Champions Trophy: How India won the numbers game

India was a deserving winner of the Champions Trophy, going unbeaten through the tournament and, except for the final, winning their games with ease. The opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma gave the team strong starts while the bowlers, particularly Bhuvneshwar Kumar, exploited the new rules allowing two new balls to make early breakthroughs. But overall, the teams seemed to struggle with the new rules, with the captains undecided about how effective they were and whether they thought it helped the game. The rules up for discussion during the ICC’s annual meeting that is currently taking place in London. [caption id=“attachment_907253” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] India were clearly the best team in the Champions Trophy. AP[/caption] The new rules led to new scoring patterns, as well as lower scores overall. Having two new balls made life harder for openers at the start of an innings. Batsmen scored just 4.63 runs an over in the first 10, as opposed to 6.77 an over in the last 10. Surprising, having a PowerPlay with the new ball led to a marginal decrease in the scoring rate, down to 4.53 runs an over, which was lower than the average scoring rate of the non-PowerPlay overs. Run-scoring in different phases in the tournament Run-scoring in different phases in the tournament Over 50% of balls faced by batsmen in the tournament were dot balls annd another 30% were singles, so only about 15% of balls bowled in the tournament went for more than one run. Pattern of scoring in ICC Champions Trophy 2013 Note: The boundaries count includes overthrow fours / sixes Sri Lanka were the team that faced the most dot balls and scored the most singles, while India had the most threes, showing that they are a much fitter and quicker team in the past, while also hitting the most fours. Team with most…… (Batting) India tops the table for the most dot balls bowled, emphasising how the bowlers were able to strangle the opposition and keep scoring rates down, especially in the opening overs. Team with most…… (Bowling) Shikhar Dhawan tops this list because he also faced the most number of balls in the tournament. That he was able to still score at around a run-a-ball is because he scored the most threes and fours in the tournament as well. Batsmen facing most dot balls in the tournament Batsmen with most…… Out and out fast bowlers tend to be a bit wayward, so it is something of a surprise to see Kemar Roach top the table for percentage of most dot balls bowled. In absolute terms, Ravindra Jadeja topped the list of most dot balls in the tournament, with James Anderson second. Unsurprisingly India has four bowlers in the top five. Bowlers delivering highest percentage of dot balls in the tournament (Min.60 balls bowled) Bowlers delivering most dot balls in the tournament Bowlers with most……