A new spin to ODIs, and Vettori's return

When one-day cricket first started in the 1970s, many reckoned that this format would destroy spin bowling: limited-overs cricket rewards line-and-length bowling, without too much experimentation; spinners generally tend to flight the ball in an attempt to lure batsmen into errors, and in the process are liable to go for runs in a version which placed a premium on them. Spinners wouldn't be able to cope, many feared.

As it turns out, spin bowling in one-day cricket has come a long way from those early days: in the 1970s, fast bowlers sent down 83% of all deliveries bowled in a match, which meant spinners got a mere 17 overs out of 100, or less than nine in an innings. Contrast that to today's fare, when spinners bowl, on an average, nearly 16 overs per innings - that's almost double the amount they contributed in the '70s.

India were probably the first team to demonstrate that a team with a prominent spin attack could be successful in one-day cricket when, in 1985, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Ravi Shastri formed a critical component of the bowling attack in their outstanding win in the World Championship of Cricket. The fact that they could repeatedly staunch the runs in the middle overs and pick wickets proved that there was a role for quality spinners in the ODI format. Today, with Muttiah Muralitharan, Daniel Vettori and Harbhajan Singh, among many others, playing their trade so successfully that not many would question the role of slow bowling. In fact, in the 1990s, spinners bowled 171 deliveries per match, up from 120 in the previous decade. And while they give away more runs per wicket than fast bowlers, spinners have edged ahead in terms of economy-rate.

It also helped, of course, that the subcontinent began hosting a bulk of the one-day games. On pitches which offered little to the fast bowlers and the medium-pacers, there was no other option but to turn to spin. In the 1970s, less than 9% of one-dayers were played in the subcontinent. In the 1980s, with Sharjah suddenly becoming a hotbed for ODIs, that figure leapt up to 41%. Even the shift of locations, though, doesn't entirely explain the increasing prominence of spin bowling: in the 1990s, 42% ODIs were played in the subcontinent, only a marginal increase from the previous decade; yet the contribution of spin bowling jumped up by nearly nine percentage points (50 balls per match). In the 2000s, the contribution of spinners has decreased slightly, explained partially by the reduction in matches in the subcontinent.

And of course, a look at the country-wise figures reveals the countries where slow bowling have revelled the most. No surprises here: Sri Lanka sees nearly 40 overs of spin per match, while in New Zealand that figure drops to 17. Meanwhile, the numbers for West Indies offer a telling tale of the changes in conditions and their team in this decade - in the 1990s, spinners used to bowl 140 deliveries per match; in the 2000s, this has gone up to 159.

Vettori's comeback
He was always rated highly as a spin bowler, but till about 18 months back, you wondered what the hype was all about. Hampered by injuries which required a change in action which resulted in loss of form and confidence, Daniel Vettori was struggling to live up to all those claims of him being the best left-arm spinner around. Just before the final of the NatWest Series in England last year, Vettori's average in ODIs had ballooned to almost 38, and in 137 matches he had only taken 120 wickets.

Then, he took a magnificent five-for in the final against West Indies, a performance which has triggered off a remarkable turnaround for him: in his last 22 one-day internationals, he has taken 37 wickets - that's almost 1.70 wickets per match - at a splendid average of 20.21 and an equally impressive economy rate.

That confidence has rubbed off on his Test performances too, over the last year. Before embarking on the tour to Bangladesh in October 2004, Vettori's Test average was 38.14. In ten matches since then, he has taken 50 wickets - easily his best run in Tests - bringing his career average down by more than three runs. Of course, it's helped too that four of those ten matches have been against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. With Test series against West Indies and South Africa coming up over the next six months, Vettori has an opportunity to set that record straight as well.