Not just brawn

The broad consensus that Twenty20 cricket is a batsman’s game was not in any way challenged by the events of the inaugural match, in which runs were scored at the rate of 10.32 per over.

Because of these inflated strike rates, the batsmen who have been thrust to the fore, have been those possessed of awesomely quick scoring records in other forms of the game, hence Chris Gayle merely justified his pre tournament hype on Tuesday, while the Shahid Afridis, Virender Sehwags and MS Dhonis, all in the top ten for all time ODI strike rates, have been tipped for success. Despite scoring fewer runs than Gayle in that opening match however, it was Herschelle Gibbs’s 90 that proved to be the anchor for a match-winning performance.

Gibbs occupies 50th spot on that list of ODI strike rates, with a pedestrian career rate of 82.64, yet was still able to score his runs at 163.3.

As an experienced and successful player in all forms of the game, Gibbs could control his aggression and yet still achieve enough to outdo the muscular Gayle.

This may seem to suggest that he batted more intelligently than the West Indian, but that does not take into account the fact that he had an advantage that often counts for more than higher intelligence: he had more data.

Information is at a premium in this tournament, because it can only be gleaned from what has gone before, and the opportunity for making history is much greater in South Africa than the opportunity for learning from it.

In the first 22 Twenty20 internationals, the team winning the toss decided to bat 11 times, and to field exactly the same number.

Captains do not seem to know what is the best ploy, but South Africa’s AB DeVilliers has a theory that chimes with the need for information in this game. “It’s not easy to find your feet and know if the target you’ve set is big enough if you bat first,” he said to reporters on Sunday. “Batting second it’s much easier to pace your innings.”

Experience has allowed teams to judge a good score batting first in the 50 over game, but they have no such knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of this even shorter format.

This explains Gayle’s decision to dispense with his brains and rely upon his brawn while batting, which earned him ten sixes and seven fours, but also resulted in the loss of his wicket exposing players who were unable to keep up the rate.

Gibbs batted more cautiously, and arguably more cleverly, with just two sixes to his name, but 14 fours, including many riskless glances down to fine leg and third man.

For the moment, this pattern is set to continue; the team batting first cannot afford to be too clever, and must look to muscle the other team out of the game.

The second team batting have the vital information of what their target is, and with the use of careful, intelligent battle should be able to use this to great advantage, as South Africa showed on Tuesday.