Muhammad Amir vs Junaid Khan

Comparisons between these two have always gone in favour of Amir due to his outstanding performances in England and Australia where performances turn players into superstars. Also Amir had received a lot of praise from Imran Khan and Wasim Akram among others whereas Junaid is still considered by many as just another one of Pakistan's usual crop of good fast bowlers. However, stats say that Junaid could turn out to be better than Amir within a year or two.

After 14 Test matches, both have almost similar bowling records, with Junaid having a better average, economy rate and more 5 wicket hauls. Amir though has a marginally better strike rate and one more 4 wicket haul than Junaid.

What MUHAMMAD AMIR did:

He mostly bowled against England and Australia, two of the best Test teams at the time. However, he took his wickets on pitches conducive to fast bowling, in New Zealand, England and Australia, with M. Asif keeping the batsman under pressure at the other end and an experienced Umer Gul also playing a supporting role. Amir took 19 wickets from 4 matches each against England and Australia, six of those 8 matches were played in England.

What JUNAID KHAN has done till now:

He has taken all his five wicket hauls against Sri Lanka, two in UAE and two in Sri Lanka. 34 of his 50 Test wickets have come against SL, in 7 matches. Although SL does not have the best batting line-up, but they have generally done well against Pakistan at home and also in UAE. Junaid also did not have any experienced fast bowlers to help keep the pressure at the other end, and he has mostly taken wickets on placid tracks conducive to spin. Although he did play in South Africa where he took only 6 wickets in 3 matches, he can be forgiven since SA batting line-up consists of batsmen with a collection of over 110 centuries among them. 

CONCLUSION

After what Junaid Khan did against the in-form and world beating batting line up of India on those juicy pitches in the ODI series, we could expect something special from him on away tours in England, New Zealand and Australia but there aren't any scheduled before 2015. We''ll just have to make do with Amir's youtube videos till then.

Asian Teams - Dominant Period in Tests

This is an analysis of Asian teams in test cricket and the extent of their domination during their peak periods.

Stats for India have been selected from post partition era. Before the number crunching, let me define the parameters of this analysis:

Dominance Ratio = (Wins + Draws +Tie ) / Losses during the past "n" Tests

Peak Period = Sequence of Tests with the best Dominance Ratio

n = 35 and 50 Tests for separate analysis

$= Most no. of  wins in a sequence of 35 matches

Here are a few things you should know before you read the analysis:

1. I took the cumulative records of Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka from Cricinfo updated till March 23, 2013 and put them in an excel sheet.

2. I added a few columns to show total wins, total losses, total ties and total draws in the last "n" matches.

3. I then highlighted the years with best dominance ratio (as defined above). Where more than one "n" periods had the same ratio, I chose the period with the most wins as the Peak Period. I have highlighted the second best period in grey.

4. There was a case for making Wins and Losses more influential in the ratio than the Draws but Peak period for me is that period during which the team was almost invincible. Therefore, Draws have as much weightage as Wins in the ratio.

5. This analysis is simply based on basic stats. It does not include the quality of opposition and home and away advantages. Pakistan and India were also minnows at the time of partition, they had the same teething problems as Sri Lanka. And to Sri Lanka's advantage, they have played more Test cricket against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh during their Peak than India or Pakistan.

6. Since Sri Lanka started later than the other two teams, I believe using n=35 is a better option than using n-50. Using a smaller value for "n" will be improper since peak periods are extended periods of dominance.

7. No. of times Dominance Ratio was achieved shows the consistency of the teams: how many times the teams got near their own peak since the start of their cricket.

8. Comparison of Dominance Ratios of the three teams also shows the dominance quantitatively i.e. at the peak, how difficult was it to beat the team during the peak period...therefore, higher the Dominance Ratio, more difficult it was to beat the team.

Comparison of		Pakistan	India	Sri Lanka		Remarks
Dominance Ratio for 35 matches		10.67	7.75	3.38		Pakistan's Dominance Ratio shows that they were harder to beat at their Peak
Peak Period Start		13-Mar-87	1-Dec-78	18-Dec-05
Peak Period End		18-Jun-92	30-Jan-82	16-Nov-09
Time Period (Years)		5.27	3.17	3.92		Shows that Pakistan's 35 Tests covered a longer span than the other two.
No. of times 35 match Dominance Ratio Achieved		9	1	6		Shows that Pakistan and Sri Lanka were a lot more consistent at their peak and maintained their peak longer.
Win / Loss Ratio		3.67	1.75	2.38		Shows that Sri Lanka's peak included more results than draws. However. Sri Lanka played 7 matches against Bangladesh during the period. Pakistan played 3 matches against Sri Lanka during their peak. India did not play against any minnows.
No. of Wins		11	7	19
No. Of Losses		3	4	8
No. Of Draws.		21	24	8
No. Of Ties		0	0	0
Most no. of  wins in a sequence of 35 matches ($)		18	17	19
No. of times $ achieved		10	7	8
Dominance Ratio for 50 matches		7.33	4.56	3.17		See links below
No. of times 50 match Dominance Ratio Achieved		13	1	2

