<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->But the guys from S Africa and Pakistan who are in the range of 85mph are being referred to as fast bowlers. Weird! <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I thought you being an opening batsman, would have the answer to that one - I've been wondering about it too. Here are my observations, other than that the desi media are dorks.
1. A lot of the effectiveness of the "speed" comes from what is done at the last instant of ball release, and the follow-through. You have the choice of
a) going with the smooth momentum and ***releasing*** the ball, or
b) releasing, but pushing your fingers along the seam, thus keeping them in contact with the ball as long as possible, to get the ball spinning along the seam or
c) pushing really hard to slam the ball towards the pitch.
The effect of ( c) is very visible in the follow-through - the bowler nearly bends double in the follow-through, while he merely runs on, virtually erect, in (a). Ntini or Nel or Brett Lee or Shoaib Chukhtar or Mohammed Sami or Malinga are ( c) while most Indian bowlers are (a). Sreesanth and Zaheer are (b), though Sreesanth is sometimes (b). Munaf and Irfan started out more (b) and ( c) but then Pathan became (b) and Munaf became (a). <b>Kapil Dev was more ( c), from what little I have seen of videos of his time. </b>
Indian bowlers, although they start out as tyros like Munaf, are quickly sobered by the reality of the wet-noodle pitches and the terrible outfields in India. The ball seems to go to sleep when it hits the pitch, and if they try to "speed" out the batsman, the outfield is so bad that any edge is going to carry for 4, because no one will do diving or sliding stops. Edging through fine-leg or third-man is the safest way to get runs. In fact until I started watching TV, I could never understand why it made any sense for an opening batsman to try to get runs in the "V" in front, when one could so easily get runs in the "M" behind. So until Sehwag, few Indian openers would actually try to hit forward, concentrating on deft "touches" to left and right. I have not watched Gavaskar on TV, but I imagine that he too got most of his early runs in the arc from square leg to point - behind.
So Indian pace bowlers at the higher levels, where the pitches are "batting paradises" focus on getting swing - which means, put the focus on getting the seam straight, and drag the fingers down the seam as it is being released to get the ball spinning fast. This retains the gyroscopic inertia (I have no clue what that means, but it sounds grand) and if done right, the ball holds direction until the final 3 yards before touchdown, and then swings drastically. This is deadly.
Look at Sreesanth on a good day as the perfect example, or Zaheer Khan to a nearly as perfect extent. The seam stays dead steady as it comes towards the batsman. In Sreesanth's case the seam is perfectly vertical, so the batsman is trying to guess whether it will swing left or right, and cannot know until the very last instant. This is the ideal of swing bowling.
Look at SA bowlers, and they can't hold the seam straight like that, except one of them _ probably Ntini on a good day.
*********
But NOTE: You do NOT have to get the seam so dead straight etc. to swing the ball. Nearly all pace bowlers- even at the "pace" of Tendulkar - are able to swing the ball. Tendulkar can swing it pretty drastically.
In college, the most deadly (I mean from ability to read and play against, not physical harm "deadly") bowler I have faced was one who only took 3 steps, but could get the ball to do all sorts of things, including some drastic swing. Even I can get the ball to swing, pretty drastically, once in a while, BUT I cannot get it to do that reliably, two balls in a row, or get it to pitch in the right place. Sometimes swing comes at the wrong time, resulting in a straight ball deciding to go towards 2nd slip or down the leg side.
The international class swing bowler can control it.
But now look at the actions during and following release. The real **FAST*** bowler REALLY pushes his shoulder and back at the time of ball release, and the follow-through is pretty drastic. Indian bowlers on the other hand, don't seem to exert themselves much at this point - it's pretty mechanical.
The trouble with that final-instant exertion is that back, shoulder, knee and heel injuries are never far away.
The classic combination of smooth action and power is Glenn McGrath. The action LOOKS as smooth as that of a "medium-pacer", but it is perfectly choreographed, and there is huge acceleration at the final instant. The guy is also pretty tall and hefty and extremely, extremely fit. His action, if you try it, involves a massive backward stretching of the back, which produces a tremendous whiplash in the final move. This again requires a STRONG back, and perfect fitness to avoid back injury. Imagine doing this for 40 overs in Chennai or Kolkotta heat, as McGrath did in the famous Laxman Series.
Instead of this, MOST Indian bowlers either do a jump (Zaheer) or nothing. This is great for accuracy, but does little for zip or bounce.
Now for the part that really shows whether one is "fast". There are two criteria:
1) The frequency with which batsmen get "yorked".
2) The frequency with which batsmen give lolliop catches because of <b> sudden</b> rise to an awkward height, so that the batsman has to raise the bat very quickly, and still the ball hits on the top part, the handle or the glove.
