Chocolate and Gold Coins: Perhaps Think Before Writing

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Uday Damodaran writing at Rediff wonders why a strike rate (cricket) of 50.00000 is more likely than a strike rate of 48.93617.

Oooi maa , statistics makes my head hurt.

By Anonymous, at 6:26 PM
I still don't get your post (have read it 2-3 times).

The author has admitted to rounding off the strike rates to the nearest integer so 48.93617 would be rounded off to 49 and 50.00000 represents many scores in the neighbourhood of 50, not the exact strike rate of 50.00000.

I have not given a thought to why the strike rates tend to be more 50s and 100s than any other number... but maybe the scores possible, the multiples in which runs are scored (singles, doubles, 4s and 6s) and other factors cause the strike rate to bunch around 50 and 100...

By Anonymous, at 3:08 AM
Hi Ihatecricket and Varun
Sorry if my post was too subtle but the concept is fairly easy to understand. Even if you round of to the nearest integer, the only ways for a batsman to have a strike rate of 49 is to score 23 out of 47 or some multiple. It wouldn't be likely. On the other hand a strike rate of 50 can happen with an innings of 1 out of 2 or 2 out of 4 or so on. There are just a lot more muliples of 1/2 than 23/47 if the denominator must be less than 100 or so.

By Michael Higgins, at 6:13 AM
How stupid of me :-(

By Anonymous, at 9:35 AM

Chocolate and Gold Coins