The Story Of The World Test Championship Final

Test matches are shaped by such little details

When India batted in response to Australia’s 469, they needed at least two of their top five to make big scores. Two Australians had made centuries. India’s bowlers induced errors every 4.6 balls (Australia induced them every 5.2 balls, and Australia’s batters survived 15.8 errors per dismissal, while India’s batters survived 7.6 errors per dismissal). A large first innings deficit would be difficult to overcome later in the match.

A summary of the control record for the World Test Championship Final by bowler and bowling team. ic: in control, nic: not in control. (source: ESPNCricinfo’s control figures which are published in their live ball-by-ball coverage)

Two of India’s top order - Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara - were dismissed not offering a shot in the first innings. When a batter is bowled shouldering arms, our instinct is to think of it as a bad leave. The balls which dismissed Gill and Pujara in the first innings were pitched 30 cms outside off stump on a 6.88m length (for Pujara), and 32cms outside off stump on a 6.90m length (for Gill). They were nearly identical.

I looked at the record for deliveries on this line and length from right-arm-seamers in Tests in England the ball-tracking records I’ve collected over the years. There are 30 such deliveries, and only 1/30 hits the stumps. Considering all Tests for which records are available (not just Tests in England), 4/103 balls on this line and length hit the stumps. Considering all formats for which records are available (not just Tests), 7/182 balls on this line and length hit the stumps. The beehive location of all 30 deliveries (Tests in England) in the plane of the stumps is show below. Those 30 deliveries have produced 2 runs and 0 wickets. For two such deliveries to hit the stumps in the same session, is a remarkable thing.

What is striking about the dismissals of Gill and Pujara is that they both made the same judgment about the same line and length, from the same bowler. The record above shows that it was a good judgment in both cases. The ball misbehaved. There’s nothing a batter can do about it.

Virat Kohli was also dismissed early. The ball from Mitchell Starc was on a 9.2m length. The length was 13 cms to the leg-side of the middle stump (or pitching on leg-stump). The chart below shows all deliveries from left-arm-seamers on that line and length in a beehive chart showing where such deliveries cross the plane of the stumps.

There is some suggestion (from Sunil Gavaskar for example) that Kohli should not commit forward early. The screenshot of the ball which dismissed Kohli below shows that Kohli didn’t commit forward early (see below). But what is true is that Kohli did play forward to a 9.2m length. Kohli almost always plays forward. Had the ball bounced normally (0.8-1.1m above the ground), the forward stroke would have been like any of the hundreds of other blocks Kohli plays during the course of his many innings. But this particular ball climbed to a height of little over five feet. Instead of being waist high, it ended up being shoulder high. It’s one of those things. The deliveries in the record from that line and length produce 0/9. They’re usually just blocked or played into the leg side for one or two runs. That is, when they don’t misbehave.

The ball which dismissed Virat Kohli in the first innings of the WTC Final (source: BCCI highlights on bcci.tv). Note that the ball as already been deliveried, and Kohli has not moved forward or back yet.

The fourth batter in the Indian top order - Rohit Sharma - was out LBW to Pat Cummins to a ball which pitched on a 7.19m length, six inches (or 15 cms) outside off stump, and was going on to hit leg stump just below the bails. It was the best ball of the lot - great length, inward seam movement. As with the three balls above, all the deliveries from right arm seamers on that line and length in Tests in England are given below. As readers will note, some move in, others move out, some climb over the stumps. The 71 balls in the database in Tests in England on this line and length, have produced 2/16.

These four deliveries accounted for India’s top four in their first innings. What’s more, they did so early in the innings of all four batters. By contrast, Travis Head was dismissed on his 54th error (he made 163).

Now, it is not the case that only India face this type of misfortune. Australia suffered it when India were last in Australia. India drew in Sydney and won in Brisbane in large part because of this.

When a ball is hitting the stumps, it is deadlier than the ball which is not hitting stumps. This is because when the ball is hitting the stumps, bowled and lbw become viable modes of dismissal. When a ball misbehaves off the pitch to hit the stumps, the batter has to be lucky to keep it out. It was evidently not India’s time to enjoy this luck.

Australia’s fast bowlers being taller than India’s helped them, especially with some unpredictable bounce on offer. They also bowled much closer to the stumps (in line) than India as a rule. India were on average wider than Australia.

But this, in essence was the story of the World Test Championship Final. This is why it turned out the way it did.

*******

A note about the data: These ball-tracking records are available, in far more elaborate detail than is seen here, to the broadcasters and to the teams. Except for those published by the BCCI on their website, these are not published. There is a small informal community of enthusiasts who very kindly make some of these records available for non-commercial purposes. Professional cricket publications - newspapers, magazines or websites - are not keen to publish reports which use this data for two reasons: 1. They are commercial enterprises and could run afoul of the law thought there is some doubt about this, and 2. The audience for this type of discussion is very small compared to the more conventional discussion which seeks to describe cricket matches from the result - explaining what the winning team did right and what the losing team did wrong.

It would help cricket and significantly improve the discussion of cricket if these records were published by the cricket authorities (especially since the technical knowhow to produce them exists). So far, there has been little movement in this direction. Somewhere, deep in the bowels of some corporation, one hopes that there is an archive of all the ball tracking records produced by two decades of Hawkeye and Virtual Eye. Hopefully, it is not all lost. And hopefully, it will be made available to the cricket public one day.