AUTHOR=Connor Jonathan Douglas , Sinclair Wade H. , Leicht Anthony S. , Doma Kenji 

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02347

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02347

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> 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.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Batting performance measures of 43 state level cricket batters were collected from two seasons of the Sheffield shield tournament (<italic>N</italic> = 60 games) that incorporated both Kookaburra<sup>™</sup> (<italic>n</italic> = 30 games) and Duke<sup>™</sup> (<italic>n</italic> = 30 games) cricket balls.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> 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 (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05), as well as centuries scored (5.74 ± 8.56 vs. 1.49 ± 5.14%) compared to second innings performances (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05). There were no differences for any batting performance measures as a result of ball type (<italic>p</italic> &gt; 0.05). However, significantly more wickets were taken by pace bowlers during Duke<sup>™</sup> ball games (85.0 ± 12.8 vs. 76.4 ± 13.9%), while relatively more wickets were taken by spin bowlers during Kookaburra<sup>™</sup> ball games (14.2 ± 12.5 vs. 22.0 ± 14.1%; <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05).</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> Cricket batting performance was comparable in games involving the Kookaburra<sup>™</sup> or Duke<sup>™</sup> ball. However, pace bowlers were more successful transferring their skill to the Duke<sup>™</sup> ball, while spin bowlers were more successful with the KB<sup>™</sup> ball. Subsequently, batters may be able to effectively adapt their movement technique, and transfer their skill to the Duke<sup>™</sup> ball conditions. Future research is suggested to examine the influence of the cricket playing surface’s deterioration on cricket batter’s interceptive performance.</p>