World Cups have always been won by sides with great bowling units. I’ve only gone as far back as 1992 because coloured clothing is fun, and that’s when field restrictions etc. made their debut. New Zealand has been an innovative side all along.
They were the ones who first opened with a spinner in Deepak Patel. They’re the ones who first exploited fielding restrictions through Mark Greatbatch in 1992. They’re a smart unit who know how to get the best out of themselves.
Which is why I’m backing their bowling unit to do well in this World Cup. Looking at the Pakistan side and the Australian attacks, they’ve always had great players. McGrath – despite his elephant hunting bullshit – was a top notch bowler. Warne and Brett Lee are also legends. As are Akram, Imran. Mushtaq and also Aaquib Javed, back in the day.
As much as people are talking about how bowlers have been legislated out of the modern ODI, I don’t agree entirely. Yes, a team can score big runs in this format. In fact, as we were discussing on Lanka Cricket the other day, it’s actually easier to score runs in the last ten overs of an ODI than it is in a T20 game. Smart batsmen will always find that boundary ball in the last ten. In fact, the average run rate in the last 10 in this entire tournament has been nearly 11 runs an over.
However, you only need to look at the Australia v New Zealand game – to date the only competitive game between Full Member nations – to see how brave captaincy and bowling to a plan can work. The entire match saw only 300 runs being scored. Yet, it was the most exciting game in the tournament by far and away. Warner was threatening to turn on the turbo and instead McCullum brought on the wily Vettori. He pulled it back and Southee and Boult struck. They assessed the pitch, the conditions and bowled accordingly.
Similarly Clarke adjusted to Brendon’s assault by asking Johnson to go short, putting in a short leg and whacking the NZ captain in the elbow first up. After that Mitchell Starc got six wickets bowling yorkers and Cummins got Ronchi gloving a bouncer. It was gladiatorial stuff. Both pacies and spinners got a look in. Bowlers bowled both lengths and got the ball to talk. It’s not about the rules favouring the batsmen. It’s about bowlers learning to adapt, being more disciplined and being backed by an awesome fielding unit.
Australia and New Zealand are easily the two best fielding units around at the moment. Their bowlers know that and exploit the pressure the fielding team builds. Batsmen are always under pressure. Bowlers can rarely do it alone, unless you’re Lasith Malinga and can york people at will.
So yes, batsman are running amok. But they are doing so largely due to unimaginative bowling and some lackadaisical field placings. Captains are content to sit back and try to contain, without forcing a batsman to hit a good shot to get a boundary. Clarke and McCullum have shown that they don’t wish to do that, and to his credit Virat Kohli has shown that too. South Africa, leave a little to be desired and are probably complacent with the form that Amla and AB find themselves in.
Big scores have been achieved. Easily. Sri Lanka chased down and set 300 without breaking a sweat. But some excellent batting was aided by some woefull uninspired bowling by both Bangladesh and England. Look what happened when Afghanistan exploited the surface and hit the right areas in their bowling effort. They decimated everyone but Mahela.
Bowlers are still a vital part of a team’s push for victory. It’s just that they have to keep up, and be aided by their fielders. The discipline of the Australasian quicks is excellent. Their ability to swing the ball, and bowl short and fast, and wicket to wicket as maybe required, is an example other teams need to follow if they’re to avoid their bowlers becoming redundant.
1992
Wasim Akram, Aaquib Javed, Imran Khan, Mushtaq Ahmed, Aamir Sohail
1996
Vaas, Wickramasinghe, Muralitharan, Dharmasena, Jayasuriya
1999
McGrath, Fleming, Reiffel, Moody, Warne
2003
McGrath, Lee, Bichel, Hogg, Symonds
2007
McGrath, Tait, Bracken, Hogg, Symonds
2011
Zaheer, Sreesanth, Munaf, Harbajhan, Yuvraj
2015
Southee, Boult, Milne, Vettori, Anderson
