We
gave it back. Suck it up. Don't blame Anushka for God's sake. It's worse than
Bangladesh blaming 'that' no-ball. Dhoni did well. Fast bowlers did extremely
well which goes hand in hand. Dhoni himself told when asked "do you think
you do well when spinners bowl well?" "I do well when my bowlers bowl
well". Spinners were brilliant in this world Cup. But it was eventually
because of our fast bowlers.
Our fast bowlers are like those students who
struggle throughout the term to even pass subjects but come the finals, they
somehow manage to get brilliant marks by their own standards. Dhoni has so far
won three Major ICC tournaments. And every time his bowlers have done extremely
well. It's a fact that in major tournaments our batsmen so often take the
limelight and then live up to the expectations of our crowd's insatiable
craving for big scores. But it's the bowlers who made the
difference in these tournaments for us.
Before world Cup, in the so called 'Mickey
mouse’ series Mohammad Shami averaged 49.00
in 4 matches giving away 98 runs in
21 odd overs taking just 2 wickets. While Umesh Yadav played 2 matches and gave
away 97 runs in 16 overs averaging 48.50 taking just 2 wickets. These are
excellent averages for a batsman. Even after being there and having played 4
tests and two practice matches this was the hopeless situation. But as I said
earlier there's something about Dhoni's fast bowlers and big tournaments.
Shane Warne when commenting about Indian fast
bowlers' success in the tournament said that one reason was that they didn't
have to face the Aussie batsmen for a while. However irritating that might
sound to our fans, it is hurtfully true. Warner, finch and Smith tormented us
with their attacking ability. Once the world Cup started our bowlers found that
extra yard in between short and good length without the batsmen trying to
attack them too much and trying to disturb the length of our bowlers. And it
worked brilliantly because not only we were economical but also took wickets in
good balls.
Hits and misses
Eight matches and eight different oppositions
later our fast bowlers are all smiles and blushes. In a tournament so
successful for left arm quick’s our three genuine right arm fast bowlers have
managed to take 46 wickets out of the total 77 wickets we took. That's roughly
60% of the total wickets.
Stat
for ICC World cup 2014/15 Indian Fast bowlers:
Bowler
| Matches
|
Average
|
Wickets
|
Economy
|
|
Mohammad Shami-7
|
17.29
|
17
|
4.81
|
|
Umesh Yadav-8
|
17.83
|
18
|
4.98
|
|
Mohit Sharma-8
|
24.15
|
11
|
4.98
|
That
is a staggering stat. But did we miss bhuvaneshwar for his control? Zaheer for
his sheer skills? Ishanth for his luck?;) To put things in perspective, here’s
the same report of our fast bowlers from World cup 2011
and champions trophy 2013 with 5 matches minimum played by a bowler.
Stat
for World cup 2011 and Champions trophy 2013 fast bowlers.
Bowler|matches
|
Average
|
Wickets
|
Economy
|
|
Zaheer-9
|
18.76
|
24
|
4.83
|
|
Munaf-7
|
32.09
|
8
|
5.36
|
|
Ishanth-5
|
21.80
|
10
|
5.73
|
|
Bhuvaneshwar-5
|
22.83
|
8
|
3.91
|
|
Umesh Yadav-5
|
49.50
|
4
|
5.55
|
Zaheer single handedly had won the world cup
with his bowling but our bowlers have bettered even him especially even with
that extra fielder in the ring. I said single handedly because I don’t even
want to talk about Munaf patel although he’s not half bad in conceding runs. In
Champion’s trophy Ishanth and Bhuvaneshwar were brilliant considering the fact
that all five matches were against the big teams. Umesh Yadav was indifferently
filling the “FAST” bowler category for Dhoni but his economy was still
considerable. So we probably missed Bhuvaneshwar’s economy (he never bowled in
the death though) and Ishanth’s ability to surprise himself as well as the
batsmen ;-)
The Big Death
Whether
we win or lose, Dhoni has always had to answer questions about the death overs
bashing by the opposition. To generalize it in such a way in itself says how
our fast bowlers usually bowl in the death. But again if we take ICC
tournaments in particular we have fared really well. These days, last 20 overs
are a separate game altogether. And it’s usually the time Dhoni brings his fast
bowlers for a second spell. Taking this into consideration, this is the stat
for fast bowlers after 30 overs.
