The Big Bash League is back! The first five matches of the 2018-19 edition have already lived up to the hype with big hits, destructive bowling, great catches, confusing run outs and, unfortunately, rain.

As with all the entertainment the BBL provides, there are plenty of numbers to be crunched to figure out which teams and players are hot and who is not after round one. Here are some of the things we learned from the opening round of BBL|08:

1) Batting Second isn’t always the answer

Prior to the invention of Twenty20 cricket, it was a firmly held belief by captains that should you win the toss, you should elect to bat first. In fact, an old observation by former Australian captain Ian Chappell says that “when you win the toss, you bat first nine times out of ten; the tenth time you think about it and bat first anyway”.

Chappell’s statement seems to have been inverted in recent seasons of the BBL with most franchise captains believing that batting second i.e. chasing, results in more wins, more often. In BBL|06 for example, twenty-seven out of 34 teams that won the toss opted to bowl. The seven who decided to bat first all regretted it, losing every single time.

However after the first five matches this season, three teams have won the match having batted first. The proportion of wins batting first to batting second sits at a 60-40 per cent split, respectively.

What’s more interesting to note is that only Moises Henriques of the Sydney Sixers elected to bat first. The other two teams – Sydney Thunder and Hobart Hurricanes – were both sent in to bat by the opposition captain.

It’s safe to assume that for now teams and captains will continue to send their opponents in to bat first, but it’s clear that setting a decent score and subsequently defending it is not a bizarre notion.

2) Catches really do win matches

It’s one of the oldest adages in the cricket playbook. Catches win matches. In the first five matches played, this statement has been proven true on multiple occasions.

Jake Lehmann was lucky in the sense that when he dropped Brisbane Heat’s Max Bryant in the tenth over of the tournament opener at the ‘Gabba, the 17-year-old was caught by Rashid Khan the following delivery.

Ironically, it was Bryant himself who was less fortunate when he grassed an opportunity off the bat of Jake Weatherald when the opener was on just 1.

Weatherald added just 16 more runs to his overall tally, which may not seem like much. However when you consider that the Heat bowlers took the run chase to the final over, an additional 16 runs may have been too big a mountain for the defending champions to climb.

Another example was Ashton Agar’s dropped catch of Jordan Silk at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Agar dropped a simple return catch in the ninth over when Silk was on just 17. Silk went on to score 67 not out, a net cost of 50 runs, as part of a 124-run stand with Daniel Hughes that proved to be the difference between Sydney Sixers and Perth Scorchers.

Oddly, the highest net cost of the tournament so far – 55 runs – was still not enough for Brisbane Heat to overcome Hobart Hurricanes on the Gold Coast. Matthew Wade grassed a chance gloved by Ben Cutting down the leg side when the Heat all-rounder was on 3. Cutting went on to score his maiden BBL fifty and nearly proved the difference between the two teams.

3) Melbourne Stars are the worst offenders in the field

Melbourne Stars finished at the bottom of the ladder in the competition last season. It can be assumed that people weren’t expecting miracles from the relatively inexperienced team. At this point, there have been twelve catches dropped in the field. The Stars dropped three catches against their green shirt-wearing counterpart – Sydney Thunder – in Canberra.

Not only that, but it was Sydney Thunder’s Daniel Sams that survived all three opportunities. Adding to the woes was the fact that two of the three were dropped by the same person. Nick Larkin had two opportunities to dismiss Sams at long on each within an over of each other.

The first was in the air for a long time, but Larkin didn’t sprint in and was forced to vainly dive full length to try and catch it. He also misjudged the second chance and ran in a touch too far before jumping up with one hand only for the ball to burst through and reach the boundary. Larkin actually had an extra two or three metres behind him he could have used.

Larkin wasn’t the only Stars player struggling in the field. We observed Marcus Stoinis mis-field the ball three times, costing his side three runs. He was able to save one run later in the evening to earn back some respect.

Elsewhere, Jackson Coleman also mis-fielded the final delivery of Michael Beer’s opening over. Hit powerfully by Shane Watson, Coleman missed the ball at mid off and it raced to the boundary, costing his side four runs. In his defence, he got an awkward bounce that went straight through him.

4) Relying on one batsman’s contributions will not win matches

Cricket already has numerous metrics which can be used to evaluate a batsman’s performances. Offensive rating systems that are designed to provide a better insight into a batsman’s ability can be found everywhere as different ways to evaluate players. In this way, it is implied that any batsman can be maniplulated to look better than they are depending on the rating system used.

