khelooyar2Decoded Daily
Is the bouncer still a weapon in T20, or just a liability?
All stories
Long Read

Is the bouncer still a weapon in T20, or just a liability?

We pulled every short ball from the last two seasons. The numbers are more counterintuitive than the commentary suggests.

Meera Iyer
Meera Iyer
2 days ago · 12 min read

It's one of the oldest pieces of T20 folklore: the bouncer is a wicket-taking ball. Except, when you count every short delivery across 244 matches and 18,000+ balls, the picture gets strange fast.

Bouncers in the powerplay go for 11.2 RPO and take a wicket every 29 balls. Bouncers in the death go for 14.1 RPO and take a wicket every 22. Those two numbers are doing battle inside every captain's head.

We went looking for the actual break-even. It's not where you think.

About the writer
Meera Iyer
Meera Iyer

Senior cricket writer at khelooyar2. Reach out on any story, any time.