Ian Chappell: Kiwis bowling 130km/h hand grenades against nuclear missiles of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins
Should the Kiwi bowlers persist with a short-pitch bowling approach in the Boxing Day Test, they will likely have to contend with similar treatment - from much faster bowlers.
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The short-pitched monster is on the rise again, like a well-directed bouncer heading unerringly for a batsman’s rib cage.
In the 1932-33 Ashes series, Douglas Jardine, the Scottish-bred England captain, devised Bodyline in an attempt to limit the carnage created by Don Bradman’s flashing blade.
Jardine successfully used Harold Larwood’s accurately aimed thunderbolts and a legside field as crowded as a peak-hour train to virtually halve Bradman’s average.
The ploy worked perfectly and the Ashes again belonged with England.
During his press conference after Australia’s Perth Test victory last week, captain Tim Paine made reference to Bodyline in describing the short-pitched bowling that occurred in the match.
The difference this time round is it’s Neil Wagner and Tim Southee pitting their 130km/h hand grenades against the nuclear missiles of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.
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It was a lopsided battle on the pacy Perth pitch that Australia won by a wide margin.
The New Zealand ploy evolved to unsettle Steve Smith, who is perceived as the modern-day Bradman. However, it was a risky tactic to unleash on a side that contains the best pace attack in the game.
The New Zealand batsmen looked distinctly uncomfortable when tested in Perth. If the Australians are serious about continuing to bounce the Kiwis, then James Pattinson should be a certainty for the Boxing Day Test.
In summing up the bouncer, former England fast bowler John Snow accurately described it as: “A short and emphatic examination paper that you put to the batsman.” It’s an examination that has often resulted in a failure mark.
The failures range from an embarrassing duck on the scoreboard to the unlucky and tragic death of Phillip Hughes at the SCG in 2014.
After the Hughes incident, Cricket Australia implemented a safety review. Puzzlingly, this review did not include technique, the correct utilisation of which is the best way to improve survival and safety against the short-pitched delivery.
Hooking is like gambling: the best results are achieved by knowing when it’s prudent to and when it’s not.
Correctly judging the height of the delivery is crucial. Once it gets above the eyes, the batsman is dabbling in the bowler’s domain.
Batsmen must “think tall” — the act of rising up on the toes automatically takes the hands and bat above the ball, thus hitting from high to low and improving the chances of the shot going safely to ground. If in playing the shot a batsman moves inside the line of the bouncer, the chances of his being hit are greatly reduced.
The left-arm fast bowler is the most difficult for a right-hand batsman to hook. To be successful, the batsman must play a pull rather than a hook shot and aim it well in front of the wicket. Because of the angle across the right-hander, if he tries to hook behind square leg the ball will inevitably go in the air.
This is partly the reason for Wagner’s success, but it’s also true that when batsmen are asked to cope with regular short-pitched deliveries, the odds tend to favour a good bouncer bowler. Unfortunately for New Zealand, Starc is good and about 15km/h faster than Wagner.
Every time I witness a bouncer barrage, I’m grateful to my father Martin, who trained his three boys to respect but not fear the bouncer. I still remember the command: “Get back in the net, son,” after what I thought was the completion of a Sunday net session for a nine year-old. He proceeded to throw accurate bouncers at me, skilfully using the ridge at the midway point of the pitch. This was a regular occurrence until I graduated to first-class cricket at 18 years of age.
Hooking is not something that is mastered in a moment. Australia comfortably won the battle of the bouncer in Perth and if that contest is pursued at the less pacy MCG, the result is likely to be the same.
The conundrum for New Zealand is although they may have found a way to limit Smith’s influence, in doing so they’ve aroused Australia.
In Jardine’s case, he also aroused Australia — but only to anger, not to success. When informed of Jardine’s appointment as captain of the England squad to tour Australia, his school cricket master at Winchester perceptively quipped: “We may well win the Ashes, but we may very well lose a dominion.”
This time there will be no threat to discontinue relations between the two countries, but the ploy will cost New Zealand the Trans-Tasman trophy.
Originally published as Ian Chappell: Kiwis bowling 130km/h hand grenades against nuclear missiles of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins