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With the emergence of T-20 cricket, the ODI game has changed quite a lot. Batting units have developed a lot more muscle and any total is fancied to be chased. The yesteryears’ magic number of 300 is no more a match-winning total. However, at the other end of the spectrum, rash shots have entered the game and teams are a lot more vulnerable to meltdowns. Along with that, there has been a change in the roles that are defined for the personnel in the team. There are concrete roles for a lower-middle order aggressor who lifts the run-rate with the big-shots in the slog overs. Kieron Pollard, Eoin Morgan, Brendon McCullum and MS Dhoni seem to be assigned these roles for their respective sides. Similarly, death bowling has become a critical area in the game.
England’s Jade Dernbach was widely promoted as a specialist in death-bowling but his figures in International cricket seem to suggest that he has not had much success. It is an indication of how tough that role is. The thought behind such a role is that the bowler reserves about 5-6 overs of his 10 to put in two spells after the 35-over mark. That is, he bowls 2-3 overs in the batting powerplay which is usually taken at the 35-over mark and the rest post 43-44 over mark. The bowler develops his yorkers, slower balls, low full tosses, wide-outside-the-off stump balls and everything that he can throw to surprise the batsman. With batsmen coming out with innovative shots, the challenge for the death bowler is constantly changing. Take the case of MS Dhoni and AB De Villiers. The yorker was once a go-to ball in the slog overs but Dhoni’s helicopter shot is designed to decimate the yorker whereas AB De Villiers, as Hashim Amla put it, is developing a new MCC manual of his own.
Here is a list of the top 5 death bowlers in the Champions Trophy.
5. James Anderson
Another bowler who is not ideally suited to death bowling but has done well for his team. His performance against the Aussies proves that he can be lethal against the lower-middle order and tail-end batting. He uses his full deliveries to get the bowled and leg-before dismissals into play and his slower ones are difficult to get away. He is not without his weakness though, as a swing bowler he likes to bowl length and can be whipped away.
4. James Faulkner
The Australian bowler had a fantastic season with the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. He has a repertoire of deliveries that he uses to keep the batsman guessing. He can bowl a back of the hand slower delivery, he has a good yorker and he can throw one wide as well. He seems like a bowler who has prepared himself for such a situation and can be a specialist. It remains to be seen how Australia utilize him but I am putting my money on him.
3. Dale Steyn
Unfortunately, the best bowler in the world has not had a chance to showcase his skills in the competition so far. He is, however, likely to feature in South Africa’s last group game against the West Indies and his performance might just be the difference. Whereas Steyn’s pace is ideal for the batsmen to get away from a length, his height and bowling action give him a skiddy quality that often deceives the batsman. Dale Steyn is an intelligent fast bowler, and that is a rarity in itself. He has a deadly yorker and his stats prove that he is as effective at the death as the beginning of the innings.
2. Sunil Narine
Audiences have become so used to fast bowlers running in with yorkers at the end of the innings that it almost seems like an anomaly to include a spinner in the list. However, Sunil Narine has constantly proved that he is the captain’s favored bowler in the powerplay overs as well as in the death overs. He brings to the game an amazing amount of variety and the tag of ‘mystery spinner’ is truly applicable to him. He has exhibited his talent as an economical, wicket-taking bowler in the IPL and continues to do so with the national side. His bowling performance against Pakistan was critical for the team.
1. Lasith Malinga
Slinga Malinga tops the list with his lethal toe-killer yorkers. Malinga showed his ability against the Kiwis while defending a low-total and has done a lot of death bowling for Sri Lanka in the past. It has been argued that the batsmen have started to get the hang of his unorthodox action. It is true that the awkward release point is a great asset to his game but Malinga’s pace, added to the new varieties that he has developed, make him an extremely skillful and effective bowler. His slower, loopy yorker that dips on the batsman is a viewer’s delight as when successfully executed, it has the batsman searching for the ball. He has a short delivery that helps put the batsman on the backfoot and that increases the effectiveness of the yorker.
