Nehra to Munaf, Sreesanth: Don’t get carried away
Ashish Nehra has had two contrasting tours to South Africa. As a relative newcomer he had a disastrous 2001 tour but the 2003 World Cup saw the left-arm pacer bowl his fastest, tidiest and deadliest. With rookies like Munaf Patel and S Sreesanth in the present squad, Nehra lists the dos and don’ts for them. Don’t get carried away by the bounce and swing — is something Nehra wants the youngsters to keep in their minds
I have been to South Africa on two tours. I remember going in 2001 as a rookie bowler, having made my debut, but had suffered a breakdown by then and struggled on the entire tour. It was tough; I didn’t have enough cricket behind my back and expectedly I didn’t do well.
Later in 2003, I was back in South Africa — this time as a strike bowler for the World Cup. Besides, I was completely fit and I had enough match practice during the tour of England and New Zealand — where I didn’t miss a single game. Wiser after the first tour, I had figured out where to bowl and how to shut out distractions like thinking about the bounce and obvious sideways movement that the pitches offered. The key is to get ample match practice and get yourself in the pink of fitness.
The idea is to pitch the ball up — just short of good length — and adjust accordingly to the greater bounce as compared to the sub-continent pitches. The aim shouldn’t be to bounce out the batsman; on this kind of pitches, bowlers often like to keep the batsman on the backfoot but the clinching factor is to get the batsman to place his foot forward because he’s comfortable on the backfoot and more equipped to play the horizontal bat shots. Thus in a nutshell, the basics haven’t changed — put the new ball up but keep the length slightly shorter and use the bounce as a surprise weapon.
... contd.
Epaper
Newsletter
Stocks
Weather
Horoscope
