da lvbet： Stats preview to the Champions Trophy semi-final between Australia and England
da betsul： S Rajesh01-Oct-2009After clashing seven times in the 50-over format over the summer, Australia and England will meet again with far more at stake on Friday – a place in the Champions Trophy final. England’s presence is quite unexpected, considering how poorly they performed in the home series, but it only shows there isn’t much to choose among the top seven sides in one-day cricket. Australia have an overall advantage over England in ODIs, and that extends to games played in neutral venues as well – in seven such matches, Australia have won five, including the last three. They’ve only played once in South Africa – in Port Elizabeth during the 2003 World Cup – when Australia scraped home by two wickets in a low-scoring thriller. Only four players from that game are around for Friday’s encounter – Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, Paul Collingwood and James Anderson.
VenueTotal ODIsAus wonEng wonTied/ NRAustralia5030190/ 1England4323172/ 1Neutral7520/ 0Comparing the numbers for the two teams in the tournament so far, Australia are slightly ahead. They are the only team who haven’t been defeated, and have a batting average of 36 and a bowling average of less than 29. England’s batting stats have been spoiled by their limp performance on a difficult pitch against New Zealand, when they were bundled out for 146. That’s brought their batting run-rate down to 4.93.
TeamRuns scoredBat aveRuns rateWkts takenBowl aveEcon rateAustralia71535.755.011528.664.44England68231.004.932526.405.29Australia also have an advantage in the manner in which they have utilised the Powerplay overs. They’ve been very consistent in the first ten overs, scoring 57, 49 and 50, and losing one wicket each time, for an overall average of 52. In the fielding Powerplays (overs 11 to 15) the scoring rate has decreased slightly but Australia have lost only one wicket in 15 such overs. And they’ve made good use of the batting Powerplays, scoring at nearly nine runs per over (69 for 1 versus West Indies, 42 without loss against India and 23 for 1 against Pakistan).England, on the other hand, have been plagued by poor starts, averaging 17.83 per wicket and 3.57 per over in the first ten. They did reasonably well against South Africa, scoring 48 for 1, but struggled against Sri Lanka (36 for 2) and New Zealand (23 for 3). Some of that, though, was also due to the pitches on offer in Johannesburg. The poor starts have also meant they’ve been forced to consolidate during the fielding Powerplays, scoring at only 3.33 per over.
TeamType of PowerplayRuns per wktRuns per overAustraliaMandatory52.005.20Fielding68.004.53Batting67.008.93EnglandMandatory17.833.57Fielding50.003.33Batting31.506.30As bowling units, though, there isn’t that much to separate the two teams during the Powerplay overs. England have taken five wickets in the first ten, and seven during the batting Powerplays.
TeamType of PowerplayRuns per wktRuns per overAustraliaMandatory53.005.30Fielding-4.10Batting15.006.00EnglandMandatory32.805.47Fielding40.004.00Batting13.006.07Australia have played two of their three group games in Centurion, the venue of the semi-final, but only one of them – the washed out match against India – was a day-night fixture. England’s only game at this venue resulted in a fantastic 22-run win for England. In fact, the three completed day-night games in Centurion have all have been won by the team batting first, who’ve all scored more than 300. That should offer some hint to the captain who wins the toss on Friday.
VenueMatchesRuns per wktRuns per overWon by team bat first/ secondCenturion435.145.943/ 0Johannesburg421.444.200/ 4