3) The frequency with which batsmen get hit on the hand and head, or the ribs.
Agarkar actually manages a fair number of "yorkers", which is because he IS fast when he exerts himself. But how often have you seen either of the other two events?
Now look at Ntini or Brett Lee or Andre Nel, or Shoaib "Chukhthar" or Malinga. On a hard, bouncy wicket, these guys are absolute nightmares. The ball seems to "rear up" at the "last instant". Even on dead pitches such as in India, these guys get quite a lot of batsmen hurt on the fingers, and hit on the head. If this danger is there, batsmen are always going to be less confident, and that makes a huge difference.
So why is it that Agarkar, despite reaching 144kph, can rarely bother a batsman with bounce, when Ntini at 133kph does it all the time? Part of it is the height advantage, but MOST of it is that last-instant massive exertion. Look at Ntini or Brett Lee bowling. It's like EVERY ball is the last ball of the match, last chance to get the batsman out, and he gives it everything he's got.
Munaf used to do that. Pathan used to do it. Sreesanth is still capable of it. But all the other Indian "pace" bowlers have been essentially beaten down, probably by the dead pitches and the coaches, into "medium pace".
Sad. Since Kapil Dev (who was not so terribly fast, but had the same Ntini-like quality) India has not had a bowler who could really pay back against the abusive bowling from Nel, Flintoff etc.
Two major changes are needed in India.
1) Shift more top-tier cricket matches to pitches in, say, the hilly places like Kerala, or grassy places like Punjab, and demand hard, grassy pitches. Also, get the outfields REALLY cleaned (get every loose pebble out) and get excellent grass cover. With this, minor deviations in line or bounce won't result in 4 byes or leg-byes, and diving stops and catches will become the norm.
2) Recruit some real rural tyros, from the farms. 6-foot-7, 210 lbs. Get them to get into top shape, and give them top class training to keep them fit, and get their fielding and batting techniques into top shape. And get them to practice bowling, day in, day out. Focus on getting the ball to bounce, to cut, etc. And GET THEM into the top tier teams.
One final point. <b>There HAS been a major shift in 1-day cricket, and maybe all cricket, with the Bangladeshi demonstration. </b>With very moderate talent, but great heart, these guys have used their brains and come up with two changes as drastic as the Sri Lankan opening batsmen did in the mid-1990s.
1. <b>The use of CUTTERS </b>as opposed to swing in the early stages of an innings. Sehwag (and/or maybe Sachin) got out leaving a ball that clearly had no swing on it (seam was all over the place), and was pitched outside off-stump. He lost his off-stump - very unexpected use of cutters that early in the innings. This is what devastated the Indian batting against BD.
2. <b>The use of the ****SLOW*** bowler </b>in the middle overs. This is the lesson that Bapu Nadkarni taught, and Bishen Singh Bedi perfected, many years ago, and India has forgotten. Today's 1-day cricket is so fast-paced. The bowler rushes in, bowls very fast, and the batsman swings, very fast, and the collision of an 80mph ball and a 90mph bat sends the ball zooming .... 10 feet over the fence.
Now slow the ball to 40 mph, looping way up and dropping dead on pitching. The bowler can land that on a dime, every time. Try hitting THAT over the fence. You will get sixers once or twice, but the ball may go a bit HIGHER, and be SLOWER, so what would have reached the stands, now falls 2 yards inside the boundary, into the hands of the boundary line fieder. Two people get out like that, and the bowler starts looking monstrous. Batsmen try defensive prods. But the ball is so slow, that a push produces no runs. Maiden over follows maiden over. The pressure builds. You try a cross-batted sweep, but the ball does not come on to the bat, and it takes the edge - you are out. The fielders crowd around the next batsman.... He rushes out to try to take it on the half-volley, but the ball goes down the leg side and he misses, and is stumped. The next one makes the mistake of going back-foot defense to a flighted ball, and the ball nicely and slowly bounces off the shoulder of the bat to silly-mid-off. Or a faster one gets the LBW or skims off the pad to the middle stump through the gate.
This was the classic Bedi strategy. The only solution to this was demonstrated by New Zealand (Dowling) many years ago: Go forward, inside the line and hit BACKWARD- slam boundaries through fine leg. Actually, most world-class batsmen can do that to bowlers whom you or I would consider "fast". I have watched this happening to a team on which I was (fielding, through a 300-run innings), with horror. It was an ex-West Indies opening batsman.
Suddenly the leg-spinner is afraid to pitch near the leg stump, and becomes innoccuous, or the captain knuckles under, and takes him off.
Harbhajan SHOULD be able to do this, but he doesn't. He looks too dispirited and too inaccurate, and generally clueless these days.
