chart

7) Vivian Richards
a) Runs frequency chart

b) Performance chart

8) AB De Villiers
a) Runs frequency chart

b) Performance chart

B) Relative performance of the players
In this section I try to measure the relative performance of the players by superimposing the performance graphs obtained above. You may say that “comparisons are odious!”. But equally odious are myths that are based on gross facts like highest runs, average or most number of centuries.
a) All-time best batsman
(Sir Don Bradman, Sunil Gavaskar, Vivian Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, AB De Villiers)

From the above chart it is clear that Sir Don Bradman is the ‘gold’ standard in batting. He is well above others for run ranges above 100 – 350
b) Best Indian batsman (Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid)

The above chart shows that Gavaskar is ahead of the other two for key ranges between 100 – 130 with almost 8% contribution of total runs. This followed by Dravid who is ahead of Tendulkar in the range 80-120. According to me the all time best Indian batsman is 1) Sunil Gavaskar 2) Rahul Dravid 3) Sachin Tendulkar

c) Best batsman -( Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, AB De Villiers)
This chart was prepared since this comparison was often made in recent times

This chart shows the following ranking 1) AB De Villiers 2) Sachin Tendulkar 3) Brian Lara/Ricky Ponting
C) Chart of 4’s

This chart is plotted with a 2nd order curve of the number of 4’s versus the total runs in the innings
1) Brian Lara

2) Sir Don Bradman

3) Sunil Gavaskar

4) Sachin Tendulkar

5) Ricky Ponting

6) Rahul Dravid

7) Vivian Richards

8) AB De Villiers

D) Proclivity for type of dismissal
The below charts show how often the batsman was out bowled, caught, run out etc
1) Brian Lara

2) Sir Don Bradman

3) Sunil Gavaskar

4) Sachin Tendulkar

5) Ricky Ponting

6) Rahul Dravid

7) Vivian Richard

8) AB De Villiers

E) Moving Average
The plots below provide the performance of the batsman as a time series (chronological) and is displayed as the continuous gray lines. A moving average is computed using ‘loess regression’ and is shown as the dark line. This dark line represents the players performance improvement or decline. The moving average plots are shown below
1) Brian Lara

2) Sir Don Bradman

Sir Don Bradman’s moving average shows a remarkably consistent performance over the years. He probably could have a continued for a couple more years
3)Sunil Gavaskar

Gavaskar moving average does show a good improvement from a dip around 1983. Gavaskar retired bowing to public pressure on a mistaken belief that he was under performing. Gavaskar could have a continued for a couple of more years
4) Sachin Tendulkar

Tendulkar’s performance is clearly on the decline from 2011. He could have announced his retirement at least 2 years prior
5) Ricky Ponting

Ponting peak performance was around 2005 and does go steeply downward from then on. Ponting could have also retired around 2012
6) Rahul Dravid

Dravid seems to have recovered very effectively from his poor for around 2009. His overall performance shows steady improvement. Dravid’s announcement appeared impulsive. Dravid had another 2 good years of test cricket in him
7) Vivian Richards

Richard’s performance seems to have dropped around 1984 and seems to remain that way.
8) AB De Villiers

AB De Villiers moving average shows a steady upward swing from 2009 onwards. De Villiers has at least 3-4 years of great test cricket ahead of him.

Finally as mentioned above the dataset, the R implementation and all the charts are available at GitHub at analyze-batting-legends. Feel free to fork and clone the code. The code should work for other batsman as-is. Also go ahead and make any modifications for obtaining further insights.

Conclusion: The batting legends have been analyzed from various angles namely i) What is the frequency of runs scored in a particular range ii) How each batsman compares with others for relative runs in a specified range iii) How does the batsman get out? iv) What were the peak and lean period of the batsman and whether they recovered or slumped from these periods. While the batsman themselves have played in different time periods I think in an overall sense the performance under the conditions of the time will be similar.
Anyway feel free to let me know your thoughts. If you see other patterns in the data also do drop in your comment.

Also see
– A crime map of India in R – Crimes against women
– What’s up Watson? Using IBM Watson’s QAAPI with Bluemix, NodeExpress – Part 1
– Bend it like Bluemix, MongoDB with autoscaling – Part 1

Introduction

Plot of 4s, 6s and the scoring rate in ODIs

Relative Mean Strike Rate

Relative Runs Frequency Percentage

Percentage of 4s,6s in the runs scored

Percent 4’s,6’s in total runs scored

Runs forecast

3D plot of Runs vs Balls Faced and Minutes at Crease

Predicting Runs given Balls Faced and Minutes at Crease

Highest runs likelihood

Average runs at ground and against opposition

Moving Average of runs over career

Check batsmen in-form, out-of-form

Analysis of bowlers

Wicket Frequency percentage

Wickets Runs plot

Average wickets in different grounds and opposition

Relative bowling performance

Relative Economy Rate against wickets taken

Moving average of wickets over career

Wickets forecast

Check bowler in-form, out-of-form

Key findings

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Introduction

The cricketr package

Sachin Tendulkar’s performance – Basic Analyses

More analyses

3D scatter plot and prediction plane

Average runs at different venues

Average runs against different opposing teams

Highest Runs Likelihood

A look at the Top 4 batsman – Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting and Sangakkara

Box Histogram Plot

Contribution to won and lost matches

Performance at home and overseas

Relative Mean Strike Rate plot

Relative Runs Frequency plot

Moving Average of runs in career

Future Runs forecast

Check Batsman In-Form or Out-of-Form

3D plot of Runs vs Balls Faced and Minutes at Crease

Predicting Runs given Balls Faced and Minutes at Crease

Analysis of Top 3 wicket takers

Wicket Frequency Plot

Wickets Runs plot

Average wickets at different venues

Average wickets against different opposition

Relative Wickets Frequency Percentage

Relative Economy Rate against wickets taken

Wickets taken moving average

Future Wickets forecast

Contribution to matches won and lost

Performance home and overseas

Check for bowler in-form/out-of-form

Key Findings

Analysis of Top 4 batsman

Analysis of Top 3 legs spinners

Final thoughts

Batting

Bowling

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