Novel Performance Metrics to Evaluate the Duel Between a Batsman and a Bowler

Abstract

In the current system of cricket, the most commonly used measures to evaluate players’ performance are batting and bowling averages, strike rate and economy rate. While these measures are easy to compute and understand, they fail to reflect a complete picture of the players’ performance as they do not consider the context of the match. Various factors, such as balls faced and left, wickets remaining, the skill level of the opponent, etc., are not being considered while evaluating the players’ performance. In addition, these conventional measures fail to compare a batsman’s performance against that of a bowler or vice versa. The objective of this article is to arrive at a measure that will better explain the performance of the players while incorporating some of the factors as stated above. In this article, we use strike rate for the batsman and economy rate for the bowler to arrive at a common scale for ratings. Furthermore, we use the concept of Elo ratings in order to evaluate the duel between a batsman and a bowler. Based on the developed methodology, we evaluate the duels between the players in the Indian Premier League 2018 finals.