Kothari continuing to dominate with ball in hand - An insight

A few, older Edgwarians, will remember an overcast day in August 2015 when an Edgware Cricket Club XI took to the field for only the second time in their history against Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club. The game is perhaps best remembered for being the scene of Edgware's lowest recorded total, 81 all out. What people may not remember is that a certain 16-year old, batting at number 5, also made his debut and has gone on to become one of Edgware's finest ever fast bowlers.

At the time of writing this article, Rahul Kothari has played over 50 games for Edgware and so far this season has taken 9 wickets at 10.44 a piece including 4/41 against Cockfosters in April. He has become a master of opening the bowling and despite a steady progression in the difficulty of Edgware's opponents since 2017, has managed to continually impress and take wickets at the top of the order. Figure 1 below provides a year on year progression of the club's leading wicket takers, whilst Figure 2 summarises the quickest players to 50 wickets by games played.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Perhaps even more impressive than Rahul's steady rise to the top of Edgware's leading wicket tally is the fact that 71% of his wickets are batsmen in the top 4, with just 8% of his wickets including tailenders. This extraordinary statistic is why Edgware have been such a formidable unit in recent times. The opening bowlers (Rahul included) have time and again been able to remove large portions of the opposition top order, allowing the first and second change bowlers to build pressure and take wickets as the opposition middle order attempt to rebuild.

However, it's not just Rahul's strike rate at the top of the order that is impressive, his accuracy and economy rate are also one of the best in the side. Figure 3 summarises the most economic bowlers in Edgware history, of which Rahul is second and also compares Rahul's statistics both Pre and Post-2019 (Table 1).

Figure 3

Table 1

Table 1 shows Rahul's consistency despite increasingly challenging opponents and he'll be vital for Edgware as they begin their Chess Valley League - Division 3 campaign later this week.