Analysis of Cricket Ball Type and Innings on State Level Cricket Batter’s Performance

摘要

Background: The aim of this investigation was to compare the type of cricket balls utilized and innings on cricket batting performance in the First-Class Australian competition. Methods: Batting performance measures of 43 state level cricket batters were collected from two seasons of the Sheffield shield tournament (N = 60 games) that incorporated both Kookaburra? (n = 30 games) and Duke? (n = 30 games) cricket balls. Results: First-innings batting performances were significantly greater for the average number of runs scored (37.5 ± 13.4 vs. 31.2 ± 11.3), balls faced (60.7 ± 26.2 vs. 49.9 ± 23.6), boundary 4s (3.8 ± 1.9 vs. 2.9 ± 1.4) and boundary 6s (0.2 ± 0.3 vs. 0.1 ± 0.3) scored per game (p 0.05). However, significantly more wickets were taken by pace bowlers during Duke? ball games (85.0 ± 12.8% vs.76.4 ± 13.9%), while relatively more wickets were taken by spin bowlers during Kookaburra? ball games (14.2 ± 12.5% vs. 22.0 ± 14.1%; p 0.05). Conclusions: Cricket batting performance was comparable in games involving the Kookaburra ? or Duke? ball. However, pace bowlers were more successful transferring their skill to the Duke? ball, while spin bowlers were more successful with the KB? ball. Subsequently, batters may be able to effectively adapt their movement technique, and transfer their skill to the Duke? ball conditions. Future research is suggested to examine the influence of the cricket playing surface’s deterioration on cricket batter’s interceptive performance.