ISSN 1750-9823 (print) International Journal of Sports Science and Engineering Vol. 06 (2012) No. 03, pp. 184-192 Analysis of Performance of Bowlers using Combined Bowling Rate Dibyojyoti Bhattacharjee 1 , Darshan G Pahinkar 1 Department of Business Administration, Jawaharlal Nehru School of Management Studies, Assam University, Silchar, India, Email: djb.stat@gmail.com 2 Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India (Received January 5, 2012, accepted May 19, 2012) Abstract. Bowling and batting have always been the most important aspects of the game of cricket. But with advent of the newest version of cricket with twenty overs-a-side the task of the bowlers are believed to have become difficult. This paper attempts to use the combined bowling rate to quantify the performance of a sample of bowlers who participated in the fourth season of the Indian Premier League. Based on relevant literature a set of predictors that can influence the performance of the bowlers were determined. Multiple linear regression technique was then used to identify the reasons that are empirically responsible for the performance of the bowlers. It was also observed that experience of the bowler and combined bowling rate at Tewnty20 internationals are the most significant predictors that are responsible for the performance of bowlers in IPL IV. Keywords: Combined bowling rate, Cricket, Data Analysis in Sports. 1. Introduction In the game of cricket, the batsman shall try to score as many runs as he can, without losing his wicket and the bowler’s job is to get the batsman out i.e. to dismiss him. In case of limited over games, in addition to dismissing a batsman, the bowler may also try to restrict the batsman from scoring, because the bowler has to bear with a trade off, that he should not give away many runs while experimenting in getting the batsmen out. With the increase in popularity of Tewnty-20 games, the task of bowling has become even tougher. It is been appropriately pointed out by Chopra [3] that, in Tewnty20 cricket the grounds are smaller, wickets flatter, bats thicker and just to make it tougher for bowlers, the format of the game is shorter. Cricket is considered as a batsman’s game mainly because most of the cricketing rules are in favor of the batsman allowing them to score more runs. With Tewnty-20 cricket around, the situation seems to get even tougher for the bowlers. The small span of the game ceases to provide the bowler to extract any help from the changing character of the pitch that occurs in longer versions of the game. Also, for faster bowlers the reverse swing will not be seen much as the ball does not get sufficiently old in 20 overs [4]. For a cricket ball to undergo reverse swing, it should be sufficiently rough so that it trips the flow on rough side to turbulence and changes the flow pattern completely to swing in a reverse way. Indian Premier League, which is scheduled in Indian pitches, has made the work of the bowlers even more difficult as most Indian pitches are mostly batsman friendly. In this regard the following comments of different bowlers may seem relevant. Definitely Twenty20 has forced the bowlers to think more. The batters are coming hard on us to score off every ball and score 150 plus in twenty overs. We need to be quite smart about how we go about our bowling. You have just four overs in this format and you are probably going to bowl two up front and two at the back. So you have to bowl wisely. I think the bowlers are a lot smarter now, compared to the first IPL’[11]. The batsman will always get away even if you are trying to bowl tight. To avoid that, I need to plan in a way where he must look to hit wherever there is a fielder. That is what is called ‘bowling to the field’[18]. There are several other stake holders of the game who have seen hope for the bowlers, even in this format. Many are of the opinion that even the bowlers can bring out rabbits off their hat in Tewnty-20 cricket. This paper identifies the factors that actually influence the performance of the bowlers. However, it is essential to determine a measure that can quantify the performance of the bowlers. 1 Corresponding Author, Email address: djb.stat@gmail.com Published by World Academic Press, World Academic Union