Batsmen call all the shots (3 May 1999)

3 May 1999

Batsmen call all the shots

Simon Hughes

Let's face it, one-day cricket is a batsman's game. Whereas they have carte blanche to pummel or persuade the ball where they please, bowlers have to follow strict guidelines. Bouncers are not allowed, neither is anything down the leg side or more than a fraction outside off stump. You can only have two men patrolling the boundary in the first 15 overs, making bowling at Sachin Tendulkar or Mark Waugh a bit like trying to prevent Dennis Bergkamp scoring from a penalty in a goal 60 ft wide.

One-day cricket is quite formulaic and from the bowlers' perspective the innings is divided into three sections, each of which demands a different approach. In part one, you have to be ready for some rough treatment. A pinch-hitter or natural striker in the Sanath Jayasuriya mould will larrup length balls over the in-field, and often the boundary, forcing the opening bowler to resort to damage limitations, spearing in yorkers with his two boundary fielders straight and as far away as they are allowed. It's quite humiliating operating like this with a new ball and it can be a dangerous ploy as, while not haemorrhaging runs, it is completely predictable and yields at least a steady stream.

It's probably far better to mix up the pace of the attack, using slower balls to disrupt the swinger's rhythm. Adam Hollioake's "knuckle ball", perhaps the finest around, deceives even the best players. Mohammad Azharuddin - veteran of 315 one-day internationals - admitted on Friday that he was still looking for the one Hollioake dismissed him with in Sharjah. Fast bowlers with very quick arm actions - the Pakistanis Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, say - bowled the most effective slower balls.

And once seen (or not, as the case may be) the batsman is constantly looking out for the next one, thus clouding his overall focus, forcing him to consider more options. Mechanical seam bowlers like England's Angus Fraser and India's Venkatesh Prasad need this accessory if they are going to avoid what is known in the trade as "serious pongo" on flat wickets.

New Zealand came up with an imaginative solution to the first 15-overs scenario in the 1992 World Cup, by opening the bowling with a spinner. With less pace on the ball, batsmen had to force their shots, and with canny placement of the two permitted boundary fielders - one at deep square leg, the other at long on - they were often obliged to hit against the spin. The tactic helped get New Zealand's limited resources to within a whisker of the final, but has never been repeated. Against certain crash-bang-wallop teams - Sri Lanka for instance - England ought to consider it.

You will also see quick bowlers operating round the wicket to left-handed players like Jayasuriya or Brian Lara, angling the ball in to try and cramp them for room.

The second part of the innings - overs 15 to 40 - is often more sedate. The field spreads, and irrespective of whether a team have got off to a flyer, they will probably try and consolidate. Wickets are more important than maidens here. Batting sides try to preserve them for the final onslaught, the fielding team want to take them so they can exert a measure of control in the later stages. Frequent bowling changes are worthwhile, again to disturb the momentum, as is, depending on the conditions, bowling to a plan. A good out-swing bowler can, if he maintains a tight off-stump line, keep a wide slip in place, making a batsman's staple one-day diet - the off-glide to third man - a little more hazardous. An agile backward point is crucial. It is often worth keeping five men in the circle (rather than only four) trying to provoke the batsman into hitting over the top. You've got to try and force mistakes.

Before part three of the innings, overs 41 to 50, bowlers say a quick prayer, along the lines of "please, God, don't turn my yorkers into half volleys or waist-high full tosses". Sometimes He's listening, sometimes He isn't. The margin of error is minute. The perfect fast yorker actually pitches about two feet in front of the batsman. A yard out either way and it becomes fodder. A bit of reverse in-swing, usually possible with the scuffed battered white balls in use here, is an aid. Slower balls can also be valuable again at this point, as batsmen's motives are more premeditated and violent and they can be made to look very silly indeed. So can the bowler, though, if the overdone 'slowie' comes back embedded with fragments of roof tile.

It's a mug's game. The best one-day bowlers need to be practical, phlegmatic and philosophical. As Martin Snedden, the New Zealand trundler who was plundered for 105 off his allotted overs at the Oval in 1983 might have thought, most days in the World Cup you're just mighty relieved you only have to bowl 10.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)