The short ball tactic has emerged the most effective way to get wickets in the ongoing 2nd Test of the Ashes 2023 between England and Australia at the Lord’s. Australia successfully implemented it to gain a significant first innings lead before England replicated the strategy to limit their opponents in the second dig.
While the two teams wouldn’t be minding the strategy, the legendary Mark Taylor has put a question mark over the bouncer barrage wondering if the umpires will soon start calling no-balls.
“If a batsman doesn’t play a shot, how many bouncers you can bowl in an over?” Taylor said while on air. “If both teams continue this bumper tactic – and they will.. The laws of the game were changed in the early nineties… If the umpire feels it, he can still call it. It will be same when Australia bowl. If you keep bowling same length, even if its not about shoulder high, it’s still intimidation. It’s going to put a lot of pressure on the umpires, who can say, I am going to call it ‘no-ball’.”
Kevin Pietersen, the co-commentator, disagreed with this Australian counterpart.
“This is not about intimidation. This is about taking wickets,” Pietersen said.
Former England captain Andrew Strauss said the the tone has been set for the remainder of the series, predicting that the teams will resort to short balls whenever they are looking to break partnerships.
“The battle lines have been drawn for rest of the series, Any time a partnership happens, both teams will go for this kind of tactic. Unless batsmen show a way to handle it, this is a pretty legitimate tactic. England have been comfortable trying it as Australia haven’t gone really anywhere. So that theory of biding out time (against bouncer barrage) hasn’t proved correct,” Strauss said.
While calling the strategy a bit predictable and tedious, Strauss said there’s nothing wrong with it.
“I don’t like watching it. I find it somewhat tedious. A bit predictable. You know where the ball is going to be before he bowls the ball, where the fielders are. You are just seeing what the batsman is going to do. It’s a bit two-dimensional to me. But that does not mean it’s not effective. Nothing wrong with their approach; anything that works, you should give it a go. We haven’t seen this strategy much in the last ten years or so,” he said.
Comments
0 comment