I thought you being an opening batsman, would have the answer to that one - I've been wondering about it too. Here are my observations, other than that the desi media are dorks.
1. A lot of the effectiveness of the "speed" comes from what is done at the last instant of ball release, and the follow-through. You have the choice of
a) going with the smooth momentum and ***releasing*** the ball, or
b) releasing, but pushing your fingers along the seam, thus keeping them in contact with the ball as long as possible, to get the ball spinning along the seam or
c) pushing really hard to slam the ball towards the pitch.
The effect of ( c) is very visible in the follow-through - the bowler nearly bends double in the follow-through, while he merely runs on, virtually erect, in (a). Ntini or Nel or Brett Lee or Shoaib Chukhtar or Mohammed Sami or Malinga are ( c) while most Indian bowlers are (a). Sreesanth and Zaheer are (b), though Sreesanth is sometimes (b). Munaf and Irfan started out more (b) and ( c) but then Pathan became (b) and Munaf became (a). <b>Kapil Dev was more ( c), from what little I have seen of videos of his time. </b>
Indian bowlers, although they start out as tyros like Munaf, are quickly sobered by the reality of the wet-noodle pitches and the terrible outfields in India. The ball seems to go to sleep when it hits the pitch, and if they try to "speed" out the batsman, the outfield is so bad that any edge is going to carry for 4, because no one will do diving or sliding stops. Edging through fine-leg or third-man is the safest way to get runs. In fact until I started watching TV, I could never understand why it made any sense for an opening batsman to try to get runs in the "V" in front, when one could so easily get runs in the "M" behind. So until Sehwag, few Indian openers would actually try to hit forward, concentrating on deft "touches" to left and right. I have not watched Gavaskar on TV, but I imagine that he too got most of his early runs in the arc from square leg to point - behind.
So Indian pace bowlers at the higher levels, where the pitches are "batting paradises" focus on getting swing - which means, put the focus on getting the seam straight, and drag the fingers down the seam as it is being released to get the ball spinning fast. This retains the gyroscopic inertia (I have no clue what that means, but it sounds grand) and if done right, the ball holds direction until the final 3 yards before touchdown, and then swings drastically. This is deadly.
Look at Sreesanth on a good day as the perfect example, or Zaheer Khan to a nearly as perfect extent. The seam stays dead steady as it comes towards the batsman. In Sreesanth's case the seam is perfectly vertical, so the batsman is trying to guess whether it will swing left or right, and cannot know until the very last instant. This is the ideal of swing bowling.
Look at SA bowlers, and they can't hold the seam straight like that, except one of them _ probably Ntini on a good day.
*********
But NOTE: You do NOT have to get the seam so dead straight etc. to swing the ball. Nearly all pace bowlers- even at the "pace" of Tendulkar - are able to swing the ball. Tendulkar can swing it pretty drastically.
In college, the most deadly (I mean from ability to read and play against, not physical harm "deadly") bowler I have faced was one who only took 3 steps, but could get the ball to do all sorts of things, including some drastic swing. Even I can get the ball to swing, pretty drastically, once in a while, BUT I cannot get it to do that reliably, two balls in a row, or get it to pitch in the right place. Sometimes swing comes at the wrong time, resulting in a straight ball deciding to go towards 2nd slip or down the leg side.
The international class swing bowler can control it.
But now look at the actions during and following release. The real **FAST*** bowler REALLY pushes his shoulder and back at the time of ball release, and the follow-through is pretty drastic. Indian bowlers on the other hand, don't seem to exert themselves much at this point - it's pretty mechanical.
The trouble with that final-instant exertion is that back, shoulder, knee and heel injuries are never far away.
The classic combination of smooth action and power is Glenn McGrath. The action LOOKS as smooth as that of a "medium-pacer", but it is perfectly choreographed, and there is huge acceleration at the final instant. The guy is also pretty tall and hefty and extremely, extremely fit. His action, if you try it, involves a massive backward stretching of the back, which produces a tremendous whiplash in the final move. This again requires a STRONG back, and perfect fitness to avoid back injury. Imagine doing this for 40 overs in Chennai or Kolkotta heat, as McGrath did in the famous Laxman Series.
Instead of this, MOST Indian bowlers either do a jump (Zaheer) or nothing. This is great for accuracy, but does little for zip or bounce.
Now for the part that really shows whether one is "fast". There are two criteria:
1) The frequency with which batsmen get "yorked".
2) The frequency with which batsmen give lolliop catches because of <b> sudden</b> rise to an awkward height, so that the batsman has to raise the bat very quickly, and still the ball hits on the top part, the handle or the glove.
