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Get the length right!

S

Saj

PakPassion Administrator
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One of the biggest mistakes that Pakistani pace bowlers have made in Australia over the years has been the length that they have bowled.

Even the likes of Akhtar and Wasim have tended to bowl a little too short for my liking in Australia. I think our bowlers in the past see the extra pace and bounce and get a little overexcited.

I sincerely hope that Waqar has a word with the likes of Asif, Umar Gul and Aamer and ensures that the short pitch deliveries are used as surprise deliveries and that the bowlers pitch the ball up to Ponting and co.
 
Well on the last tour shoaib and sami hit the perfect lenghth and had the aussies five down for not too many. (first test that is) interesting that neither were bowling at full pace and were concentrating on line and lenghth. Sami really surprised me... After that gilchrist walked in.
 
Tried and tested recipe really, pitch the ball up and induce the batsman to drive. You do that and you bring the slips and gully into play. Gul was guilty of not pitching it up enough against New Zealand and the Australians are likely to make you pay. Also, pitching the ball up means you are giving the ball the best chance to swing.

Australians in general are quite good at the pull and in the case of Ponting hook shot, so I agree the short ball should be used as a surprise delivery.

The problem we have is that although Aamer can swing it both ways at pace, Asif is more of a seam bowler and thus prefers pitching it on a good length. He generally is more concerned about getting the line right than the length. in The likes of Rauf and Gul prefer bowling back of a length, because of their height. Ideally we need a Rana Naved type bowler as a third seamer, rather than a Rauf or Gul.
 
Prince of Pakistan said:
Umar Gul bowls short wherever he is you still hope for something else from him lol?
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I was just thinking the same, I think on current form rauf is a better option
 
I think the length won't be a problem for Asif. He usually bowls a fuller length regardless of the pitch. Lets hope Waqar has a word with Aamir and Gul. Especially with Gul because recently he has started to bowl short without any venom.
 
Gul should give up the short ball ... can't remember the last time I seen him get a wicket off of one.

Aamer on the other hand should bowl more of them.

The extra pace and left arm angle really seem to trouble batsmen.

On the other hand his full deliveries seem easy to drive with very little risk of LBW as he consistently pitches it outside leg.

I'd rather see the Ozzies try and pull/hook him.
 
Excellent Thread Saj.

Indeed Pakistanis do get carried away with the extra pace and bounce and then tends to mean Runs are leaked to quick. Pakistani bowlers will need to show great Discapline as all 3 surfaces they play on are likely to be batter friendly also.
 
Completely agreed Saj bhai.

Our bowlers in the past got carried away I think the harm due to it was quite significant.

I just hope that the bowlers listen to Waqars' advise and then themselves work hard to reduce their weaknesses.

I dont think Asif would bowl short since he relies more on less bounce so that he can get batsmen out bowled or lbw. But I think Aamer, Abdur Rauf, Gul and Sami might need to work on it. Hope they succeed in taking a lot of wickets.
 
^This.

During the recently concluded NZ series only M Asif was pitching it up regularly. M Aamer pitched it shorter and shorter as the tour progressed and Gul was short of the good length at best with pitching it up only for 'yorker'.

Line and length is v.important for our bowlers to succeed and I am v.optimistic and believe that W Younis will plan it properly for the quicks to do the damage. Let's hope they succeed to get 20 wickets in every match.
 
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The secret is to use the short ball sparingly and as a surprise weapon.
 
Aamer too has a problem of pitching the ball short quite often with the new cherry..In NZ series,he usually pitched the new ball up for first couple of overs and then again went back to his normal length i-e back of the length.Kiwis were quite comfortable with Aamir pitching the ball short..He was getting some swing but for some unknown reasons,concentrated on back of the length bowling.Against Australian batsmen,you got to pitch the ball up and look for some swing because they struggle alot against the swinging ball..Steyn got 10 wkts in MCG,how?,he bowled with pace and troubled Aussies with sideways movement..India won the Perth test in 08'..why?because the likes of Irfan Pathan,RP Singh bowled the fuller length and hence got the results..
I am sure :younis would work with :aamir on this 'length issue'
 
Did anyone hear Aamer's interview during the tour game against Hobart?

