The official match award in Delhi Capitals' 16-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore went to Shikhar Dhawan for his 37-ball 50, but ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats reckoned that Sherfane Rutherford made the highest impact for Capitals in their win, which put them in the IPL playoffs for the first time since 2012.
Rutherford contributed with both bat and ball to Capitals' cause: he scored a blistering 13-ball 28 not out that helped Capitals add 46 runs in their last three overs from a tricky position, and then took the key wicket of AB de Villiers at a critical juncture in the chase.
Smart Stats valued Rutherford's 28 runs worth 12 more, given the context of the game, as we considered the relative strike rate of the batsman and the pressure on him.
The wicket of de Villiers was also valued higher than just 1 because of the quality of the South African batsman, and the damage he could have inflicted had he batted on given the target was well within Royal Challengers' sights. They needed 85 from 52 balls with eight wickets in hand when de Villiers was dismissed. Overall, Rutherford's impact in Delhi's win was 31.4%, the most by any Delhi player.
Axar Patel's cameo of 16 not out off nine balls, and his economical spell of 1 for 26 that included the prized wicket of Virat Kohli, earned him the next highest impact at 24.1%. Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer took the third spot at 14.7% for his 37-ball 52.
Smart Stats is a part of Superstats, a new set of metrics by ESPNcricinfo to tell more enriching and insightful numbers-based stories. To know more about Superstats, click here.