3) The frequency with which batsmen get hit on the hand and head, or the ribs.
Agarkar actually manages a fair number of "yorkers", which is because he IS fast when he exerts himself. But how often have you seen either of the other two events?
Now look at Ntini or Brett Lee or Andre Nel, or Shoaib "Chukhthar" or Malinga. On a hard, bouncy wicket, these guys are absolute nightmares. The ball seems to "rear up" at the "last instant". Even on dead pitches such as in India, these guys get quite a lot of batsmen hurt on the fingers, and hit on the head. If this danger is there, batsmen are always going to be less confident, and that makes a huge difference.
So why is it that Agarkar, despite reaching 144kph, can rarely bother a batsman with bounce, when Ntini at 133kph does it all the time? Part of it is the height advantage, but MOST of it is that last-instant massive exertion. Look at Ntini or Brett Lee bowling. It's like EVERY ball is the last ball of the match, last chance to get the batsman out, and he gives it everything he's got.
Munaf used to do that. Pathan used to do it. Sreesanth is still capable of it. But all the other Indian "pace" bowlers have been essentially beaten down, probably by the dead pitches and the coaches, into "medium pace".
Sad. Since Kapil Dev (who was not so terribly fast, but had the same Ntini-like quality) India has not had a bowler who could really pay back against the abusive bowling from Nel, Flintoff etc.
Two major changes are needed in India.
1) Shift more top-tier cricket matches to pitches in, say, the hilly places like Kerala, or grassy places like Punjab, and demand hard, grassy pitches. Also, get the outfields REALLY cleaned (get every loose pebble out) and get excellent grass cover. With this, minor deviations in line or bounce won't result in 4 byes or leg-byes, and diving stops and catches will become the norm.
2) Recruit some real rural tyros, from the farms. 6-foot-7, 210 lbs. Get them to get into top shape, and give them top class training to keep them fit, and get their fielding and batting techniques into top shape. And get them to practice bowling, day in, day out. Focus on getting the ball to bounce, to cut, etc. And GET THEM into the top tier teams.
One final point. <b>There HAS been a major shift in 1-day cricket, and maybe all cricket, with the Bangladeshi demonstration. </b>With very moderate talent, but great heart, these guys have used their brains and come up with two changes as drastic as the Sri Lankan opening batsmen did in the mid-1990s.
1. <b>The use of CUTTERS </b>as opposed to swing in the early stages of an innings. Sehwag (and/or maybe Sachin) got out leaving a ball that clearly had no swing on it (seam was all over the place), and was pitched outside off-stump. He lost his off-stump - very unexpected use of cutters that early in the innings. This is what devastated the Indian batting against BD.
2. <b>The use of the ****SLOW*** bowler </b>in the middle overs. This is the lesson that Bapu Nadkarni taught, and Bishen Singh Bedi perfected, many years ago, and India has forgotten. Today's 1-day cricket is so fast-paced. The bowler rushes in, bowls very fast, and the batsman swings, very fast, and the collision of an 80mph ball and a 90mph bat sends the ball zooming .... 10 feet over the fence.
Now slow the ball to 40 mph, looping way up and dropping dead on pitching. The bowler can land that on a dime, every time. Try hitting THAT over the fence. You will get sixers once or twice, but the ball may go a bit HIGHER, and be SLOWER, so what would have reached the stands, now falls 2 yards inside the boundary, into the hands of the boundary line fieder. Two people get out like that, and the bowler starts looking monstrous. Batsmen try defensive prods. But the ball is so slow, that a push produces no runs. Maiden over follows maiden over. The pressure builds. You try a cross-batted sweep, but the ball does not come on to the bat, and it takes the edge - you are out. The fielders crowd around the next batsman.... He rushes out to try to take it on the half-volley, but the ball goes down the leg side and he misses, and is stumped. The next one makes the mistake of going back-foot defense to a flighted ball, and the ball nicely and slowly bounces off the shoulder of the bat to silly-mid-off. Or a faster one gets the LBW or skims off the pad to the middle stump through the gate.
This was the classic Bedi strategy. The only solution to this was demonstrated by New Zealand (Dowling) many years ago: Go forward, inside the line and hit BACKWARD- slam boundaries through fine leg. Actually, most world-class batsmen can do that to bowlers whom you or I would consider "fast". I have watched this happening to a team on which I was (fielding, through a 300-run innings), with horror. It was an ex-West Indies opening batsman.
Suddenly the leg-spinner is afraid to pitch near the leg stump, and becomes innoccuous, or the captain knuckles under, and takes him off.
Harbhajan SHOULD be able to do this, but he doesn't. He looks too dispirited and too inaccurate, and generally clueless these days.