Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

DOI

10.3233/JSA-200480

Publication Title

Journal of Sports Analytics

Volume

7

Issue

3

Pages

169-183

Abstract

The Pythagorean Win-Loss formula can be effectively used to estimate winning percentages for sporting events. This formula was initially developed by baseball statistician Bill James and later was extended by other researchers to sports such as football, basketball, and ice hockey. Although one can calculate actual winning percentages based on the outcomes of played games, that approach does not take into account the margin of victory. The key benefit of the Pythagorean formula is its utilization of actual average runs scored and actual average runs allowed. This article presents the application of the Pythagorean Win-Loss formula to two different types of limited-overs cricket formats, namely One Day International cricket (ODI) and Twenty20 cricket. The data for the application was used from the matches played by the top 10 International Cricket Council (ICC) members who participated in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. For matches for which the second batting team won, runs scored were estimated by considering the remaining amount of resources, based on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Comments

© 2021 The authors.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Original Publication Citation

Senevirathne, H. K. W., & Manage, A. B. W. (2021). Predicting the winning percentage of limited-overs cricket using the Pythagorean formula. Journal of Sports Analytics, 7(3), 169-183. https://doi.org/10.3233/jsa-200480

ORCID

0000-0001-8937-5148 (Senevirathne)

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