With so one-sided matches in this World Cup there weren't too many opportunities to check out the performance of the pressure index (PI) in really close matches.
We finally had an extremely tight Super Eight match between West Indies and England last night, when England successfully chased 301 runs and won in 49.5 overs with the last pair at the crease. As the accompanying pressure map shows, the PI gave a very satisfactory appraisal of the course of the match.
England's PI started at 136 because any target above 260 was considered difficult for an English team in which only Kevin Pietersen and Paul Colingwood were consistently firing with the bat.
When Andrew Strauss fell early, and the PI rose to 145, one expected another English batting collapse. But Michael Vaughan, in Ravi Bopara's company, suddenly started batting with the sort of verve and ability that he's seldom shown in coloured clothing. After 15 overs, England were a healthy 100/1 with a PI of just 95.
Although Bopara was soon dismissed, sending the PI to 113, Pietersen was looking good, and perhaps surprised to see his skipper batting so fluently.
It was 150/2 at the half-way stage, with a PI of 95 clearly favouring England.
Of course, being England batsmen, the players were expected to foul up this enormously decent start. Between overs 25-36, four English batsmen perished and, at 189/6 and a PI of 153, it was easy to recognize the "men-in-darker-blue" all over again.
Even as Paul Nixon joined Pietersen to stage some sort of a revival, it didn't look too good for England with the PI staying above 130. 47 runs were needed in the last five overs and the scales still pointed towards West Indies.
Everything changed between overs 46-48. A mighty heave off Jerome Taylor got Pietersen his fifth ODI 100, and brought the PI down to 117, as only 32 were now needed from 23 balls. When Pietersen tried another heave, he was foxed by a slower ball and bowled. A few balls later, Liam Plunkett perished too. Only two wickets remained now, and England needed 30 in 19 balls. The PI climbed past 150.
Just when it seemed that England were defeated, Nixon hit three boundaries off Corey Collymore in the 48th over, and the wicket-keeper conceded four byes. England now needed 12 runs in 12 balls and the PI was 103.
With scores of 1,1,4,1,2,0 in the 49th over, the PI moved: 102, 101, 68, 62, 54, 62. With 4 needed in the last 6 balls, and with two wickets in hand, a PI of 62 appeared just right.
The last over had its share of suspense, especially with Nixon falling on the second ball. The first four balls looked like: 1,W,1,0 and the corresponding PI looked like: 54, 91, 83, 112.
With 2 needed off 2 balls, and the last man at the crease, it was anybody's game!
Sunil T and Sunil Patil of Cranes Software created this pressure map based on the details retrieved from the Rediff scorer
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