For complete analysis and data tables click:

Asian Cricket Teams Peak - 50 Matches

Asian Cricket Teams Peak - 35 Matches

Auditors and Punctuality!!!?

Pakistan's T20 League

PCB is contemplating holding a T20 domestic league having a franchise system much like the IPL but different and unique at the same time. On PTV Sports, Amir Sohail floated the idea of a PRO 40 tournament. In this post, a new tournament is being proposed incorporating the features of the Super 8s, ICL, Barclays English Premier League (EPL) and IPL, which might have the potential to bring international cricket back to Pakistan. Remember, copying is one thing, taking inspiration is another. What Pakistan cricket needs currently is a tournament to showcase that our country is safe for international cricket and that it has the potential to become a financial hub for investors.

The Best Asian Team?

A friend of mine believes Sri Lanka is the best Asian team in ODIs based on their performances in Australia this year, and the fact that they've played three world cup finals like India. However, when I did some statsguru search, I found that Sri Lanka is the worst, barring Bangladesh. Also India and Pakistan have been fairly equal, however, Pakistan's overall record in ODIs edges them ahead of India.

Songs about Places

Making a music playlist is a tedious affair, especially if you'd rather spend your time on Cricinfo, but once you've made it, you've saved your ears a lot of nonsensical music that you've collected over time. I was scrolling through the media player library and I came across Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama and Eagles' Hotel California, which reminded me of California Dreamin'. So I decided why not make a playlist of songs about cities, towns and states. Here's what I collected:
PS: The playlist contains 12 songs I like, you can always google the full list!

Controversially Yours!

Shoaib Akhtar is in the spotlight again, this time because of his controversial autobiography, aptly titled Controversially Yours. It just came out this week, so might take some time before I get my hands on a copy.

In his publicity campaign, Shoaib said that Tendulker was probably scared of him, quoting an instance when Tendulker elbowed one of Shoaib's deliveries but walked off as if the ball had hit the gloves. Shoaib also said that Tendulker and Dravid aren't match winners. With nearly 50,000 international runs between them, it doesn't matter what Shoaib says, both are exceptional batsmen. However, it is true that some great batsmen had a hard time against Shoaib Akhtar. Here are some stats and videos of these modern greats in Shoaib Akhtar's firing line:

Champions Humbled

"There still are one or two donkeys in the field.":Nasser Hussain

We've all seen India's humiliation in England this year, the 4-0 whitewash in the Test series (when they were the number 1 Test team in the world at the beginning of the tour), loss in the only T20 and now the 3-0 loss in the 5 match ODI series (one match tied and one abandoned). This was India's second series since becoming World Champions, the first was against a weak West Indian side.

The last time India won the 50-over World Cup in 1983, in their very next series, they were humbled by the West Indies at home. The WI won 8 out of 11 matches on that tour, all five ODIs and three Tests out of six (the rest were drawn).

Here's a summary of that tour:

Azhar Ali: The new Asim Kamal?

I remember Geoff Boycott talking about Asim Kamal way back in 2006 in a post match analysis, after the Pakistani batsmen threw away their wickets with reckless shots: "I haven't seen the lad, but I've just seen the record you just showed, and I see that he's scored so many fifties but no hundreds, and in Test matches you need guys who can score big hundreds...So I wouldn't pick him in my playing XI" However, Rameez Raja and Sanjay Manjreker laughed off his comments and said consistency such as Asim Kamal had showed was hard to find among young batsmen in the sub-continent.

Yet Another Retirement!

I'm a big fan of Afridi's leg spin but not of his captaincy. When ever he made a blunder, it was at the biggest stage: T20 semi final against Australia, when he miscalculated the overs and ended up giving Ajmal the 20th over instead of the two fast bowlers he had at his disposal, and World Cup 2011 semi final when he did not take the Powerplay even though he was on strike with Misbah, and the required rate was 8 and a half for the last 10-odd overs.

Afridi Retires Yet Again