Maths in Sports

 “Just go and look over his stats!” I murmured.

Sergio was a big fan of Steve Smith, the Australian Cricket Captain. I don’t know a perfect word for Sergio, but I would say a die-hard-fan of Smith. Likewise here I am, who likes Virat Kohli- the Indian Cricket Captain. 

Every time it becomes Australia vs India, it automatically transforms into Sergio vs me. And that is where the arguments between us start. He would say Smith is better than kohli and I would say just the opposite. However, the argument never lasts long. It was because everything gets clarified by looking at their Stats!! 

Looking over the matches they played, their rankings in various formats of Cricket- that includes Test, One-day, and T-20- the runs they scored, their batting averages, and many more, we could see who is really performing well. Every time by googling espncricinfo, we get all the things that we need to settle our arguments, and that, rarely becomes satisfactory to us. But wait! We talked about their “Stats” right? That means playing with datas- that goes straight into the STATISTICS! MATHS!

Lets have some datas here ;) 

        Figure 1: Virat Kohli’s Batting Statistics     

Format	Matches	Innings	Not Out	Runs	High Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50s
Test	92	155	10	7547	254	52.04	56.85	27	25
ODI	254	254	39	12169	183	59.07	93.17	43	62
T20	90	84	24	3159	94*	52.65	139.04	0	28

Figure 2: Steve Smith’s Batting Statistics

Format	Matches	Innings	Not Out	Runs	High Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50s
Test	77	139	17	7540	239	61.80	55.11	27	31
ODI	128	113	12	4378	164	43.34	88.49	11	25
T20	45	37	8	794	90	27.37	129.5	0	4

Just think a bit- everyone could get their typical answer on who is the G.O.A.T in Cricket? And many more through these statistics of the players.

Well... Well... Well, not only Statistics is used in Cricket, but there is something important- that may decide the win or lose of a team. In Cricket, to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a limited overs cricket match, interrupted by weather or other circumstances, there is a method-- The DuckWorth-Lewis method (aka DLS method). It is calculated by: 

Team 2’s target score = Team 1’s actual target score * (Team 2’s resources/ Team 1’s resources) 

Here, resources are the numbers of overs the team has to receive, and the number of wickets they have in hand. 

Let me give you a real-example:

In a 50 overs match between India and Australia, India had made a total of 281 in its innings. But while Australia was batting, the rain stopped the play.  When the weather was cleared, the game was reduced to 21 overs. Due to this reduction in the playing overs, Australia got the target score of 164- this came up by doing the calculations keeping the “resources” in hand. 

See? Maths in determining the Target Score in Cricket!! 

When you kick a football for a long pass to your teammate, you see the ball going up in the sky, and falling down on your teammate’s foot. The trajectory of that football follows the principles of Mathematics. If we look into its details, you could see the applications of Mathematics while shooting the ball- the angle of your foot, the speed of your kick, your body’s position to the ground, and so on. Meaning, you are using Mathematics just to shoot a football too.  

Not only Cricket and Football, but with all other sports, you are using mathematics. You play chess; You play Sudoku; You play Carrom; You play Bagchall; You play Tennis, or any sports that you love; You are using some form of mathematical ideas and concepts- be it unknowingly or knowingly.

-Nikhil Aryal