People call cricket an unpredictable game. It can sometimes be. You might feel devastated if a team wins out of the blue, upsetting your favorite team, when you are not expecting. It becomes worse when there is money involved.
Coming back to our topic, the key to Cricket Prediction is to have an in-depth analysis. Keep an eye out for the data that’s before you. Convert them into processed information to make decisions. Saying that, there are multiple factors through which you can predict game results. Let’s look into the five compelling strategies to predict cricket match results:
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Look into the past data
If you look closely into every cricket match you watch, you will find a pattern going on, from where you can predict things. For instance, you can see a batsman who is batting really well might stumble after a strategic time out in an IPL game. Even in Test matches, you can see batsmen falling just close (after or before) to the session breaks. Eventually you will get to know these things if you follow the game closely.
In recent years, the chasing sides have finished often on the winning side; the reason being batting has become easier, and the batsmen are hitting boundaries easier than ever before.
To understand the pattern, you can look into the previous head-to-head analysis of both the sides that are playing; especially the recent matches. While it is important to look into the available players in the team, one should also look for who has played well in those previous games against the same opponent, and check whether that particular player is playing this game.
- Pitch Information
Whoever the player is, in the team you are supporting or betting on, more than 50% of the game’s result depends on external factors. It includes the pitch, the weather, the time of the match (whether it’s a day game or a day-night), and boundary sizes to an extent (especially in T20s).
How, if a team has good pace bowlers and they play in a green track, the team has already got an advantage. Imagine a tortoise and a rabbit race conducted in a water-body; the result would be visible. It is the side, which knows the conditions well or can adapt well to the scenarios, wins. That’s why often the home teams win in cricket, or any sport.
Make sure you look out for all the necessary factors before the game and pick a side.
- Toss
Toss can play a significant factor in Test matches and, to an extent, ODI games. Remember Sourav Ganguly calling it right in the toss, and calling it wrong when picking to bat or ball, in the 2003 World Cup final game against Australia. India had been playing well in that entire tournament, but it is Australia you are playing against in a pressure game. He should have gone for the bat instead.
But now, in recent years, things have changed. Chasing has become the teams’ strengths. With the target on the board, teams are now winning more. Especially in sub-continent conditions, with the dew always around, it becomes a hectic task for the bowlers to defend totals.
This condition gets reversed in the longest format. In Test cricket, the team that bats last often loses; that is how the game is structured. Batting becomes difficult in the last two days, and even chasing a small target will be a big task.
- Compare the key players of both the teams
The same goes for prediction. Picking a winning team is crucial in the forecast. If you believe this key player is going to win you the game for the side that you are backing, it is vital to check on his counterpart in the opposition side.
For instance, if it’s an opening batsman, the key player of your team, look for the inswinging bowlers in the opposition side who can trouble your batsman. That is, if you have Chris Gayle playing today, look for whether Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Jasprit Bumrah is playing on the other side. It is not that Gayle cannot tackle them. It is that he is more vulnerable at the beginning of his innings, and these bowlers have made most use of that previously.
The Bottom Line
To predict the match beforehand it is important to understand cricket and its conditions. Before anything else you should be aware of team players in every match and rules of the match.
