Did Team India lose the World Cup final due to ‘low of average’? what is the story

As soon as the Indian team lost against Australia in the final match of the World Cup (Cricket World Cup 2023), many cricket experts and statisticians started blaming ‘low of average’ for this. Even before the final match, when Team India was in the last leg of the league matches, some experts were saying that it would be better for India to lose one or two league matches before reaching the knock outs. Behind this was the principle or concept of ‘Law of Averages’.

Simply put, the math was that no team could keep winning forever, so India was bound to lose the match sooner or later. In such a situation, it would have been best for India to lose a match in the league stage, so that the dreaded law of averages does not spoil its chances in the knock-out stage, but that did not happen.

The Indian team defeated all the teams participating in the tournament and entered the semi-finals with a record of wins in all 9 league matches. When India beat New Zealand in the semi-finals, the ‘law of average’ believers got even more worried.

What is this?
After all, what is the ‘law of averages’? Let’s understand this in simple terms. A section, especially some statisticians believe that victory or defeat or profit or loss is fixed at fixed intervals. Many times we can infer it from things like our perception or belief, numbers, patterns. This principle is widely used in stock market and gambling.

Also read: Why was the police sent to Kuldeep Yadav’s house after losing the World Cup final against Australia?

So did team India lose because of this rule?
So did the Indian team lose the final match due to ‘low of average’? Senior journalist Udit Mishra writes in his article for Indian Express that the straightforward answer is – no. The simple reason is that there is no such thing as a “law” of averages in statistics. This term is not even found in any statistical dictionary. Based only on theory or assumption.

Also Read: What did Shah Rukh Khan do in the final match of the World Cup? Watch the video

Let us understand this with two examples.
First example: If there really was such a thing as ‘low of average’, how did Australia get away with it in the 2003 World Cup match? In that World Cup, Australia won 11 consecutive matches including the final.

Another example: Let’s take another example. If the ‘law of averages’ were true then why did Pakistan, who had lost every World Cup match to India since 1992, not win a single one?

,

Tags: ICC World Cup, Indian Cricket News, Indian Cricket Team, Team India