Sport Analysis: IPL 2008-2017 Matches

Introduction:
The scope of professional sports has changed over the years. I remember
watching every minute of the 2007 Cricket World Cup and spending every waking
minute tracking statistics, like the total runs scored, highest run-scorer, highest
run rate, and so on. It was fairly rudimentary stuff but enough to keep me glued
to the screen. How times have changed since then!

Sports analytics is quickly becoming mainstream. Media outlets and leading sports
websites regularly curate statistics, produce deep technical insights, and add a
whole new level of analysis we haven’t seen before.
We can now answer questions like what is the probability of the team winning a
match while batting first and second?

And so on. Honestly, the sky is the limit when it comes to sports analytics use
cases. I’m a sports lover and I’m always looking out for applications where I can
apply my analytics knowledge to improve the team strategy as well as fan
experience.

What is Sports Analytics?

Sports Analytics is all about analyzing and extracting useful insights from sports
data.

I would broadly dive Sports Analytics into 2 categories:

1. Descriptive Sports Analytics

2. Predictive Sports Analytics

Descriptive Sports Analytics

Descriptive Sports Analytics is about summarizing the sports data in the form of
numbers. In other words, to come up with important statistics. This might sound
like a simple concept but it’s a very powerful one.

The thought behind descriptive sports analytics plays a crucial role in team tactics.

In cricket we can analyze how frequently a batsman gets out to a specific bowler.
This number will decide the bowling strategy of a team.

Another interesting use case in cricket is to analyze the team’s probability of

winning a match while batting first as well as second. This influences the captain
who wins the toss and has to make a decision – bat or bowl first.

Predictive Sports Analytics

Predictive Sports Analytics is about making predictions using sports data. One
such use case in cricket is to predict the number of runs a batsman scores against
an opponent in a particular match. This would help the team management and
captain select the best team for every match.

In a sport like football, predictive sports analytics helps to understand the chances
of scoring a goal from any location on the pitch.

You can think of similar use cases for your favorite sport and let me know in the
comments section below the article.

About problem question

 What are the most decisions taken by teams after winning the toss?
 Which player has the most player of the match award?
 Which team had a good winning % in Home and Away matches?
 Which pair of umpire had used most of the time?
 Which player had a most player of the match awards?
 How many matches played in different grounds?
 How many matches win by chasing and defending runs?

About the Dataset for Sports Analytics

I have collected the data of IPL from 2008 to 2017 matches. Download a sample
dataset from here then I make it clear and ready to use. It’s time to analyze the
matches and find some appealing insights. Let’s do it!

Since the data is not large, I have made analysis in excel file only.
1) Decisions taken by team

Decision Taken by team

43%
bat field
57%

It is clear here that whenever the teams have won the toss, they have decided to
field more than bat first.

2) Toss decision by each team

Toss Decisions of Teams

60
50
40
30
20
NO of decision

10
0
gs rs ils ns ab la rs ns rs ls nt re ba
d
Kin rge ev L io unj e ra i de dia rrio oya g ia a lo a
a d K R r r
er Ch re ra
t IP rs ht iI
n
W
a
n
R
pe ng yd
e
S up a n i Da uja sX ke ig ba ne tha Su s Ba H
g s n s
ai cc lh G
Ki
n Tu K um Pu as ne er er
nn De De hi a ta M R aj Pu ng ris
e c l k g l e n
Ch Ko Ko sin al Su
Ri l Ch
ya bat field
Ro
Teams

It is clearly visible here that Royal Challengers Bangalore has taken the decision
of field most of the time (50), and Chennai Super Kings has taken the decision of
Bat most of the time (44).
Here are some teams like Gujarat Lions, Rising Pune Supergiant, Pune Warriors
and Kochi Tuskers Kerala played for one or two years only, that’s why all of them
has less data.

