It has been two weeks since the IPL started and it has been a captivating ride so far. After a few one sided matches to get the tournament underway, the last week has thrown some nail-biting last-ball finishes at us. Starting with the Mumbai-Deccan game right up to the thriller in Bengaluru last night, it has been some exhilarating stuff.
There have been some scintillating batting displays (Rahane, Owais Shah, Gayle, Albie Morkel) so far in the competition. There have been some fascinating last ball boundaries and thrilling chases, most notably that of Mumbai vs Deccan (where Rohit did a Miandad), CSK vs RCB (Virat Kohli won’t forget this one in a hurry), KKR vs RR (where Shakib once again proved his class), RR vs DC (powered by Brad Hodge) and RCB vs PWI (when the Gaylestorm hit Rahul Sharma, Ashish Nehra and Pune as a whole). While it has been great to watch from an audience perspective, with fours and sixes galore, what bothers me greatly is the quality of bowling; or the lack of it actually. Amidst the entire boundary hitting chaos, the highlight for me personally has been Dale Steyn’s fiery spell against the Mumbai Indians. It was genuine, threatening and dangerous fast bowling at its best. Dale Steyn showed his class and reiterated why he is not only the best test bowler, but the best fast bowler going around the world at the moment.
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The quality of bowling, especially death bowling, has been alarming to say the least. Death bowling is an art. Having grown up watching the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis bowl those deadly reverse-swinging, toe-crushing yorkers, to now watching bowlers dish out half volleys, length balls, wide slower balls and full tosses is a highly unpleasant change. The commentators in this IPL have generally gone overboard describing the quality of the shots and the batsmen who have played them. Yes, the shots have been good. But at this level, in this format, you would expect the batsman to dispatch half-volleys or full tosses out of the ground, and that is precisely what they have been doing. What you would not expect though, is an international bowler like Dan Christian or Vinay Kumar (who has been hit for the most number of sixes in the ongoing IPL) or Ashish Nehra to dish out some absolute rubbish in the slog overs. This has also been India’s plight for a long time now. With Zaheer being the slight exception, no other Indian bowler has been able to deliver when the heat is on.
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Death bowling, like everything else, has to be practiced and mastered. Ask Malinga, who has spent hours on end, toiling, trying to hit a shoe in practice by keeping it exactly where a batsman’s toe would have been. Umar Gul is another exponent of this art, he rarely bowls a bad ball at the death and his yorkers are almost near perfect and swinging consistently (not a surprise at all, that he comes from the land of Wasim and Waqar). It is amazing that with so much technology, support staff and video analysts around, only these select few can bowl a good yorker consistently. When Nehra got rid of Gayle through a perfect yorker, why he could not reproduce that same delivery 4 or 5 times in the last over baffles me. Missing a Yorker is one thing, missing it by a mile so that it becomes a waist high full toss or a rank half volley is totally another.
It comes down to skill and dedication. It requires special efforts to become a Wasim or a Malinga or a Gul. If a bowler is not prepared to toil hard to sharpen his death bowling, it is not worth paying him a million dollars just to turn up and bowl rubbish. The batsmen are good, the bats are better, but any batsman will tell you that putting away a good, well directed yorker or bouncer is still a very tough thing to do. So let us not go overboard in praise of the batsmen, they are merely putting away bad balls. Let us hold the bowlers accountable as well for not having control over their art. Good death bowling is essential to limited overs cricket. Cricket is a contest between bat and ball. The moment it becomes a boundary fest and the bowlers are taken out of the equation, it ceases to be a contest. The greatest sight in cricket is always a good batsman consistently tested by good balls. I hope good death bowling returns again, the contest returns again. I hope this lack of good death bowling doesn’t lead to the death of bowling in the shortest format of the game.
I feel that in today's cricket bowlers are hardly getting any importance. People prefer a high scoring match. For IPL groundsmen are advised to make high scoring pitches where minimum 160 runs will be scored in 20 overs. If you look at the IPL teams only 2 out of the 9 teams have a bowler as the captian. One of which is Harbajan who took over from Sachin at the last moment. Teams are selected in such a way that it will strengthen the batting line up, even at the cost of a bowler. Bowlers are discouraged by this. I remember Glenn Mcgrath did not return to third season of IPL because he was seating on the bench for most of the matches in IPL2. This discouragement is some what reflected in their efforts & dedication.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Indian bowlers are concerned they must have become very complacent after IPL. Many bowlers know that even if they don't play a single game for India for the entire year they will earn millions in the IPL jsimply because teams need to play 7 Indian players out of 11. Players like Ravindra Jadeja who have not even made their mark at the international level are sold at a huge amount. When you get things more than you need without making much efforts why will you toil hard ?
You make a very pertinent point about very few bowlers being made captains. Very valid point. Yes the tracks are absolutely not conducive to bowling but in India, that has always been the case. Yes, a sense of complacency has crept in after the IPL and a few players are getting more than what they deserve; which will obviously have an effect. But it should not stop them from working hard and perfecting their skills. They must value and respect the India cap and strive to improve irrespective of the money they are earning.
DeleteNevertheless, very interesting comments and observations. Thank You. :-)
Again a very nice and thoughful article. I really feel the overall quality of bowling has gone down and not just the death bowling. There could be many reasons to it and rightfully bowlers lose their confidence once beaten but are not bowlers meant to be more mentally stronger than batsman? The kind of provoking, sledging we used to witness earlier is no where to be seen now.. :)
ReplyDeleteI think Bowling Tournaments will be great
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