At 37, Nehra continues to sketch his cricketing picture

NEW DELHI: Ashish Nehra has been the proverbial Phoenix rising from the ashes every time the Doubting Thomases write his cricketing epitaph.

And the ever-smiling pacer is far from finished even after hitting the wiser side of 30s, enjoying his cricket as he outwits opposition batsmen with pace and guile.

“At my age (he will be 38 next month), I am still a fast bowler. I was never the conventional 125-128 kmph bowler. Even today with the new ball, I set myself a target of bowling 138 kmph and I have to do that. Speed is not everything but if need be I can crank it upto 140 plus in T20s also,” Nehra said.

On being asked whether he feels the pressure of being wanted by Kohli as much as he was by Ganguly and Dhoni, he said, “If anyone says that he doesn’t feel pressure at international level is lying. But at this stage of my career more than pressure, I feel a sense of responsibility as a senior cricketer — to help young bowlers with inputs. Me and MS are two guys from different age groups. Our job is to bring a sense of calmness, our experience in this team.”

Asked how much white ball cricket has evolved since the time he made his debut more than 15 years ago, Nehra’s response is straight and to the point.

“Obviously, with rule changes, the game has evolved but basics of fast bowling remain the same. You can bowl as many yorkers or slower deliveries. But you have to bowl an outswinger, inswinger and one straight delivery.

In India, normally a tearaway quick faces problems with variations and the ones who have variation are medium pacers to say the least. It’s a complex phenomenon and Nehra tells why.

“In India if you are 140kmph plus bowler, people are happy that the bloke is quick. If he doesn’t get wickets, then people would cite lack of variation being his problem. For a swing bowler inside 130 kmph, his lack of wickets will be attributed to lack of pace. But in international cricket, pace alone can’t win you matches,” said Nehra, who has 157 wickets from 120 ODIS.

Nehra also busted the myth that one can consistently bowl at 150 kmph. Not even Shoaib Akhtar or Brett Lee has done it consistently.

“Look, I am not a great fan of speedometer where even slower ones are shown to be 140 kmph. As far as 150 kmph is concerned, I don’t think there’s anyone who can bowl that fast consistently. May be 2-3 balls in an entire spell.”

He has had a series of injuries and asked if that could be a problem considering the Indian team needs him in England during Champions Trophy, Nehra said: “It’s just that in India, it’s very easy to create perception about a player without knowing if he is injured or unfit.

“Poor Mohammed Shami, who has last played ODI in 2015 has had knee surgery and then hamstring. In my case, I have had too many freak injuries. But at my age, I don’t care about perceptions. If team management wants me and I am fit, I would like to play the Champions Trophy. I am preparing for it and that’s why I played two Vijay Hazare Trophy matches after 16 months. It felt good.” DUNEDIN: Rain played spoilsport as the first Test between South Africa and New Zealand ended in a draw at the University Oval here on Sunday.

The umpires waited till the end of the scheduled lunch break on the fifth and final day before announcing that no play would be possible.

Earlier, on Saturday, South Africa scored 224/6 in the second innings, taking their lead to 191 with Faf du Plessis still batting on 56 and Vernon Philander on one.

South Africa scored 308 in their first innings, to which New Zealand replied with 341.

Proteas skipper du Plessis said the way match ended was “frustrating”.

“When a Test match finishes on a day like today, it’s very frustrating. If today was a full day of cricket, with (New Zealand) one seamer down and one of their main batters out of the team, we fancied our chances. It’s very disappointing from that point of view,” Faf du Plessis said.

“We were 190 ahead on a wicket that was spinning quite a bit. Purely on the match position, if we got 50-60 more runs, a 250 lead, and set them that in 50-60 overs, we’d fancy our chances,” he added.

Commenting on the match, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson said: “To put partnerships together against the very good attack, they have was a good effort. You always want more, which never goes away no matter how many you get, but it was nice to get a little lead going into that second innings.”

Meanwhile, injured New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor has been ruled out of the second Test against South Africa which starts in Wellington on Thursday and there is a question mark over Trent Boult.

Taylor suffered a calf tear early in his first innings of the first Test in Dunedin and a team spokesman confirmed on Sunday he would definitely miss Wellington.

Whether he will play in the third and final Test in Hamilton the following week would depend on his rate of recovery.

Bowling spearhead Boult, who suffered a leg injury in Dunedin, is under treatment with no decision on his future availability, the spokesman said.