The fielding factor: Who made the biggest impact at the T20 World Cup?

For so long almost neglected, the fielding factor, especially in the shortest format, has now become a point of difference.

From diving catches to direct hits, finding an objective metric to compare fielders has been challenging, having never settled to accept a way to compare the game’s greats like we do with bat and ball.

At the T20 World Cup this year however, the wheels were put in motion, with the ICC working with Official Data Partner Sportradar to develop new Fielding Impact Ratings. Every catch and run out attempt was rated, while assessing how many runs were saved in the field, and judging how much pressure a fielder placed on batters in the heat of action.

With the tournament in the books and with England lifting the trophy, we unveil the final fielding ratings.

How are fielders assessed?

Fielders were awarded points for their actions in the field, from taking catches and affecting run outs, to applying pressure, runs stopped and tangible moments of forced pressure on the batting pair.

Players began with a net score of zero before every match, and finished with either a negative or positive figure reflecting their impact in the field.

Scores from the weighted algorithm were added up across all the matches, giving players an overall score for their impact, with extra weighting on key fielding moments, in crucial points of a match.

Impactis a key word in this assessment, with the score not necessarily determining the bestfielder in absolute terms, but rather deducing who causes the most effect on proceedings.

A good example for instance would be Roelof van der Merwe’s catch in the Netherlands’ win over South Africa in Adelaide.

Van der Merwe’s catch meets a lot of high-end criteria for big impact.

First, it was a difficult catch running back from the inner circle at speed, taking the ball sprawled out as it dipped over his shoulder at speed.

Second, it was taken to dismiss an excellent player: David Miller.

Third, it came at a crucial juncture of the game - the 16th over South Africa’s chase, breaking a set partnership of Miller and Heinrich Klaasen and stifling South Africa’s chase and ultimately their tournament hopes. South Africa needed 47 from the final 28 balls and now five wickets down. The Proteas would go on to lose another wicket two balls later, falling to their 13-run defeat.

So who makes the biggest impact?

We ran our fielding impact algorithm over the entire competition to find which players had the biggest impact on the outcomes of matches.

A constant danger in the field, and part of the tournament-winning team, it’s no surprise that Liam Livingstone tops the list, with 44.52 points from six matches. Livingstone claimed six catches on top of his relentless pressure in the field.

Glenn Maxwell ran second with 44.32 points (through only four matches), with Glenn Phillips in third on 36.96 points. Shadab Khan's all-round work put him fourth on 33.74 points, with van der Merwe's catch helping him finish in fifth on 31.83. Sam Curran, KL Rahul, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nawaz and Ben Stokes round out the top ten.

It’s also worth noting that Pakistan’s strong team performance was reflective in the numbers. Six of their players stand in the top 30 players, with captain Babar Azam (24.33) the next best of the group.

Final T20WC 2022 Fielding Impact Ratings