[AsifTheManRahman]

September 21, 2009
Posted by Michael Jeh 12 hours, 3 minutes ago
Don’t leave the Powerplay so late
When it comes to the vexed issue of the batting Powerplay, I’m convinced that the strategists will soon have enough historical data to crunch some meaningful numbers. As more ODI games are played under the new rules, there will be more data available and clear patterns will start to emerge.



Thus far, the batting Powerplay has been anything but! It has often been the Achilles heel for the batting team - poorly executed, poorly timed and the catalyst for a collapse. One of the problems with it has been this dual sense of fear (what if we lose wickets?) combined with the burden of self-expectation (the Powerplay is a powerful weapon that we MUST save for that match-winning moment). Instead of viewing it as another tactic in the batting arsenal, it’s almost viewed as Devil and Saviour in the one incarnation, thereby giving it that real Jekyll & Hyde quality that confuses clear thinking.

Gimme more

Thought provoking indeed. The PP's been around for a while now and it has added to the strategic nature of the game (more specifically ODIs), but are teams exploiting it properly? Or are they settling for less than what they can make?