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POTW: wrongun

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For his insightful take on the subject of what makes fast-bowlers so special, POTW award goes to [MENTION=129939]wrongun[/MENTION]

Congratulations!


http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...o-they-even-exist-now&p=11731042#post11731042


Mark Wood bouncing guys out & having them caught hopping off the hip on featherbed pitches was great fast bowling. On those pitches to get so many of those "pace counts" strangles down the leg and caught off the hip is really impressive. Trundlers don't get those "gifts" often, only someone with real heat forces them regularly.

Nortje had the worlds best players of pace/bounce hopping and looking genuinely uncomfortable recently. Jansen did too with sheer bounce- they just weren't well supported by a listless Rabada & Ngidi this tour.

Archer genuinely scared Steve Smith to the point he scrambled his feet up/natural reactions.

Starc at times is brutal.

There's more to "scaring batsmen" than just pace though. Nortje is super quick but shows the batsman the ball the entire way in. So he'll never seem as terrifying as Johnson or Waqar did.

"Scary" bowlers all have a method where the batsman loses sight of the ball during the load up- generally a slingy type action where the bowler brings the ball back in such a way his own body hides it as he loads up. Batsmen lose sight of the ball at the crucial pre delivery instance and then are playing "catch up". Waqar, Johnson, Thommo all had such actions (Shaun Tait too). Malinga did too and it's why he was able to startle batsmen so often despite being 5k slower than the others on this list.

The other thing batsmen find scary or difficult to follow is a "fast arm" or change of pace with no discernible greater effort. Wasim fell into this category. Archer too. Perhaps Bumrah.

Science says batsmen don't have time to react to a cricket ball that fast from 20 yards (distance from batter to ball)- so we know batsmen are using cues from the bowler to "pre judge" where the ball will go before it's even released. It's the bowlers with a method which scrambles or offers fewer of these cues that batsmen seem to find "scary".
 
I knew it! Good job [MENTION=129939]wrongun[/MENTION].
 
There's always a lot of good posts out there. Happy people enjoyed it.

Thanks [MENTION=3200]Muhammad Saad[/MENTION] for starting an interesting discussion.
 
Also, just to add to this topic a bit.

I think body language, style, and runup of the bowler contribute to the 'scareiness' factor as well. There is no doubt that Wood is freakishly scary when he bowls, but generally he has a jovial, happy-go-lucky personality, which I think makes him seem less scary than he is. (don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that he shouldn't be 'the class clown' haha, but it just makes him a seem a little less intimidating.)

Mitchell Johnson's appearance just looks intimidating. With his tattoos, stacked biceps, height, and facial hair. And when he is steaming in, giving it his all, his looks amplify his scare factor.

I know Murali is a spinner. But there was something about his eyes that was intimidating. He looked like a man possessed, whose mission it was to take your wicket. A bit like Medusa with the cricket ball.

Lastly, Shoaib and his run-up! The guy would run in from the 30 yard circle at lightning speed. Perhaps that extra time would make batsmen overthink. Also, the crowd would progessivly chant "ohhhhh" louder and louder as he ran up, which, as a batsman, would probably create more butterflies.

In conclusion, Rauf should get tattoos, Naseem should bowl cross-eyed, and Shaheen should bulk up 😜



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