ABD & Virat Kohli - decoding their Superman-Batman partnership
It was a sunny afternoon at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, and the pitch sported a verdant green look as RCB had gone with a GO GREEN initiative. It was the 16th over of the innings when ABD scored his ton by chipping the ball to cover. He had begun his onslaught with a six and a four off Tambe and had gone on to trash McCullum’s plans of rupturing the threatening partnership sending Praveen Kumar for 3 sixes and a four enroute to his first century of the season. Meanwhile, Kohli had crossed only 50 at his own pace, and no one had anticipated what was to come. The crowd started chanting “Kohli” instead of “ABD” in the penultimate over as he took went after Shivil Kaushik hitting 4 sixes, and creating the highest-ever partnership in IPL history.
The duo have had a tremendous season scoring 913 runs together in partnership, and it does not take too much curiosity to discover the success behind this partnership.
AVERAGE RUNS PER PARTNERSHIP
The pair's average runs per partnership while batting first is double compared to chasing. ABD and Kohli have terrorized the bowling attacks at the top of the order for RCB. Given Gayle's form, the South African comes to the crease early more often than not.And the fireworks continue irrespective of powerplay or not. This pair frustrate the bowlers with their technical shots during chasing. Then destruction by this pair is taken to a whole new level while batting first as they aren't under pressure of chasing a total. This pair is more relaxed than most and gets settled after a few balls. And once they get going, they send every second ball to the ropes.
Average of Kohli and ABD in the partnership
The pair appears to enjoy batting first more than chasing. While Kohli and ABD have chased some impossible targets this season, they appear to stick together more while batting first. While they are together, ABD dominates the scoreboard both while batting first and chasing - although to a small extent.
Strike rate during the partnership
A strike rate of 150 and above for any player is enormous even for the T20 format, and these two have managed to average in the 150+ range. Once again, ABD leads the charge expectedly. While batting first, since strike rate and average of the individual players are higher, this explains why partnership average is much higher while batting first.
Split up of player’s runs
They are quick between the wickets and convert every possible single into a double.ABD is a bit unorthodox and ensures whether he slams the ball everywhere in the ground with superb timing. He minimizes the pressure to the best possible extent and avoids building up stress on the other batsman while chasing. He doesn’t want to pick up 1s and 2s. He shrinks the runs required gradually with sensible boundaries at regular intervals which again substantiates the fact that he is an impact player. At times while batting first, he plays some gambles and takes risks and scores boundaries that are distinct from normal shots. This is the reason behind the runs gap (from 4’s and 6’s) between him and Kohli. This also provides a clear picture as why strike rate of ABD is higher than Kohli.
In contrast, Kohli, one of the best chasers in the game, absorbs the target pressure by picking valuable singles and doubles with ABD wherever possible.He believes in strike rotation and goes for the lofted shots only when the risk factor tends to zero. That’s why the runs brought up by 1’s and 2’s are approximately the same as those scored from boundaries.
ABD and Kohli both play calculative shots with perfect control and timing. But Kohli’s tends to favor the square cut, square drive, lofted cover drive, pull shot, and he utilizes the pace of the fast bowlers. ABD, in contrast, is Mr.360˚- he can play any shot any time.
Contribution to the partnership:
Kohli had scored 4 hundreds in this season of which 3 came while batting first which answers why Kohli edged past ABD in batting first contribution. While chasing, ABD does the damage early and brings down the runs-required-per over drastically. Though, Kohli had been the undisputed orange cap holder of the season, ABD has contributed much well to the partnership which inturn defines Kohli has sparkled off lately after the partnership. ABD's contribution is high because he scores most of his runs in boundaries.
RCB’s success rate (%) when this partnership> 50:
This pair had developed five 100+ partnerships and two 50+ partnerships. But still RCB has won half of the matches while defending when this partnership goes 50+. Thanks to the other run-machines(bowlers) of RCB who make this valuable partnership go in vain most of the time.
There have been more than a few analogies for this pair in the social media. This pair has been compared to Messi and Ronaldo and the Superman and Batman of Cricket. They are the best buddies off the field too. In retrospect, it does not appear too far-fetched when the numbers back it up!
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