New Zealand State Championship in Graphics -- Round 1 by Jack Solock

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Event:

State Championship 2004/05

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For the fan of domestic first-class cricket, there is a great deal of pleasure in following his or her team throughout the season to see how they end up in the points table, and if they can be a championship contender. This usually entails following the scorecards and perhaps game stories for their team, as well as keeping track of the points table.

 

Following a competition this way is like looking at a series of snapshots, one per round, the latest snapshot always superseding the previous ones. But there is another way to look at things. Simple line graphs allow the fan to see the competition as a movie rather than a snapshot, and to see how and when a team wins or loses the title.

 

The New Zealand State Championship is readily amenable to graphic presentation for two reasons: 1) there are only 6 teams and 8 rounds, and 2) points for each match have a small variance (zero to eight).

 

The heroes of the first round of the State Championship were Tama Canning of Auckland, who scored a century and took took a six fer in Aces victory over Northern Districts Knights, and Jamie How, who scored two centuries in Central Districts Stags victory over Otago Volts. Canterbury Wizards got 1st innings points in their rain affected draw with Wellington Firebirds.

 

 

The first graph shows the points table as a line graph through the 1st round, with Auckland and Central Districts leading with eight points, Wellington with two, and Canterbury, Central Districts, and Otago with zero.

 

 

The second graph plots the season, with a victory worth one point, a defeat deducting one point, and a draw worth zero points. This emulates the old time English County Championship scoring system of the early part of the Twentieth Century. It is included because over 4 days, six and a half hours a day, 400 grinding overs, in spite of weather delays, some fans still think that cricket is about winning, rather than achieving first innings points and sitting on them. This graph will show who wins and loses. Winning, in a competition devoid of the complexities of the batting and bowling points scenarios of such competitions as the English, South African, Zimbabwean, and Sri Lankan, will get one's team into the final in this competition. A team that plays like Warwickshire did in the or English Frizzell County Championship of 2004 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/Tables/Frizzell_County_Championship_2004.html) will have a more difficult time winning this type of competition.

 

 

Finally, just for fun, we will also keep track of the single statistic that is perhaps more revealing than any other about the quality of a team - the runs per wicket it scores v the runs per wicket it gives up. It will be very interesting to see how this graph lines up with the official standings at the end of the season.

 

Sources for this article.
Wisden Cricinfo Scorecards
cricketarchive.com scorecards
nzcricket.co.nz game stories
New Zealand Herald (Auckland)

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Jack Solock)