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By Syed Ahsan Ali

Bowlers can win you matches definitely as shown again by the mantra of five specialist bowlers for India in the Second ODI at Bristol. But the bowlers had nearly had outdone themselves by giving away too many runs in the end where Mascrenhas’s hitting nearly pulling off a blinder. But it has been two inconsistent performances from the Indian bowlers in which they failed to keep a close watch on the scoring rate. The last 10 overs yielded England nearly 100 runs in their win against England which were enough to set the cat among the pigeons.

It has been a routine with Indian cricket; bowlers easily concede too many runs with frivolity without getting too much attention as well. Is this becoming a norm or are the Indians never looking at their bowlers for top-notch exhibition. Whatever it is? It is scathing to find the Indian team’s over all standing in international cricket despite having fine talent at their disposal. Indian bowling has been lot better now in comparison with their attacks of other decades and this is why they are winning lot more Test matches as well, but One Day cricket is about taking wickets along with keeping the scoring rate down in the boundaries of manageability.

The new ball bowlers have been gaining reputation with every new outing, but what about their reputation of using the old ball during the death? Ajit Agarkar has been a regular now in the Indian team with his sterling experience in the game over the span of years. But he still finds it hard to keep the ball in the right areas to prevent any power hitting. Munaf Patel was instrumental in shaping up victory in the Second ODI, but when it came to his ability to complete his spell on a high, he was definitely below par as compared to his earlier spells. Youngsters Piyush Chawla and RP Singh were also all over the place to add to the miseries of Dravid. By giving away runs with such carelessness does another thing which is more of a psychological one than physical. Batsmen all over the world when they face you in a match must have done some kind of pre-match homework about you as an option. And when they see your economy rate or an average, they start relaxing in their armchairs with their pads on while facing you as a bowler. Why? Because they feel that you can keep the ball on the right spots for four balls of an over, but your tendency to slip it away onto the leg stump or drag it up on a shorter length or pitching too full for rest of the two deliveries makes you vulnerable. This mindset tends to undermine your overall stature as a bowler.

All the great One Day bowlers not only have good number of wickets against their names but also healthy economy rates as well. Let’s compare two excellent bowlers Warne and Stuart MacGill here. Both have great ability to take wickets. Both have quite identical strike rates but Stuart MacGill fails to find too many approvers when it comes to the comparison with Warne because he tends to lose his control every now and then. Whereas Warne built pressure by not only bowling those lethal variations of his, but also by bowling maidens after maidens tirelessly. Warne and MacGill have been compared as far as Test cricket is concerned, so that clearly can give you an idea of importance of keeping the run streaks low in limited over cricket.

Indians have to raise their bar when it comes to bowl in crunch situations. They have been taking wickets with the new ball but it is equally significant to keep the yorkers and the slower deliveries going with regular intervals in the last few overs. They have to drop this run-leaking tendency like a bad habit sooner than later to be reckoned as a top one-day side.

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