3) Tops players with most player of the match (POM)

Top player with most POM

No of Player of the match

20
18
16 18
14 16
15 15
12 14 14
13 13
10 12 12
8
6
4
2
0
AB de AM CH DA G MEK MS RG SK Raina YK
Villiers Rahane Gayle Warner Gambhir Hussey Dhoni Sharma Pathan
Names of Players

Here is the list of top 10 player with most player of the match awards. It is clearly
visible that CH Gayle has 18 player of the match which is most among all other
players followed by YK Pathan and AB de Villiers.
4) Match win percentage of team after winning toss

Match win % after Winning Toss

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
gs rs ils ns ab la rs ns rs ls nt re ba
d
Kin rge ev L io u nj e ra i de dia rrio oya g ia a lo a
a d K R r r
er Ch re ra
t IP rs ht iI
n
W
a
n
R
pe ng de
S up a n i Da u ja sX ke ig ba n e tha Su s Ba Hy
g s n s
ai cc lh G
Ki
n Tu K um Pu as ne er er
nn De De hi a ta M R aj Pu ng ris
e c l k g l e n
Ch Ko Ko sin al Su
Ri l Ch
ya
Ro
win loss

It is shown in the above graph that Gujarat Lions (67%) has highest win % after
winning toss but this team played for two years that’s why it is high, it has played
less than 25 matches. if we see that the team which has played more than 25
matches, among all of them Chennai Super Kings (64%) has highest win % after
winning toss.

In other side we can see that lowest win % after winning toss is 15% which has
Pune Warriors, but this also played less than 25 matches. The team which played
more than 25 matches and has lowest win % after winning toss is Kings XI Punjab
(41%).
5) City with Highest number of matches

City with number of matches

Pune 32
Mumbai 85
Kolkata 61
Jaipur 33
Hyderabad 49
City

Durban 15
Delhi 60
Chennai 48
Chandigarh 46
Bangalore 66
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

No of Matches

From above graph it is visible that city with most number of matches is Mumbai
with 85 matches. Mumbai city has three venue Wankhede Stadium, Dr DY Patil
Sports Academy and Brabourne Stadium

6) Venue with highest number of matches.

Venue with number of matches

Wankhede Stadium 57
Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium 17
Sawai Mansingh Stadium 33
Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal 49
venue name

Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali 35

MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk 48
M Chinnaswamy Stadium 66
Feroz Shah Kotla 60
Eden Gardens 61
Dr DY Patil Sports Academy 17
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
no of matches
Most matches played in M Chinnaswamy Stadium (66 matches) which is located
in Bangalore city. Other venues like Eden Garden (Kolkata), Feroz Shah Kotla
(Delhi) and Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai) has average of 60 matches played.

7) Umpire pair umpiring in most matches

Umpiring pair with most matches

VA Kulkarni&RK Illingworth
SJA Taufel&HDPK Dharmasena
CK Nandan&HDPK Dharmasena
C Shamshuddin&S Ravi
Umpires

S Ravi&RJ Tucker
M Erasmus&S Ravi
HDPK Dharmasena&CK Nandan
BF Bowden&SK Tarapore
Asad Rauf&S Asnani
Aleem Dar&RB Tiffin
&HDPK Dharmasena
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

No of Matches

From above graph we can say that RJ Tucker & S Ravi pair have umpiring in most
matches (12) and there are many pair have umpiring in 8 matches.

8) Number of Matches played in year

Mathes played in year

80
Matches played

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2 0 08 2 0 09 2 0 10 2 0 11 2 0 12 2 0 13 2 0 14 2 0 15 2 0 16 2 0 17

Years
In above graph it’s seen that graph increase then after some year it decrease
because of number of team increase and decrease in year. 8 teams in the year
2008 to 2010 and 10 teams in the year 2011 and 9 teams in the year 2012-2013
and 8 teams in the year 2014 to 2017. Most number of matches played in the
year 2013 (76).

