Sixer – R package cricketr’s new Shiny avatar

In this post I create a Shiny App, Sixer, based on my R package cricketr. I had developed the R package cricketr, a few months back for analyzing the performances of batsman and bowlers in all formats of the game (Test, ODI and Twenty 20). This package uses the statistics info available in ESPN Cricinfo Statsguru. I had written a series of posts using the cricketr package where I chose a few batsmen, bowlers and compared their performances of these players. Here I have created a complete Shiny app with a lot more players and with almost all the features of the cricketr package. The motivation for creating the Shiny app was to

• To show case the  ‘cricketr’ package and to highlight its functionalities
• Perform analysis of more batsman and bowlers
• Allow users to interact with the package and to allow them to try out the different features and functions of the package and to also check performances of some of their favorite crickets

a) You can try out the interactive  Shiny app Sixer at – Sixer
b) The code for this Shiny app project can be cloned/forked from GitHub – Sixer
Note: Please be mindful of  ESPN Cricinfo Terms of Use.

In this Shiny app I have 4 tabs which perform the following function
1.  Analyze Batsman
This tab analyzes batsmen based on different functions and plots the performances of the selected batsman. There are functions that compute and display batsman’s run-frequency ranges, Mean Strike rate, No of 4’s, dismissals, 3-D plot of Runs scored vs Balls Faced and Minutes at crease, Contribution to wins & losses, Home-Away record etc. The analyses can be done for Test cricketers, ODI and Twenty 20 batsman. I have included most of the Test batting giants including Tendulkar, Dravid, Sir Don Bradman, Viv Richards, Lara, Ponting etc. Similarly the ODI list includes Sehwag, Devilliers, Afridi, Maxwell etc. The Twenty20 list includes the Top 10 Twenty20 batsman based on their ICC rankings

2. Analyze bowler
This tab analyzes the bowling performances of bowlers, Wickets percentages, Mean Economy Rate, Wickets at different venues, Moving average of wickets etc. As earlier I have all the Top bowlers including Warne, Muralidharan, Kumble- the famed Indian spin quartet of Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna, Venkatraghavan, the deadly West Indies trio of Marshal, Roberts and Holding and the lethal combination of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis besides the dangerous Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. Do give the functions a try and see for yourself the performances of these individual bowlers

3. Relative performances of batsman
This tab allows the selection of multiple batsmen (Test, ODI and Twenty 20) for comparisons. There are 2 main functions Relative Runs Frequency performance and Relative Mean Strike Rate

4. Relative performances of bowlers
Here we can compare bowling performances of multiple bowlers, which include functions Relative Bowling Performance and Relative Economy Rate. This can be done for Test, ODI and Twenty20 formats
Some of my earlier posts based on the R package cricketr include
1. Introducing cricketr!: An R package for analyzing performances of cricketers
2. Taking cricketr for a spin – Part 1
3. cricketr plays the ODIs
4. cricketr adapts to the Twenty20 International
5. cricketr digs the Ashes

Do try out the interactive Sixer Shiny app – Sixer
You can clone the code from Github – Sixer

There is not much in way of explanation. The Shiny app’s use is self-explanatory. You can choose a match type ( Test,ODI or Twenty20), choose a batsman/bowler  from the drop down list and select the plot you would like to seeHere a few sample plots
A. Analyze batsman tab
i) Batsman – Brian Lara , Match Type – Test, Function – Mean Strike Rate
ii) Batsman – Shahid Afridi, Match Type –  ODI, Function – Runs vs Balls faced
iii)   Batsman – Chris Gayle, Match Type – Twenty20  Function – Moving Average
B. Analyze bowler tab

i. Bowler – B S Chandrasekhar, Match Type – Test, Function – Wickets vs Runs
ii)  Bowler – Malcolm Marshall, Match Type – Test, Function – Mean Economy Rateiii)  Bowler – Sunil Narine, Match Type – Twenty 20, Function – Bowler Wicket Rate

C. Relative performance of batsman (you can select more than 1)
The below plot gives the Mean Strike Rate of batsman. Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Sanath Jayasuriya and David Warner are best strikers of the ball.

Here are some of the great strikers of the ball in ODIs
D. Relative performance of bowlers (you can select more than 1)
Finally a look at the famed Indian spin quartet.  From the plot below it can be seen that  B S Bedi  & Venkatraghavan were more economical than Chandrasekhar and Prasanna.

But the latter have a better 4-5 wicket haul than the former two as seen in the plot below

Finally a look at the average number of balls to take a wicket by the Top 4 Twenty 20 bowlers.

Do give the Shiny app Sixer a try.

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