Hare & tortoise tactics: Mixing up the rippers with slower ones

TYMAL MILLS allowed MS Dhoni to score just 8 runs off the 7 balls in the end overs during the T20 at Kanpur. Those deliveries included a snorter aimed at Dhoni's ribs at close to 90 mph and five slower balls, including Mills' slowest of the day — a 66.4 backof-the-hand short ball that flummoxed the former Indian captain.

A BATSMAN'S MOMENTUM can be derailed when a fast bowler with a penchant for fiery pace suddenly slow it up. This tactic has become a norm in modern-day cricket. As we see in the list below, it's the genuinely quick bowlers who are of late bowling the slowest deliveries as well, some dropping their pace by 20-25 miles per hour, without any significant change in action.

THE LATE MARTIN CROWE talked about the scary prospect of facing change of pace. For him, it was the reverse – from slow to fast but it gives one a great idea about what goes through in the mind of a batsman. Here is his quote on facing Michael Holding, who according to him was one of the first to develop a lot of differnet types of deliveries "without discerningly changing his action". Crowe put it thus: "He could bowl 100mph or 70mph with the same beautiful, classical action. It's very scary when you know he can bowl at 100mph and you are coming forward to a slow outswinger, because he is deliberately doing that. He is getting you forward, and you are thinking about that fast one. He was a very thoughtful, intelligent bowler."

IN LIMITED-OVERS SCENARIO, it's usually the opposite. You are setting up yourself for the fast one and when suddenly the ball is drastically slower — down to almost 20-25 kmph pace on occasions, it can completely upset your batting rhythm. Tymal Mill is a case in point. The pace dropped from 93.1 mph to 66.4 – 71% change in pace. Or Pakistan's Wahab Riaz.

Just imagine the batsman's psyche. You are preparing for the quick one – it dictates your bat-speed, foot movement, the balance and then you need to change all that in a blink. So many things can go wrong, especially if you are trying to hit that particular delivery.

At times the fast bowlers operate with short cover which means you can't even just check your shot at the last instant as you might end up chipping it to the fielder. You have to quickly erase all the preformed triggger movements and come up with an adequate response.

Else, game over.

Tymal Mills