Stat
for overs bowled by Indian fast bowlers after 30th over in ICC world
cup 2015
Bowler
|
Average
|
Wickets
|
Economy
|
Strike rate
|
Mohammad Shami
|
16.8
|
10
|
7.00
|
14.4
|
Umesh Yadav
|
12.7
|
10
|
6.51
|
19.9
|
Mohit Sharma
|
22.66
|
6
|
6.47
|
21.0
|
26
of their total 46 wickets have come in the crucial last 20 overs. Average
economy is 6.65 with the big bats and the likes of Maxwell, ABD, David Miller,
Darren Sammy and all having played against us. Oh, and don’t forget the extra
fielder in. But even if they hit out, it wouldn’t be more than 18 balls before we strike. Starting from 30th over had our world cup fast bowlers bowled all
the overs till 50 they would have taken 6 wickets and conceded 132 runs on
average. Any captain would take that any day. What went wrong with Australia
went wrong before 30 overs. They managed to take only one wicket and conceded
155 runs which set up the middle order to go on over drive. Even then they did
considerably well to stop them to 320 odd runs.
Stat
for overs bowled by Indian fast bowlers after 30th over in ICC world
cup 2011 and Champions trophy 2013.
Bowler
|
Average
|
Wickets
|
Economy
|
Strike Rate
|
Zaheer
|
11.9
|
19
|
5.49
|
13.10
|
Munaf
|
23.00
|
6
|
6.73
|
20.83
|
Ishanth
|
15.12
|
8
|
6.72
|
13.5
|
Bhuvaneswar
|
10.00
|
1
|
3.33
|
18.00
|
Yadav
|
37.00
|
2
|
5.96
|
38.00
|
Zaheer
khan has bowled a monumental 41.3 overs in the death in that sub continental
world cup and our three fast bowlers together have bowled 64.5 overs after 30
overs. That’s a herculean feat and only with that kind of shrewd variations,
reverse swing and wit would someone be able to achieve this. He has taken 19 of
his 24 wickets after 30 overs. Surely we have missed a bowler of this
caliber. But economy wise and wickets taken our bowlers have almost matched
him. Bhuvaneshwar has bowled only 3 overs in the death (stat includes three
overs bowled after tenth over by Ishanth and Bhuvaneshwar in that rain
curtailed Champions trophy finals. It is death overs in terms of a T20I, so to
speak) Ishanth has done particularly well through his eighteen overs conceding
only 121 runs in the death. But what is heartening to see is the massive
improvement in Umesh Yadav. It is a trend of our fast bowlers to storm into the
international arena with surging pace and aggression but then lose control, get
injured and then come back next season with reduced pace and intensity i.e. a completely
different bowler. That he hasn’t given in to this trend and has managed to
remain hale and healthy and still look as aggressive as he entered the scene is
in itself a phenomenal success. In the last one year or so Indian bowlers
have the best death overs record. And that is largely due to these set of fast
bowlers.
The Verdict
However
way we see it, somehow, this is by far the best contingent of fast bowlers
Dhoni has ever had in ICC tournaments. To rate them gives such an elation just
like giving them an award after post match presentation. Even though our
bowlers don’t seem to possess the authority and dominance of Australian and
South African bowlers, they still do the same job. It takes consistency, match
winning spells and lots of mind set change from our fans to reach a level where
the batsmen fear our bowlers. That is a different chapter altogether. But for
now I would give full marks (10/10) to this set of industrious, genuinely fast
and skillful bowlers. Long may they stay fit ;-)
Picture source:www.indiatvnews.com
Picture source:www.indiatvnews.com
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