Cricket is a bowlers’ game too
Mohammed Shami possesses one of the finest fast bowling action of all time. His control and rhythm as he runs in towards the pitch, the way his jump and right hand are in sync right before he releases the ball and the seam position as the ball travels through the air, it is all too perfect. It is poetic fast bowling.
England are two wickets down for 33 runs. After an ordinary batting performance, Bumrah has brought India right back into the game with two wickets off two balls. But the match is still firmly in England’s favour as Ben Stokes — their magic player, their superman, their Houdini — is at the crease. But he’s struggling. He has faced five beautiful balls from Shami without scoring a run and the pressure on his face is palpable. Shami runs in hard, bowls around the wicket to Stokes. The ball pitches slightly outside the off stump. Stokes, looking to break free from the pressure, gives himself room to whack the ball. The ball nips back in and crashes into the middle stump. The sea of blue in the stadium roars, Shami is ecstatic, Virat Kohli is jumping madly and running towards Shami.
A few overs later, India’s other magician, Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm Chinaman, swirls his ball viciously towards Jos Butler. It pitches on the fifth stump and sharply darts back into Butler’s off stump. The sticks are shattered. The tide is fully turned as England bundles out of 129, a full 100 runs short of India’s sub-standard 229. Shami ends up with 4/22, Bumrah with 3/32.
Cricket is a game between bat and ball. The bowlers are supposed to be part of the contest as much as the batsmen. Sadly the powers that be have forgotten that. The game has tilted far too much in the favour of the batsmen. The grounds have become smaller, the pitches have becomes flatter, the bats have become thicker.
When I think of magic moments of the World Cups, Tendulkar’s six to Shoaib Akhtar (2003), Dhoni’s final six (2011) come to mind. But Wasim Akram’s magical two balls to Alan Lamb and Chris Lewis (1992) are as much part of the folklore. Shane Warne’s bamboozle to Hershelle Gibbs (1999) equally features atop the list. So does Kapil Dev’s running catch to dismiss Viv Richards (1983), and Jonty Rhodes flying in the air, his entire body parallel to the ground, his hands streched wide to shatter Inzy’s stumps (1992).
In this era of T20 and inflated runs, a one day match is still at its best on a bowling friendly pitch with a first innings score between 220 to 280 where the chasing team has an equal chance of winning as the defending team. After all, good fast bowling, wicked spin bowling offer equal excitement as muscle hitting. How can one forget the crowd’s reaction as Shaheen Afridi was running in to bowl in an attempt to take the final two wickets against South Africa? How can one not appreciate Shami and Bumrah, bowling fast in tandem making batsmen look silly? How can you not stand up and applaud the trajectory of Kuldeep’s ball spitting off the wicket in both directions?
Do not limit the bowlers showing their variety of arsenal only to the tests. Do not limit their role to mere containment in T20s. Nurture them in the shorter formats of the game as well. The two recent exciting matches in this batting friendly world cup are evidence enough.
