MALIK_ON_WARNE_BRYDEN_04DEC94

In Pakistan`s recent home series against Australia Salim Malik turned the heat on Warne with 557 runs. Colin Bryden gets a masterclass.

FOR ONE man at least, Shane Warne holds no terrors or surprises. Salim Malik, the Pakistan captain, can speak with authority about Australia`s match-winning leg-spinner after amassing 557 runs at an average of 92.83 in the three home Tests against Australia in October and November. Although Warne took 18 wickets in the series, eight more than anyone else on either side, not once did he dismiss Malik.

Malik, now on tour in South Africa, has been watching nightly highlights of the Ashes series in his hotel room, puzzled that England`s batsmen have yet to work out a method to counter Warne.

``Warne is a great bowler,`` Malik said, ``but to pick him is not difficult. He can bowl only three different deliveries and he has a completely different action for each one. I pick each ball as it leaves his hand.``

Malik admits that he starts with an advantage over most batsmen. He is a leg-spin bowler himself and, more importantly, he spent 14 years in the same Habib Bank side as Pakistan`s finest leg-spinner, Abdul Qadir: ``Abdul was also a great bowler and he bowled basically the same deliveries as Warne.``

The big giveaway for Malik is Warne`s hand action: ``The angle of his hand is different and the action is different.`` Explaining mainly by demonstration, Malik showed how Warne`s googly requires a higher arm extension than the regular leg-break, with the ball emerging from the top of the hand. Malik rates Warne`s googly as the least effective of his deliveries and the easiest to pick: ``His action is so different and he bowls it very slowly.``

The flipper is a great deal more threatening because the ball shoots through fast and straight, frequently trapping the unwary before a stroke can be executed. Malik looked for Warne to push the delivery out of his hand, eschewing spin.

As for the leg-break, Warne`s stock delivery, the tell-tale sign for Malik was Warne imparting sharp spin with a vigorous wrist rotation.

Although he knows what is coming, Malik says playing Warne involves great concentration: ``You have to be very careful and wait for the loose balls. I play him mainly with the pad when the ball is pitched outside leg stump. I always stay in my crease because with the amount he can turn the ball it is dangerous to go down the wicket.``

There is also an element of psychological warfare: ``Because he is an attacking bowler he is always going to try everything to get you out and he is going to get fed up if he doesn`t succeed. He will bowl you one or two loose deliveries and you have to take advantage.``

Malik aims to play most of his scoring strokes against Warne to the off side, mainly to the point and cover regions. He avoids the temptation to play across the line by sweeping or by trying to pull short-pitched balls to leg.

``For me, sweeping is very dangerous, especially when he has two fielders behind square leg. If you make just a little mistake you can be out.``

Malik says Warne`s flipper accounted for several of his batsmen during the series, which Pakistan won 1-0 despite being in trouble in all three matches. Malik`s 237 in the second Test and 143 in the third, both in the second innings, frustrated Australia.

``Sometimes he deliberately pitches the flipper very short to tempt the batsmen to try to hit across the line to midwicket,`` Malik said. ``He got a few of the boys this way, because the ball went through quicker than they expected.`` When Warne bowled him the flipper, Malik played all but the most obvious long hops to the off side.

To facilitate his off-side play and to avoid being trapped lbw by the flipper, Malik takes guard on ``fourth stump`` a stump`s width outside leg stump when Warne is bowling around the wicket and on leg stump when he bowls over the wicket.

Malik clearly enjoyed getting the better of his duels with the bowler who is arguably the most devastating in Test cricket: Warne was credited with his wicket in one of the four limitedovers internationals between the two sides. According to the scorebook he was caught by wicketkeeper Ian Healy off Warne in Multan. ``It shouldn`t have been given out,`` Malik insisted,

Despite winning their battles in Pakistan, Malik has a high regard for the Australian, rating Warne and Qadir as the two best leg-spinners he has seen. He is unwilling to rank one higher than the other: ``Warne turns the ball more than Abdul did in his prime but Abdul had the better googly. It was quicker and turned more than Warne`s.`` Both could be devastating with their flipper.

He rates another Pakistani, Mushtaq Ahmed, and India`s Anil Kumble as good bowlers but in a slightly lower league than Warne and Qadir.

``Mushtaq was a good bowler,`` Malik said, ``but he has had a slight problem since he had a stress fracture of his back. I think he is afraid to bowl like he used to bowl.`` Mushtaq was not selected for the current tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe, although Malik hopes he will regain his form.

Kumble, Malik says, does not spin the ball as much as the other leading leg-spinners: ``His stock ball is the flipper. His surprise ball is the one that turns a bit.``

Source :: Sunday Times