Losing it in finals, and Murali's dominance

The most expensive bowlers in finals
India's massacre in the VB Series finals attracted a lot of attention towards Australia's overwhelming firepower, its domination in one-dayers, and the consistent batting failures of a famous quartet. An inability to chase large targets in finals was pointed out, perhaps because a lot is expected of India's middle order, but what was ignored was that large totals were conceded - often in excess of 320. And that's because the bowlers lose it completely in the first 15 overs. In the first 15 overs of their last seven finals, India's main strike bowlers conceded 99, 92, 78, 107, 70, 75, and 90, making it to the top of a very undesirable list. Here are the most expensive bowlers of all time in ODI tournament finals (as by economy-rate, minimum qualification, five finals):

Murali etc
As Australia armed itself to battle Sri Lanka and its factory line of spinners, John Buchanan announced that the players would prepare not only for Muttiah Muralitharan, but also the other bowlers, who pose a sustained threat. Right. And to think that Muralitharan takes 40% of all the wickets his side picks up in home Tests.

Think Fred Trueman, Dennis Lillee, Richard Hadlee and Anil Kumble. At home, none of them were as prolific, or deadly, as Muralitharan is on a Sri Lankan pitch that suddenly springs into action when he's bowling. Over six wickets a Test, and more than 300 at home (over a hundred at one ground), make Muralitharan - if you didn't already know it - the most dangerous bowler there ever was on home turf.

Murali loves the floodlights
For all the talk of dew, and spinners having a hard time gripping the ball, a look at how slower bowlers have performed in day-night matches revealed intriguing facts. Saqlain Mushtaq and Harbhajan Singh prefer bowling during the day, and pick up more wickets than in the second innings. They have a total of two five-wicket hauls and five four-wicket hauls during the day in 57 games, and a solitary five-wicket haul at night in 48 games. Shane Warne and Anil Kumble, however, prefer it the other way around, and have proved more effective at night.

Meanwhile, Muralitharan is in a class all his own. His bowling average is 10 runs better at night than during the day. And this, when his daytime average is good enough to give most bowlers an inferiority complex.

The value of Streak
While Australia and India hogged the glory and the headlines during the VB Series, Zimbabwe, for the most part, were bullied, with their batsmen unable to make runs, and the bowlers finding it hard to take wickets. It could have been worse, but there was always Heath Streak to rely on. With 15 wickets and 211 runs at 52.75 in the series, Streak was `The Man' for Zimbabwe. It's a role he has played for Zimbabwe since Andy Flower's departure, and that he performs with both bat and ball makes him even more valuable. And though he's not up there with great allrounders like the Hadlee-Imran-Botham-Kapil quartet, when you boil his performance down to the proportion of a team's runs scored and wickets taken, Streak is second to none.