9) Each Team with Their Highest Run Defended

Teams with their highest run defended

140 146 144

111 105
97 97
82 85
61
38
17
1

gs rs s s b a s s rs s t e ad
in ge vil on ja al er an io yal i an or ab
r K a r de
t L i
Pun
Ke r
R i d
ndi
a rr
R o r g g al r
e iI pe e
pe Ch ar ra I rs ht W n
Ba
n d
Su an iD uja g sX s ke nig ba ne tha Su s s Hy
i c l h G n u K m u s n e r r
na De
c
De Ki iT ta
u P ja
Pu ge ris
e
en ch l ka
M Ra g l l en n
h o u
C K Ko sin ha S
Ri lC
ya
TEAMS Ro

5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 10
49 2 4 6 4 8 9 0 3 9 1 3 4 8 9 0 1 4 5 6 9 0

This are the runs numbers by which never a single team won a game in the range
of 1 to 100 runs. There are 7 time teams won by more than 100 runs, in which
Royal Challengers Bangalore is only team who won 3 game with more than 100
runs. The team that won the match with the most runs is Mumbai Indians against
Delhi Daredevils with 146 runs.
10) Number of Matches won by number of wickets

Number of matches won by wickets

68 70

57
48

34 32

15
10
1 4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Number of wickets

It is show that most number of matches won by 7 wickets and there are 10
matches only which won without giving single wicket. Average of matches won by
wicket is 6-7.

11) Each Teams Home and Away Win %

 Home win %
70%
58% 57%
60%
50%
50% 46%
42% 42% 43% 43%
win %

40% 33% 33%

29% 30%
30%
20%
10% 7%

0%
gs rs vil
s
on
s
ja
b la er
s
an
s rs ls nt or
e ad
in rge e L i n e ra i d di rrio oya g ia al ab
rK a e d t Pu K R
iI
n a R
pe
r g e r
pe Ch ar ar
a I rs ht W an Ba
n d
Su an iD uj g sX s ke nig ba ne th Su s s Hy
i c l h G n u K m u s e r r
na De
c
De Ki iT ta
u P ja
Pu
n
ng
e
is e
en ch l ka
M Ra g l le nr
h o n u
C K Ko si ha S
Ri lC
ya
Teams Ro

It is shown that highest home win % of Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians
is almost same 58% and 57% respectively. Gujarat Lions has the lowest home win
% with 7% only.

Away win %
80% 75%
70% 63% 67% 63%
57% 60% 60%
60% 54% 53% 52%
49%
Win %

50%
40% 34%
30% 23%
20%
10%
0%
gs rs ils ns ab la rs ns rs ls nt re ba
d
Kin rge ev L io unj e ra i de dia rrio oya g ia a lo a
a d K R r r
e r
Ch re ra
t IP rs ht iI
n
W
a
n
R
pe ng de
S up a n i Da uja sX ke ig ba ne tha Su s Ba Hy
g s n s
ai cc lh G
Ki
n Tu K um Pu as ne er er
nn De De hi a ta M R aj Pu ng ris
e c l k g l e n
Ch Ko Ko sin al Su
Ri l Ch
ya
TEAMS Ro

It is shown that Gujarat Lions has the highest away win % with 75% but this team
played less than 25 matches. So, we consider the team with highest away win %
with played more than 25 matches is Chennai Super Kings with 63% win %.
If we conclude with both Home and Away win % than Chennai Super Kings is the
best team with 58%(home) and 63%(away) win.

12) Venus with number of matches win by Runs and Wickets

Venues with Matches win

Wankhede Stadium 57
29
Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium 17
11
Sawai Mansingh Stadium 33
10
Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal 49
20
Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali 35
15
Venues

MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk 48

30
M Chinnaswamy Stadium 66
27
Dr DY Patil Sports Academy 17
7
Feroz Shah Kotla 60
28
Eden Gardens 61
25
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

win_by_wicket win_by_run No of matches

In above graph it is shown that in M Chinnaswamy Stadium most matches are

won by chasing a target with number of 66 matches. And In MA Chidambaram
Stadium, Chepauk most number of matches won by defending the target with a
number of 30 matches. We can say that it is easy to chase a run in stadiums like
M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Feroz Shah Kotla, Eden Garden and Wankhede
Stadium by difference in win_by_wicket and win_by_run ratio.

Descriptive Analytics tells us what happened in the past and

Predictive Analytics predicts what is most likely to happen in the
future. So, we did a Descriptive Analysis of Matches played in IPL 2008
to 2017.