The aims of this investigation were to determine if ageing effects
were present in elite international level cricket. Ball-by-ball data
were analysed for 96 bowlers in the 50-Over World Cup 2019.
Bowlers were categorized into 1 of 3 age groups GROUP 1 (18–
24), GROUP 2 (25–31) and GROUP 3 (32+). Ordinal Logistic
Regressions (OLR) and Multinomial Logistic Regressions (MLR)
were conducted to estimate the relationship between age and
bowling performances. OLR Results revealed that younger bowlers
were significantly more likely to concede a greater number of runs
on the last ball of their overs than their older counterparts
(p = 0.001). A separate MLR analysis was conducted for those
bowlers entrusted to bowl during the “death” phase of an innings,
and results revealed that GROUP 2 bowlers were significantly more
likely to take wickets than either GROUP 1 (p = 0.021) or GROUP 3
(p = 0.022) bowlers. The evidence indicates that wicket taking
“death bowlers” will likely perform at their peak between the ages
of 25–31, which could inform the bowling strategy of team captains.
Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that younger bowlers
are not as skilled as their older counterparts at restricting runs
conceded.