He said he'd been advised by both Waqar and Aqib to pitch the ball up as his length was too short.

So the bowler's are well aware of what they need to do.
 
Asif is the master of the immaculate length: he will always pitch the ball up, invite it to swing, invite the seam movement. Aamer is still learning the tricks of the trade but has already proven himself adept at working batsman over. The only problem is Gul: he seems to be suffering from a loss in form, but more significantly, a loss in confidence which means that he just wilts away after a couple of boundaries. When you pitch the ball up, chances are that you can get driven for four and that is where I feel he will resort to half trackers which aren't enough when you're bowling at 140kph.
 
Juggernaut said:
Did anyone hear Aamer's interview during the tour game against Hobart?

He said he'd been advised by both Waqar and Aqib to pitch the ball up as his length was too short.

So the bowler's are well aware of what they need to do.
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Thats great news!isnt it:younis
 
I heard Mohammed Aamers interview after the 1st day against Tas, where he took 2 wickets. Aamer said that Waqar and Aquib told him that he is pitching it too short and are working with me to pitch it up.
 
Asif isnt the kind of bowler to bowl short, he knows the only way he;ll get wickets is by pitching the ball up.
Aamer has been adviced apparently by Aaqib and Waqar so thats good news.
Gully danda...has always bowled short, i still remember the tour of England 2006 (when he imo came of age being the senior bowler) but bowl VERY short throughout the test series.
 
Mohsin said:
Asif isnt the kind of bowler to bowl short, he knows the only way he;ll get wickets is by pitching the ball up.
Aamer has been adviced apparently by Aaqib and Waqar so thats good news.
Gully danda...has always bowled short, i still remember the tour of England 2006 (when he imo came of age being the senior bowler) but bowl VERY short throughout the test series.
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:))
 
To be frank Australia and New Zealand have completely different conditions. In NZ the ball swings a lot but in Australia Swing is very rarely seen. In recent times we have seen some swing in Perth but in rest of the grounds there is hardly any swing.

Australian wickets are hard and will have lots of bounce, so the best way to bowl is to keep it on a length and move it of the seam. I am thinking that Asif will have lots of success with his style of bowling. English bowlers have struggled to bowling in Australia as they rely on swing too much.
 
Asif WILL bowl the fuller length there is no question

Infact all of them should, if you remember, the commentators were continuosly praising our attack for bowling such a good length. Just need to carry it forward in Aussieland
 
Aussies are good cutters and pullers of the ball. It is best we either pitch it up or back of a length. None of our bowlers has the pace to bowl short and get away with it.
 
Yes no short balls either up to the batsman or bouncers.
 
Malik-01 said:
Well on the last tour shoaib and sami hit the perfect lenghth and had the aussies five down for not too many. (first test that is) interesting that neither were bowling at full pace and were concentrating on line and lenghth. Sami really surprised me... After that gilchrist walked in.
Click to expand...
I remember that game vividly. Akhtar & Sami had done the damage but unfortunately when gilly walked in both had ran out of steam. Our third seamer wasn't able to back the openers and poor kaneria got slaughtered on a first day pitch that invaribly had no turn. Hopefully things will be different this time as we have three front line seamers who can bowl longer spells.
 
*sallu* said:
Aamer should actually
His short ball is really good

But Asif shouldn't and probably won't do it. One of his major strengths is that he sticks to his strengths.
Ironic but true. He doesn't do what he isn't good at.
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I wouldn't target Ponting with the short ball all too often. Kemar Roach had his express pace to rely on, and that will cause problems whatever length you bowl. I don't think Aamer is that fast, and the others are slower.

We should rely on our own strengths which are to bowl good line and length. If Shoaib was in the team, fine the short ball would be a tactic, but not with this attack.
 
Asif will have no option but to pitch it up, but I hope Aamir and Gul start pitching up the ball cause certainly they bowled far too short in the last test match against NZ.
 
waqar_ahmad said:
I have always wanted to see Asif bowl in australia. And boy am I excited!!!
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He won't get the same movement like NZ though. Only with the new ball. Aamir and Gul will have to get a lot more share of the wickets with Kaneria chipping in the 2nd innings.
 
