Attack, but skilfully

In a recent Twenty20 match against Australia played in the land of the long white cloud, Tim Southee produced one of the most accurate and effective overs seen in recent one-day campaigns.

Called upon to deliver to batsmen with mayhem in mind, he ran to the crease in his boyish way and landed his six offerings on the proverbial saucer located under the batsmen’s feet.

Try as they might, the willow wielders could not put him away. The Kiwis tied the match two overs later, and won when Southee did it all over again in the ensuing six-ball contest arranged to break the deadlock.

The fresh-faced youngster is not the fastest or most talented bowler running around; indeed, he sends the ball down at a pace widely regarded as tempting. Joel Garner was the master of the yorker, but then he was lanky as a lamp-post and fast enough to push batsmen onto the back foot.

Only towards the end of his career did Garner begin to miss his mark. Till then he was the best one-day bowler on the market, a point he often proved in Lord’s finals, only to be denied recognition as Man of the Match by a succession of brilliant batting displays from Vivian Richards.

None of the other West Indians, let alone anyone else, could match the Barbadian’s laser-beam precision.

Malcolm Marshall was a supreme attacking bowler, blessed with high intelligence and with an extraordinary array of deliveries at his disposal, but his trajectory was flatter and swing was his main weapon - so he tended to pitch the ball up a yard further than his contemporary.

Curtly Ambrose, Garner’s successor, was his closest rival. The Antiguan was the better man as regards short bowling (even when Dean Jones had not ruffled his feathers) but Garner had the deadlier sandshoe crusher.

Not that yorkers were reserved for pace bowlers. In the 1970s Lancashire fielded a rotund offspinner going by the name of Jack Simmons and universally known as “Flat Jack” owing to his ability to project the ball at the batsman’s toes.

The Red Rosers could use him to slow progress in the middle of the innings or else to curtail the charge in the closing overs.

AFP