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Nathan Bracken -
The Unsung Performer |
A Feature by BV Swagath, published on November 07, 2006
The Kangaroos might have won the Champions
Trophy by beating West Indies by 8 wickets in
the final at Mumbai with Shane Watson getting
the Man of the Match award. But it was Nathan
Bracken who really deserved the honour as it was
his performance that had got the match turned on
its head! Bracken is certainly the unsung hero
in the star-studded Australian line-up. His 3
for 22 which had come under pressure had stopped
what looked to be a Caribbean Calypso from the
ugly but effective -
Shivnarine
Chanderpaul and the dangerous
Chris Gayle. The
left armer is no way quick and no way that
attractive to watch in his action and looks. But
the end matter was the fact that he got the
Aussies out of a big hole of having to chase a
huge total under the lights and on a wicket that
was getting slower as the day progressed.
It was a day when the World's fastest bowler
Brett Lee and the
World's best bowler arguably -
Glenn McGrath
were taken to the cleaners. While Brett Lee was
failing to get the swing, McGrath was hardly
getting the ball to seam around in their first
spells. There was hardly any pace and carry in
the wicket and that is what the 29-year old New
South Wales left arm medium pacer had cashed in.
He knew that the ball was gripping the surface,
so he had effectively used the cutters. The pace
was being varied quite cleverly by the lanky
bowler. Nathan Bracken who had shared the new
ball with Brett Lee had a bad start with his
first delivery being a wide and the next one
being a short and wide one that was cut away
fiercely by Gayle for a boundary. He came back
strongly though and had a massive leg before
appeal that was turned down with Chris Gayle
getting the benefit of the doubt from Aleem Dar.
At the other end, Brett Lee was bowling as fast
as he could and the ball was also traveling as
fast as it could off the blades of Chanderpaul
and Gayle. Windies had powered to 49 for no loss
and it was only Nathan Bracken who put the
brakes on the scoring. The first ball of the 6th
over was a cutter which was coming in and
Chanderpaul who was shaping to force it through
point with a horizontal shot dragged it onto his
stumps! That was a big breakthrough provided by
Nathan Bracken as Chanderpaul had already done
his damage in hitting out Brett Lee out of the
attack as he was taken for 36 in his 3 overs!
Ricky Ponting
was forced to bring in Glenn McGrath to get
things under control at Lee's end but that
change was even more drastic with Chris Gayle
sending a length delivery over widish long on
for a huge six. Windies still in control as long
as Gayle was there and blasting on all
cylinders. Meanwhile it was once again Nathan
Bracken for the Aussies halting the progress of
the West Indies as he got
Ramnaresh Sarwan
to play the flick shot early. It was the change
of pace and the ball stopped onto the bat to
result in a leading edge to be taken at mid on.
It wasn't the smartest of shots played by Sarwan
who was indeed too ambitious to play the flick
when the length wasn't really up. The score was
now looking much better for the World Champs as
they got two wickets down. The wicket of Sarwan
did not deter Chris Gayle from playing his
attacking game, he pulled McGrath for a six and
followed that up with consecutive boundaries
leaving the fielding side rattled.
That McGrath's over was taken for 14 runs and
West Indies were onto 79 for 2 in just the 10th
over. Ponting was having the headache of holding
back his second powerplay and do something to
get things back to normalcy. It would never be
easy for a side to chase something over 270 on a
wicket which had dual pace and bounce. Just when
Ponting was pondering on what his next move
would be, Nathan Bracken came up with an
absolute beauty to remove the dangerous Chris
Gayle. It was a delivery that was coming in with
the angle from the left armer but had swung away
at the last moment to beat Gayle's outside half
of the bat and then to strike the offstump. For
once, Chris Gayle wasn't good enough to counter
the bowling and that one delivery from Bracken
had changed the outcome of the game! If at all
Gayle could have done something better to that
great delivery from Bracken, it was to go a
little bit across on his backfoot to cover for
the swing and in turn his offstump! What
happened after Gayle's exit was history with
Glenn McGrath getting into his own thanks to
Nathan Bracken's destruction and the rest of the
match witnessed how the Australians seized the
opportunity to keep West Indies under the lid to
clinch the title for the first time!
It was swing that had done the trick for Nathan
Bracken and it was something that was missing
from his repertoire until the Semi Final match
against the Kiwis. He was already facing stiff
competition from the other left armer
Mitchell Johnson
who had the extra 10kmph in pace and who does
move the ball in both directions. Just before
the Semi-Final, Bracken had got his wrist action
corrected and was able to swing the ball in the
air, otherwise he was going to be an easy medium
pacer to be taken for runs. His efforts to
improve his bowling had given him instant
results as he got New Zealand's best batsman
Stephen Fleming
induced in playing a loose drive in that
Semi-Final at Mohali. With 10 wickets coming at
an average of less than 20.00 and an economy of
4.73 in the five Champions Trophy matches, I
think Bracken has done a good job for his side
as the third seamer. Sometimes it is the kind of
wickets you take that is equally important as a
four or five-wicket haul and Bracken has just
done that taking wickets of star batsmen and
taking them at crucial junctures of the match!
Nathan Bracken is slowly but steadily developing
into Australia's version of
Chaminda Vaas!
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