Bowling in the slog overs has never been easy and with the ever-changing rules favouring the batters, the job of a bowler becomes all the more difficult. With the introduction of big bats, only four fielders outside the circle at a given period during ODIs and using two new balls from both ends – all have contributed to turning slog-over bowling into a nightmare for all the bowlers.
But as they say, good players find a way to succeed at the highest level. All the great bowlers who were particularly handy during the fag end of the innings, starting from Lasith Malinga to Jasprit Bumrah – have one thing in common. All of them were temperamentally sound. So temperament isn’t just key for the batters but also for the bowlers as well.
Bowlers are expected to get hit in the final overs of the innings, where batters get a licence to get after the bowling without worrying about getting dismissed. The job gets a little bit more difficult when the bowler gets hit early on in the over, especially in the first couple of balls. The challenge for the bowler then is to restrict the batter to as little as possible in the next four balls. So self-belief and staying positive become essentially more important along with being skilful.
“My simple thinking about bowling in the death, number one is that mentally you have to be very strong. There are so many times I have seen that the first ball you bowl goes for a six, the second ball also goes for a six and you feel maybe this over is going for 25-26 runs. But if you are mentally strong and even if the first two balls go for sixes you can still bowl a 15-run over. Those 5- 10 runs make a big difference,” former India fast bowler and currently with Gujarat Titans had once said.
While yorker remains a bowlers’ best bet, it isn’t the easiest ball to bowl. With so many types of slower balls coming into play along with the knuckle ball among few others, it is about executing those skills under pressure that makes all the difference.
