#CT17 and PitchScan

Sports Technology Solutions were engaged by Intel to provide their PitchScan product at the recent ICC Champions Trophy tournament in England and Wales.

The pitches in England and Wales showed some surprising results in our data. To the naked eye and basic stats the pitches should all play the same.  They all had Rye Grass, 30% Clay content, generally had around the same Moisture content and the bounce data didn't vary too much.

Our PitchScan data showed each venues differences with remarkable accuracy and as the Tournament went on showed the vast differences in rotating pitches in such a high traffic tournament such as the CT17.

I thought I would share the final pitch held at The Oval. It was as flat as they come (The Oval is well known as a batting paradise anyway) and combined with good weather it's no surprise Pakistan piled on 338/4.

What surprised me though was both Captains willingness to bowl first, given the pitch wasn't particularly green and as clearly evidenced by our PitchScan data. Surely in a pressure packed final you'd bat first?

In coming posts I will share images of other venues and even same pitches from same venues so you can see how the pitches even though all theoretically 'made' from the same base components can present vastly different match conditions (inc weather).

(Disclaimer: the PitchScan data is not made available to teams or for that matter anybody prior to the coin toss).