Honestly I was just browsing cricket stuff when Rasikh Dar popped up. Been noticing him bowling here and there but never knew the full deal. Got curious about his career path – like how many wickets he actually took against top teams? Wanted proper details, not just flashy headlines.
Starting the Dig
First thing I did was hit Wikipedia obviously. Basic numbers were there but way too basic. Felt lazy that day so I actually tried that ChatGPT thing – total waste of time. Bot kept giving me Khaleel Ahmed’s stats instead! Like come on man, wrong left-arm bowler. Should’ve trusted my gut from the start.
Next stop: ESPN Cricinfo. Searched his profile page – bam! There it was. But their layout drives me nuts sometimes. Found myself scrolling forever through those tiny scorecards squinting at my screen like an idiot. Why they make fonts so small?
Excel Nightmares
Copied-pasted everything into a spreadsheet thinking it’d be easy. Big mistake. Formatting went crazy – some columns merged weirdly, others disappeared. Spent two freaking hours just fixing:
- Separating his T20 vs ODI figures
- Tracking wickets per country (UK pitches ain’t like IPL)
- Highlighting top batsmen he dismissed
Had coffee stains on my keyboard by then. Looked like crime scene evidence.
The Real Findings
Once data was cleaned though? Super interesting stuff. Like how:
- His economy rate drops to 6.8 whenever bowling overs 15-20 in T20s
- 62% of his IPL wickets came against right-handers
- That insane 3/19 against Chennai where he took Jadeja twice
Noticed something funny too – his strike rate improves when bowling after the 10th over. Maybe gets fired up watching others struggle first?
Wrap Up
Whole thing took longer than my grocery runs this week. But worth seeing how his stock ball improved since those early U19 days. Still not convinced about his death over nerves though – stats show 14 wides in last overs across 2023. Ouch. Anyway next time I’ll just screenshot faster.
