Forget the yorker, try the slow bouncer, and bat second

If Zaheer Khan, trying to close out the match, can go for 16 runs in an over against Afghanistan, who managed only 80 runs in all against England, we have a problem.

In the warm-up game against Pakistan too, Zak kept pitching yorkers at Kamran Akmal who happily fed off them to help Pakistan chase down 185. Why he doesn’t use a change of pace when he has such a good cutter beats me.

Gone are the days when a yorker was the best way to contain a batsman in the death overs. Way back in the quarterfinals of the 1996 World Cup, Ajay Jadeja showed the way when he took half a step back to convert a Waqar yorker into a half-volley which he sent sailing into the stands over mid-wicket. Today’s batsmen have developed any number of ways to despatch a yorker to the fence, Dilshan’s scoop to fine leg and Dhoni’s helicopter shot being a couple of examples. Less dramatic, but equally effective, is to give oneself some room and simply hit the ball on the full or as it pitches to the point boundary. Occasionally, the batsman will miss and be bowled, but in the slog overs of a Twenty20 game with wickets in hand it matters little if you get out. These tactics are making yorker specialists look foolish. Even Lasith Malinga, who used to be the hardest to whack at the death because of his low slinging toe-crushers, has been going for plenty every now and then.

The solution is to keep the batsman guessing, and not be so predictable with the yorkers. One really effective variation in the death overs is the slow bouncer, which Venkatesh Prasad used to such good effect in that same 1996 quarterfinal — remember how he got smacked by Aamer Sohail and then got him with a ball that seemed to take forever to reach the batsman?

A batsman setting himself up to hit either a yorker or a regular ball in the final slog almost invariably gets thrown out of balance by a slow bouncer. A slower ball can also work, but it’s a little easier to handle because the batsman just has to delay his swing; with the slow bouncer, he will have to change the trajectory of the swing too. Because quick bouncers in general are so dicey because even a mishit can sail over the fence, or a little extra bounce will make it a no ball, it’s hardly used in the death overs and so the batsman is not expecting a bouncer.

Apart from the surprise element, the advantage with the slow bouncer is that it will neither sail over a batsman’s head nor will a mishit carry too far. Of course, it can’t be overused because if a batsman is ready for it, he can quite easily make mince meat of it. But for now, the risk of that happening is minimal. Batsmen practise hitting yorkers in the nets, they don’t practise hitting slow bouncers.

English bowlers have used this tactic with great success and it was one of the main factors in their winning the 2010 World Twenty20. India have two bowlers, Irfan Pathan and L Balaji, for whom slow bouncers would be quite natural; after all, they hardly have any pace anyway. So they might as well take a leaf out of Prasad’s book to make a virtue out of a shortcoming. Two things will work in their favour if they do. One, the Sri Lankan pitches have been uncharacteristically bouncy, at least so far in the tournament, which will help them get the ball up around shoulder level. Secondly, even though everyone knows neither Pathan nor Balaji have the pace to frighten even a rabbit, they do have a longish run-up and their facial contortions convey the impression that a Dennis Lillee or Jeff Thomson is at work. It’s likely, therefore, that the batsman will get suckered by the slow bouncer, even if he half expects it from these bowlers.

The first and only time we won the World Twenty20, in 2007, bowlers like Sreesanth and RP Singh played a big part (and who can forget Joginder Sharma?). This time, the ‘pace’ bowlers and our opening batsmen are the question marks.

Apart from a change of tactics in the slog overs, Captain MS Dhoni, too, can help the cause by opting to bowl first on winning the toss. We have seen how much help there is for the pacers initially. Even Afghanistan gave us a hard time with the new ball. And don’t forget we beat Sri Lanka in an ODI series just last month, mostly batting second. The only game we lost was when we batted first. Wonder if Dhoni remembers? Or coach Duncan Fletcher for that matter. This is where we sorely miss Gary Kirsten, who was a key element in our 2011 World Cup triumph.