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Analysis: ODI Hundreds for Pakistan


Pakistan’s 5-0 loss to Australia was the 1st time a team scored 5 100s in an ODI series and still got whitewashed. In terms of 100s scored, the series was a rare one in ODI history from various angles, such as:

Summary of Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series in context of 100s scored

These are some staggering numbers to highlight the rarity of what happened during the series.

On the other hand, common belief says that whenever Pakistan batting manages to put even a half-decent score, Pakistan bowling has always been good enough not to let the opponents walk away with the game.

How good that belief stood in this series? Narrowing down the numbers specifically to Pakistan, points us in the direction of answer to this question.
Pakistan records created during Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

Most of the 100s in the series were scored by Pakistan; a team whose ability to score big – or to convert frequently scored average scores into big hundreds – is what has been believed, for a long time, to be its most critical success factor in Limited Overs Cricket.





Stats of this kind makes one question those common beliefs and dig deeper into this topic of 100s and success in Pakistan’s case.

Do all 100s contribute towards team victory?
The general consensus answers to this question in negative. Not all 100s mean team victory. In fact, some 100s influence negatively on team progress – the team total in that particular innings. The history of Cricket, especially ODI history, enlists quite a few instances where players were blamed for team loss even after scoring a century – in fact, some of them got dropped right after scoring a hundred.

What is a good 100, then?
Just like there cannot be a one-size-fit-for-all kind of answer for questions like ‘what makes a team win?’, it is impractical to formulate a definition that could be applied on centuries scored in all seasons, conditions, regions and formats to adjudge a 100 to be a good or a bad 100.
For this reason, this analysis will not indulge in declaring – or even painting – any ODI 100 as good or bad.





What am I going to get out of reading on, then?
We can work with a definition, however, that applies to most not all the conditions. A definition that is generally used to identify if a 100 eventually propelled the progress of the team or the team progress got stalled because of one of the batsmen approaching their personal milestone.

Staying away from judging a 100 to be a good or a bad 100, this analysis remains confined only to one dimension: that is, if the strike rate of an individual innings of 100 or more was higher than the overall strike rate the team scored its runs during the same innings.

To calculate strike rate of a team innings, the total number of runs is divided by the total number of runs scored in the innings – exactly the same how batsman strike rate is calculated.

For ease of understanding, this part of the analysis will focus on 100s scored specifically by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs. Comparison with 100s scored by batsmen from other countries will be covered in a separate part, later.

ODI 100s by Pakistanis:
Let’s start with quick summary of all 100s scored by Pakistani batsmen in ODIs. A total of 197 centuries has been scored in 912 team innings by 42 Pakistani batsmen in ODI Cricket.
List of Centurions for Pakistan in ODI Cricket with 100s scored, Innings Played and Innings to 100 ratio - updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE
Fastest Individual 100+ innings:
Here’s a Top-20 list of fastest 100+ innings played by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs. 

Top 20 100s for Pakistan in ODIs by Strike Rate - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

Please note, the list denotes Strike Rates at the end of individual innings not when the 100-runs milestone was achieved in that particular innings. Same classification is applied throughout this analysis.





Slowest Individual 100+ innings:
Similarly, here’s a list of all 100+ innings played by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs with worst Strike Rates.
20 Slowest 100s for Pakistan by Strike Rate - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


Top 100+ Innings with Positive Impact on Team Strike Rate:
If all 197 centuries scored by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs are ordered by the difference in Strike Rate of that complete individual innings and the overall Strike Rate of the team at the end of that particular team innings, here’s what we get as the Top-20 list:
Top 20 ODI 100s for Pakistan by Strike Rate Impact - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

Top 100+ Innings with Negative Impact on Team Strike Rate:
Similarly, here’s a list of 100+ innings by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs with highest negative impact on Team:

Worst 20 ODI 100s for Pakistan by Strike Rate Impact - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


Timeline of 100s scored by Pakistanis in ODIs:
If all the 100s scored by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs are mapped onto a timeline in the context of its impact on Team Run Rate, it yields this view:
Timeline of all ODI 100s for Pakistan with Strike Rate Impact - Update till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

The view also provides brief details about the innings with highest impact – either positive or negative – on Team Run Rate.





Most impactful centurions for Pakistan in ODIs:
After analyzing individual innings in the context of its impact on team output, the next interesting thing would be to analyze the tendency of all centurions for Pakistan in ODIs throughout their careers in the same context.

Most Impactful centurions for Pakistan with respect to Strike Rate Impact of their ODI 100s - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE

Not surprisingly, not all the names in this list rose to undisputed legend of the game status, and those who did, their names are right there on the top. Many other similar inferences can be drawn from this list.

Whenever Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas or Shaid Afridi scored a hundred, they made sure their innings propelled the team towards a higher total. There’s a reason they are regarded as the most impactful players the game has seen and the same is evident here. Inzamam ul Haq, Kamran Akmal and Ijaz Ahmed also played with similar intent (and impact).





The Recent Past:
All the aforementioned details spanned from the beginning of ODI Cricket, which has changed drastically over the years. One may argue that the team scores used to be pretty low at the beginning of ODI Cricket, therefore, it would have been easier to score quick runs once the batsman reached his hundred. The counter argument would be that ODI Cricket in early days was played either with no field restrictions or with field restrictions that allowed more open field placement than today, hence, it was comparatively easier to accumulate runs rather than scoring boundaries. It’s a never ending debate, however.

What could be more beneficial, would be to fast forward to recent past and analyze the recent past in the same context. The next stop for ODIs is the World Cup, so let’s take the last World Cup as cut-off for the recent past. By doing so, here is the quick summary that we get of all hundreds scored by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs.

Summary of ODI 100s scored by Pakistan since 2015 Cricket World Cup - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


It opens up the avenue for many interesting inferences. For instance, out of 30 hundreds scored by Pakistan batsmen in ODIs since 2015 World Cup, only 2 have been faster than innings run rate against a team ranked higher than Pakistan at the time. [Bangladesh, Ireland, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe were ranked lower than Pakistan on the day the particular 100 was scored.]




It does reveal interesting patterns but only at the team level. We can delve further to look for the same at individual players level:

ODI 100s scored by Pakistan batsmen since 2015 Cricket World Cup - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


To sum it up, here’s a look at how all centurions for Pakistan in ODIs since 2015 World Cup have fared:

Summary of all ODI 100s scored by Pakistan batsmen since 2015 Cricket World Cup - Updated till Pakistan vs Australia ODI Series - March 2019 - Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai - UAE


To round-off this part of the analysis, here are the list of 100s, in the same context, by some prominent and current players for Pakistan in ODIs:




Retired Players:

All ODI 100s scored by Javed Miandad in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Zaheer Abbas in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Shahid Afridi in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Inzamam ul Haq in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Ijaz Ahmed in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Saeed Anwar in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings






All ODI 100s scored by Ramiz Raja in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings


Current Players:

All ODI 100s scored by Ahmed Shehzad in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Babar Azam in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Fakhar Zaman in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Imam ul Haq in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Kamran Akmal in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Mohammad Hafeez in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Mohammad Rizwan in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Salman Butt in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Sarfaraz Ahmed in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings

All ODI 100s scored by Shoaib Malik in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings




All ODI 100s scored by Umar Akmal in the context of the total and team strike rate of that particular Team ODI Innings






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