Amla's losing hundreds

This week’s column is inspired by Mr. B. K. Harinath, an avid reader of this magazine. If you think you have any ideas that you think could be featured in this column, do write in to bishen.numbernut@gmail.com or numbernut@thehindu.co.in. 

Published : May 26, 2017 14:57 IST

Kings XI Punjab's Hashim Amla on his way to a century against Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League in Mohali on May 7.
Kings XI Punjab's Hashim Amla on his way to a century against Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League in Mohali on May 7.
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Kings XI Punjab's Hashim Amla on his way to a century against Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League in Mohali on May 7.

Hashim Amla made a couple of magnificent centuries at the IPL 2017 and picked up some records along the way, a couple of them not desirable. He scored 104 not out against the Mumbai Indians, and again scored exactly the same against the Gujarat Lions. Ten batsmen, including Amla, have scored two or more hundreds in the IPL, but none of them, other than Amla, have made the same score twice. Amla’s two hundreds were identical, not only in terms of the score (104 in both innings), but also in terms of balls faced (60 balls each) and fours hit (8 fours each). While 10 batsmen have more two or more hundreds in the IPL, Amla is only the third batsman to score two or more hundreds in a single season. The other two batsmen to do this are both from the Royal Challengers Bangalore — Virat Kohli (4 in 2016) and Chris Gayle (2 in 2011).

Batsmen to score more than 2 hundreds in an IPL season

 

Despite Amla’s heroics, KingsXI Punjab lost both the the matches in which he scored hundreds. As mentioned previously, before Amla, nine batsmen had scored two or more hundreds in the IPL. They had scored 25 hundreds amongst themselves, with 23 of those coming in victories and only two in losses.

Most IPL Hundreds (including Win/Loss details)

*list includes all batsmen who have scored 2 or more IPL hundreds

Hashim Amla has now single-handedly matched that tally by scoring two hundreds in losing causes. Overall, 38 out of 45 IPL hundreds have come in wins, which is almost an 85% chance of success for any team when a player scores a hundred, making the probability of both Amla’s hundreds coming in losses extremely low.

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Q & A

Too many teams have been bowled out for below 100 this IPL. Is this is a record for a single season?

— Suvojit Halder, Bengaluru, Karnataka

There have been four instances of a team being bowled out for less than 100 runs during (the group stage of) this IPL — Delhi Daredevils (twice), Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab. However, this is one short of the record which came in 2011 when there were five such innings. The 2009 and 2013 seasons saw four such innings each. However, what has been peculiar this season is that the scores have been lower than usual, with four of the seven lowest scores in IPL history coming this season.

David Warner has made 600+ runs this IPL, with the next highest tally being around 450. Has any IPL season seen the highest or second highest run scorer making less than 500 runs?

— Papu Nambiar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

This has happened once, in 2009 season that was played in South Africa. Matthew Hayden was the leading runs scorer in that season with 572 runs. However, the second-highest run-scorer (Adam Gilchrist) had made only 495 runs. In every other season of the IPL, the top three run-getters have made 500-plus runs each. In this 2017 season, David Warner leads the way after the league phase with 604 runs, followed by Shikhar Dhawan (468) and Gautam Gambhir (454).

There is a feeling that Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan’s batting has deteriorated over the last few years and they retirement is therefore justified. Can you tell me whether this is true or false based on any deviations in their batting average?

— Sawani Kumar, New Delhi

Since January 2016, Younis Khan has only averaged 39.3 from 27 Test innings, while Misbah has averaged 37.8 from 26 innings, which clearly shows that they have not been at their best. Misbah achieved his career best batting average of 50.8 in November 2014, for the first time breaching the 50-mark. However, his average has been dropping steadily since then and he will finish his career with an average of 46.6. Similarly, Younis reached his career best average of 54.31 in October 2015, but will now finish his career on 52.05, just managing to keep his average above 52.

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