Sri Lanka vs Pakistan T20 Series Review
Shahid Afridi
The highest impact T20 Internationals player in its (limited) history (minimum 15 matches) is Shahid Afridi. A 1-1 series result in this T20 series was achieved through a quintessential all-round performance from him in the second match.
Here is an overview of the T20 series through the Impact Index lens.
Observations:
Sohail Tanvir (for his 4 wickets at an economy of 3.4) got the Man-of-the-Series award. However, Nuwan Kulasekara (4 wickets at an economy of 3.7), despite a slightly slower Bowling IMPACT was marginally higher overall primarily because of his innings of 6 off 6 balls in the low-scoring first match where his partnership with a rampant Thisara Perera took the score from 89-7 to a match-winning 132. But fine details like these are often missed in such situations – but Kulasekara should have been the Man-of-the-Series. Both performed at a much higher level than their T20I career Bowling IMPACT - 1.36 (Kulasekara) and 1.39 (Tanvir).
Amongst bowlers who played both matches, Sohail Tanvir was the highest impact bowler of the series – he had the highest Economy IMPACT in the series. His 3-12 in 4 overs in the 1st game was the highest impact bowling performance in the series.
Yasir Arafat, Nuwan Kulasekara and Mohammad Sami were the bowlers who had a Pressure Building IMPACT (quick wickets that kicked in pressure for the opposition) in the series. Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera were the only bowlers who broke set partnerships.
The highest impact batsman of the series was Lahiru Thirimanne – even though he got 48 runs at an average of 24, whereas Shahid Afridi got 53 runs at an average of 53. Thirimanne was the only batsman who had a 0% failure rate amongst those who played both matches – he registered an impact in all batting parameters – especially strike rate and pressure – interesting, given their often complementary roles.
Six batsmen absorbed pressure while batting in the series – Kumar Sangakkara, Lahiru Thirimanne, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez and Thisara Perera - a neat division of 3 each in a close series.
Angelo Matthews and Shahid Afridi were the only two players who produced all-round performances in the series. Matthews delivered in both matches whereas Afridi was outstanding only in the second match. The latter’s match-winning performance in the second game (52 off 33 balls; 2 for 17 in 4 overs) gave him the highest performance of the series (Match IMPACT 12.50) which was almost double the impact of the second-highest impact performance in the series by Matthews in the 1st match (9 off 25; 2 for 8 in 4 overs; Match IMPACT 6.60).
Yasir Arafat (3 for 18 in 3.2 overs) and Lasith Malinga (2 for 12 in 3 overs) played just 1 match each but performed creditably.
The impact registered by the players was closely divided between both teams. Something that is reflected even further in the Team IMPACT numbers of both teams – an identical 1.96 each. This was a really close series – even more than the 1-1 result suggests.