One of the most relevant offensive rating systems, we believe, is the percentage of completed innings. This statistic provides us with the percentage of runs a player scores out of the team’s total. Using this, we can determine the players who are of the most value to their respective sides when compared to players from other teams.

Adelaide Strikers made 147 runs in their chase of Brisbane Heat’s meagre 146. Wicketkeeper Alex Carey scored 70 runs off 46 balls striking at 152.17. Anyone can see that Carey’s contribution proved to be the difference between the two teams however, his 70 runs equates to 49.3% of the Strikers’ final tally. That’s nearly half.

This highlights Carey’s importance to the Strikers’ batting order and poses a problem for the rest of the Strikers’ batsmen should Carey be selected for the upcoming ODI series against India beginning on 12 January.

D’Arcy Short was another batsman to score a half-century during the first five matches, also against Brisbane. Short’s 67 off 52 equates to 45.6% of the Hurricanes’ final score of 159. There’s no doubt that Short will also be in the frame for ODI selection. The second-highest contribution for the Hurricanes was 17% courtesy of Ben McDermott and his 25 off 16.

Sydney Thunder scored 181 runs off their 20 overs against Melbourne Stars, the highest of the tournament so far. Jason Sangha and Daniel Sams contributed 36.4 and 19.7 per cent of their team’s total, respectively, during their 77-run partnership in Canberra. That may be less than Carey and Short, but they also had valuable help from their team-mates.

Shane Watson contributed 12.7 per cent at the top of the order with Englishmen Jos Buttler and Joe Root contributing 11.6 and 10.4 per cent, respectively. Therefore, Sydney Thunder batted the best as one cohesive unit, as opposed to the Strikers and Hurricanes who relied heavily on individual performances of their players. This is going to be an important factor when it comes to crunch time later in the season.

5) Scoring consistently earns big runs

For a team called the Sixers, the Sydney-based franchise achieved this feat just three times during their opening match against the Perth Scorchers at Sydney Cricket Ground.

That being said, Daniel Hughes and Jordan Silk’s 124-run partnership was not only critical to the team’s success, but it was also scored at an incredibly fast rate. Hughes’ strike rate of 140.91 was fractionally better than Silk’s 136.73 and the pair were both striking quicker than the team’s overall strike rate of 133.33, but these numbers only tell half the story.

Hughes faced 44 balls on his way to 62 and scored at least one run off 34 of them. That’s 77.3%. His team-mate Jordan Silk was even better and scored off 43 out of his 49 balls faced during his innings of 67 not out. Silk’s scoring shot percentage of 87.8% is the highest out of any players in the league that have faced at least 10 deliveries at this point.

By comparison, Alex Carey scored off 67.4% of his deliveries faced during his innings of 70 against Brisbane Heat, Jason Sangha scored off 77.8% and Daniel Sams scored off 80.9% against Melbourne Stars. Melbourne Stars’ Nick Larkin is the next closest to Silk, scoring off 84.6% of his deliveries faced during his innings of 28 against Sydney Thunder in the rain-reduced match at Manuka Oval.

Sydney Sixers may have only hit three sixes this season however, the team’s scoring shot percentage of 77.5% is also significantly greater than any other team in the league. It’s a wonder why the Sixers are so often overlooked simply because they lack “big name” players. If the Sixers continue this scoring rate, they may yet become a dark horse when teams begin the scramble for a finals berth.

6) Dropped catches are costly, but can also be very odd

Cricket statistics can not only tell us which players are scoring quickly or taking the most wickets. They can, at times, be very odd. This BBL season, we have been tracking a range of factors around dropped catches such as who has dropped a catch, where they were fielding, what stage or over of the match and what the batsman’s score was when they were dropped.

We mentioned before how Ashton Agar dropped a return catch off Jordan Silk when the latter was on just 17. D’Arcy Short was also survived a caught and bowled chance during his innings against Brisbane Heat. Short came skipping down the ground and smashed the ball right past Mitchell Swepson’s left. While it may have been too difficult a chance for Swepson to grip, surviving a caught and bowled chance is not the only thing Silk and Short have in common.

Both were dropped in the ninth over with each their respective teams at least two wickets down for 56 runs. Furthermore, both players went on to score 67, each of their teams set their opponents a target of at least 160 runs and went on to win the game by at least 15 runs.

That may not be interesting, relevant, or more importantly that funny to some, but it certainly is peculiar. The truth really is more strange than fiction.