Back in 2005, Powerplays (PP) were introduced to ODIs to spice them up. For long, they had been turned into a formulaic affair with a smattering of excitement through the odd close finish. The Powerplay was supposed to change it all.
Come 2008 and there was a further twist: the batting captain could choose when one of the PP was taken. Sounds good on paper, but did it really change much?
During an ODI, the first 15 overs are typically the compulsory PP (first 10 overs) and the bowling PP (overs 11-15). And then there's some anticipation about the batting PP. Usually, this is taken between the 30th and 40th overs when the going is normally restricted to singles and twos with the odd boundary. The point remains that teams often lose the momentum built in the first 15 overs by delaying a PP. It is expected that the last 10 overs will be violent batting and therefore, it sounds logical that the overs 30-40 be used to conserve energy of the batsmen. Often, though, batting captains thrust their PP choice on unsuspecting batsmen in the middle with disastrous results.
In the recently-concluded Australia versus England ODI series, the batting PP proved to be the turning point. In favour of the fielding team! Just making a point with proof!
In the subcontinent, where the pitches anyways favour batting, it could be useful if the bowling Powerplay allowed the bowling captain unlimited bouncers or maybe 8 fielders outside the 30 yard circle. Something to balance the game out, possibly. That, however, isn't the case. The only respite the fielding team gets is no mandatory catching fielders. With the first PP being well set, the second and third PPs can play a critical role.
CWC 2011
Of the major teams, most do well in PPs. Australia has the best average at 27.65 ahead of Sri Lanka, New Zealand and India. Their bowling economy rates, though are equally bad indicating that batsmen from most of these sides have the PPs sorted out. Does that mean that the PP stands nullified? Far from it.
Read deeper into the numbers and it reveals that the recent two series - Eng v Aus and Pak v NZ -have shown varying degrees of successes for batsmen. NZ and Australia continued to do well than their opponents, but Pakistan didn't do too badly. England, though suffered badly during the PPs.
Among other cup favourites, India has traditionally done well in the PP situations from a batting point of view. Their bowlers, already under scrutiny and doubt, have failed and will be under pressure to contain the opposition. It will help India that they start their campaign against the weakest of the Test playing nations in the PP - Bangladesh who score at about 7 runs per over during PP but concede at almost 8.5!
Whatever the team's history in PPs in the recent and not-so-recent past, it will be interesting to see how they counter spinners in this period. If the practice matches are anything to go by, spinners will operate from very early on in the match and some captains may be smart to hold on to a couple of overs from their main spinner for the PP.
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