Alright so I wanted to dig into the Chennai vs Punjab cricket rivalry stats after last night’s crazy match. Grabbed my laptop and some instant coffee – ready for some serious number crunching.
Starting the Data Hunt
First thing, clicked open that worn-out stats app I’ve used since college. Typed “CSK vs PBKS all matches” and boom – got 30 clashes popping up since 2008. Felt like discovering buried treasure when the filters actually worked for once.
The Messy Part
Manually copy-pasted all player stats into my rusty spreadsheet software. Fingers got sticky from cola spills on the keyboard around the 20th row. Noticed three different spellings for Dhoni’s name – “MSD”, “Dhoni”, “*” – like come on people get it together.
Almost threw my mouse when the app froze during Punjab’s 2014 data pull. Had to restart and redo six innings records. Pro tip: never trust auto-save.
Finding the Big Guns
Sorted the batters first and holy moly Dhoni’s numbers jumped out. Dude’s averaging 42 against Punjab even now. For bowlers, hunted down economy rates. Jadeja giving just 6.8 runs per over against them? No wonder they struggle against left-arm spin.
The real shocker was seeing KL Rahul’s stats. Pulled his numbers wearing both jerseys:
- For Punjab: Smashed 83 off just 54 balls in 2019
- For Chennai: Got single digits both matches in 2021
Loyalty means nothing in T20 huh?
Last-Minute Checks
Cross-referenced everything on two different stats sites until 2AM. Wife yelled “Are you watching cricket or becoming a computer?” when I got excited about discovering Rabada’s death over strike rate. Ended up fixing three typos – critical when your article headline says “Revealed”.
What I Learned
Old guys rule: Dhoni and Raina still top charts after 15 seasons
Newbies disappoint: Punjab’s expensive buys barely show up
Spreadsheets suck: But still better than doing math in my head
Next time I’m doing this? Definitely bribing my nephew with pizza to help with data entry. My eyes still hurt from squinting at all those numbers.
