Batting first is beneficial in Barbados: Pacers get help, legspinners can be game changers; Analysis of the World Cup final pitch

The T20 World Cup final will be played between India and South Africa in Barbados today. The match will be played at Kensington Oval Stadium from 8 pm. Winning the toss and batting first on this pitch will prove to be beneficial. Fast bowlers have got help in Barbados, while leg spinners can prove to be game changers.

India has played 3 T20 Internationals on this ground so far. It has won only 1 of them. That is, the success rate is 33%. At the same time, South Africa has also played 3 matches here. It has won 2 of them. Its success rate has been 67%.

Further in the story, we will know how the pitch behaves in Barbados…

Batting first is beneficial
So far 32 T20 matches have been played in Barbados, here teams batting first won 19 matches and teams bowling first won 10 matches. One match was tied and 2 were inconclusive. That is, teams batting first got 59% success. Since the year 2022, teams batting first won 50% matches, while teams bowling first won 36% matches. One match was tied and one was inconclusive.

In the T20 World Cup 2024, 8 matches were played at Kensington Oval. Teams batting first won 3 and bowling first won 3. One match was tied and one was inconclusive. The final match will be played during the day, here 5 matches were played in a day in the tournament. Teams batting first won 2 matches and bowling first won 2 matches. One match was inconclusive.

How is batting first beneficial?
The overall T20 record in Barbados is in favour of teams batting first. In this World Cup, 3-3 matches were won both ways, i.e. the record was equal. However, the two teams that won matches while chasing were world champions West Indies and England, who faced an easy challenge from associate team USA. Therefore, West Indies and England won even after batting later. While the third team was Scotland, which defeated Namibia while chasing.

Batting first, Australia defeated England and Oman this time. Team India registered a win against Afghanistan. Batting first has been successful in matches against top teams. Therefore, considering the recent and past records in Barbados, one should win the toss and bat first.

The match can be low scoring
Today’s match will be played on pitch number 4. After bowling out Oman for 109 runs in the first innings, Namibia’s team could only score 109 runs in the second innings. Namibia somehow won the tie match. Scotland-England match was also played here, Scotland had scored 90 runs in 10 overs, but the match was inconclusive due to rain.

The average score of the tournament in Barbados was just 142 runs. The average score of the first innings is 166 runs. However, Australia made the highest score of 201 runs while batting first against England here. Oman made the lowest score of 109 runs here.

The teams that reached the Super-8 stage scored an average of 51 runs in the powerplay on this ground in the tournament, i.e. the run rate is 8.50. An average of 70 runs were scored between 7 to 16 overs, i.e. the run rate dropped to 7.00 in the middle overs. Whereas an average of 34 runs were scored between 17 to 20 overs, i.e. the run rate again increased to 8.50. That means if the team batting first today wants to dominate, they will have to score runs quickly in the first 6 and last 4 overs. Because it is very difficult to score runs here in the middle overs.

Fast bowlers took 62% of the wickets
Fast bowlers have got more wickets on the Barbados pitch, a total of 96 wickets fell here in the tournament. Fast bowlers took 62% wickets and spinners took 33%. While 5% wickets fell due to runout or other means.

However, the economy of spinners was less than that of fast bowlers. Especially leg spinners can prove to be game changers on this pitch. In the tournament, the economy of fast bowlers was 7.88 and that of spinners was 7.28. England’s Chris Jordan also took a hat-trick against America here. While leg spinners like Adam Jampa, Rashid Khan and Kuldeep Yadav have troubled the batsmen here and taken wickets.

India won 33% in Barbados, South Africa won 67%
Both India and South Africa have played 3-3 T20 matches on the Barbados ground. South Africa won 67% of the matches, while India won 33% of the matches. India’s only win in this tournament was against Afghanistan. Earlier, the team had lost both the T20 matches here.

In the 2010 T20 World Cup, India played 2 matches on the ground of Barbados. The team had to face defeat against Australia and West Indies in these. South Africa also played 3 matches in Barbados during this period. The team defeated Afghanistan and New Zealand, but had to face defeat against England.

South Africa did not play in Barbados this time
India has played one match in Barbados this time, the team defeated Afghanistan here by 47 runs in the Super-8 stage. Batting first, India scored 181 runs, in reply Afghanistan was all out for 134 runs. South Africa did not play any match here this time.

Graphics: Kunal Sharma

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