Indian bowlers, who are known to struggle with yorkers, have used this key weapon in their armoury to nice effect this IPL
Kings XI Punjab's Sandeep Sharma has impressed one and all with his swing bowling as he carried on his last year's form into this season. With the ability to bring the ball in to the batsmen and out at will, the Punjab bowler has accumulated nine wickets from seven games to be among the top 10 wicket-takers in IPL 2015 edition so far.
The promising Sharma may have got the best of batsmen out with some great deliveries. What he will remember is not his wickets but the manner in which he bowled the last over against Chennai Super Kings. He could not manage a wicket in that high scoring match, in which other bowlers were at the receiving end. But he did something more special that got noticed.
He kept the T20 format's most dangerous batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni quite at a stage where he could go berserk.
Sharma used a potent weapon that many Indian fast bowlers have failed to perfect it – the Yorker. In that over, Sharma bowled five deliveries in the block-hole that fetched just four runs. Even Dhoni did not have an answer to it. He managed just two runs off four balls. It is a different story that Dhoni & Co recorded an easy 97-run win over KXIP.
It has always been a topic of debate that the Indian bowlers have been unable to bowl fast bowling's most dangerous weapon – yorkers – that bowlers from other countries including Pakistan have mastered it.
Only a handful of names come to mind when you talk about Indian bowlers who could bowl yorkers. Manoj Prabhakar said he mastered the art after slogging for 10 years while left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan's jump and high-arm action made it natural to bowl toe crushers.
This IPL season have seen many Indian bowlers apart from the usual suspects like Lasith Malinga, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and Trent Boult, bowl the deadly delivery. Apart from Sharma, KXIP seamer Anureet Singh from Railways, Kolkata Knight Riders' Umesh Yadav, Royal Challengers' Varun Aaron and Mumbai Indians Jasprit Bumrah have been successful using it.
Sunrisers Hyderabad's duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Praveen Kumar have been one of the pace bowlers troubling their opponents with yorkers.
In the clash against KKR, the two Kumars made it impossible for big hitters Yusuf Pathan and Manish Pandey to score the required 32 runs from 12 balls for a win.
For Bhuvneshwar, who is almost unplayable with the new ball due to his ability to swing big, has been learning the skill to keep it tight in the death overs. And, it has come out well this season.
The UP seamer bowled his team to win against RCB successfully getting two wickets on his yorkers. "Since the time I made my debut I have worked on my death bowling," he said. "That is one aspect of my game I have worked the most on. "(Against RCB) I could execute what I have been practicing for so long and that gives me immense satisfaction."
Former India medium-pacer Balwinder Singh Sandhu said yorker is the need of the hour, especially in T20. "You have to out-think the batsman. The bowlers have shown improvement consistently since the batting is evolving big time," he said.
"A fast bowler has to keep evolving himself all the time. They have been paid huge amount to perform better. Also, they have a good support staff that help them get things right," he said.
Sandhu believed that yorker is a dangerous weapon in today's era. "It is very effective. It not only gets you wicket but also helps you deliver dot balls if bowled perfectly. It is good to see that the Indian bowlers have started bowling yorkers consistently," he added.
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