90MPH said:
He won't get the same movement like NZ though. Only with the new ball. Aamir and Gul will have to get a lot more share of the wickets with Kaneria chipping in the 2nd innings.
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I know. But he gets the pitches to respond, more than most other bowlers. And I want to see how he does in australia
 
Akhtar was superb on the last tour to Australia. However he lacked support from the other end and the batting , as usual , let us down. I remember he took two five wicket hauls. Esp the one in the second was vital but the batsmen couldn't sustain the pressure.
 
gul is doubtful to feature in the first test right ??? some knee injury i heard??? read it in the paper today actually
 
I think they should be bowling shorter on this pitch.

Anything fuller has been driven with ease.

However the one or two short deliveries that have been bowled have troubled the batsmen.

Both Aamer and Rauf should use the short ball at least once an over.
 
I disagree, the length has been quite good. Just the odd bouncer every now and then would be useful.

The fielding has to back up the bowling though - stop the singles and take the damn catches.
 
kashif77 said:
I think they should be bowling shorter on this pitch.

Anything fuller has been driven with ease.

However the one or two short deliveries that have been bowled have troubled the batsmen.

Both Aamer and Rauf should use the short ball at least once an over.
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We bowled really really well

Aussies were really getting troubled a lot.

It was our fielding that let us down. A bit of luck and better fielding and Aussies could have been 3 down and you all would have been saying how brilliantly we bowled
 
Full deliveries haven't troubled the batsmen at all .. and it's where they have scored the majority of their runs .. there's nothing in terms of lateral deviation.
 
The length has definitely been on the shorter side, I haven't seen any good length deliveries bowled. Granted that this length is hard to score on, it is however not good for wicket taking.

That is why most of the edges have not carried to slips because the length has been too short.
 
There is nothing wrong with the bowling, why should bowlers have to take flak for the fielders incompetence
 
The length has been pretty good. Mostly on good length. They've tried to pitch it full on a few occasions but they're not getting any swing so it's been dealt with pretty effectively by Watson.

I didn't like the line that Rauf was bowling to Katich. Too much middle and leg. when he made him play outside the off stump he edged it, was unlucky it didn't carry to slip. need to see more of that.
 
One bowler who has consistenly bowled the wrong length in Australia has been Umar Gul, which is surprising considering the 3 coaches that are with the team are all bowlers with a lot of experience.

Gul has either been too full or mostly too short which is disappointing.
 
Saj said:
One bowler who has consistenly bowled the wrong length in Australia has been Umar Gul, which is surprising considering the 3 coaches that are with the team are all bowlers with a lot of experience.

Gul has either been too full or mostly too short which is disappointing.
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I absolutely agree with you on this. Today if we had :asif in place of :gul. Trust me :asif would have snapped Watson during his blitz, but it was due to :gul :aamir and :rana length that allowed Watson to spank all those boundaries and give Australia a flying start.
 
Mickey hinted that we will play attacking Cricket but we haven't seen that yet.


Fastest delivery uptil now has been only 145kph.


As far as the lengths are concerned both Amir & Hasam have preferred shorter lengths. Very few deliveries in 6m and 2 meter range. Rather rare.


Conditions were overcast and we needed to make quick in roads.


Starting with Imad was disaster. Removing 2nd slip so early was wrong.


When Kohli came out to bat immediately Amir & Hasan should have been back but they were not.


Amir should have bowled from around the wicket against Kohli with 2 slips. He gets the ball to straighten from that angle plus he must have bowled in between 2 to 6 meters range in order to employ the Slip cordon.


This length was needed and not the shorter length.


 
Saj said:
One of the biggest mistakes that Pakistani pace bowlers have made in Australia over the years has been the length that they have bowled.

Even the likes of Akhtar and Wasim have tended to bowl a little too short for my liking in Australia. I think our bowlers in the past see the extra pace and bounce and get a little overexcited.

I sincerely hope that Waqar has a word with the likes of Asif, Umar Gul and Aamer and ensures that the short pitch deliveries are used as surprise deliveries and that the bowlers pitch the ball up to Ponting and co.
Click to expand...

This is Amir's pitch map
Capture.JPG
 
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