BOWLERS AND BOWLING AT THE 2011 CRICKET WORLD CUP

The old adage that it is bowlers who win matches is perhaps less true
of the one-day versions of the game than their multi-day counterparts. A
withering assault over a three or four over span by a Virender Sehwag or
Chris Gayle, with fours and sixes being cannoned to all corners of the ground,
can be more telling for the outcome of a one-day match than even three or
four overs of inspired bowling from a Shane Warne or Muralitharan.

(This is

even more true of the twenty-over match format, where the man-of-thematch award can sometimes be given to a batsman who sliced and diced
his way to 15 in the last over of the game.)

A similar pulverising of the

bowling in a test match is not only less likely to occur, given the way the
longer form of the game requires and imposes a more circumspect approach
to batting, but the odds are high that a spell of aggressive batting will count
for less in determining the outcome of the match, since a ferociously brilliant
century a la Sehwag or Gayle will probably be cancelled-out by, say, a
patient and totally unspectacular 150, lasting a day-and-a-half, from a Rahul
Dravid or Alastair Cook.
There was something of a consensus at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
that bowlers would confront greater challenges than batsmen.

Some of the

reasons for this are obvious: pitches on the sub-Continent have historically
been flat, slow and predictable for batsmen1; the warm and humid climate
saps the stamina of the faster bowlers and makes them less of a threat2;

one-day cricket, with its artificial power plays, robs bowlers of one of their
main weapons, namely, the ability to tailor field placings for individual
batsmen at crucial points in the match; and the day-night format of the
games clearly penalised bowlers in the second innings who had to contend
with balls that were soaked by the dew that set in after dusk.
This article will examine the performances of the most successful
bowlers in the tournament to see how they responded to the above
mentioned challenges. The bowlers in question are: Shahid Afridi (Pakistan,
leg breaks)3, Imran Tahir and Robin Peterson (both South Africa, leg breaks
and slow left-arm orthodox respectively)4, Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka, fast
yorkers)5, Tim Southee (New Zealand, reverse swing)6, Zaheer Khan (India,
reverse swing)7, Ray Price (Zimbabwe, naggingly accurate off-spin), plus
such key switch bowlers as Yuvraj Singh (India, left-arm slow)8.
There were of course bowlers who disappointed.

James Anderson

showed once more that he cannot adapt to bowling conditions on the subContinent (he took only 4 wickets at an average of 70.50, being surpassed
for instance by New Zealand s journeymen bowlers Jacob Oram and Kyle
Mills), and the couple of overs in which Shoaib Akhtar was able to bowl at
around 90 miles an hour before limping off to the pavilion to seek the
ministrations of the medical staff only confirmed the obvious truth that the
Rawalpindi Express was a shadow of the bowler he once was, clearly now
serving more as a mascot than a potential striking force for the Pakistani
team. Far more successful was the approach of the 34 year-old Brett Lee
(13 wickets at 18.07), who only a few years ago shared the pedestal with

Shoaib as the fastest bowler in the world, but who in this World Cup cut down
on his pace to achieve accuracy and conserve energy, saving his fastest
deliveries as an occasional but still effective surprise for the batsman.
Graeme Swann, so consistently successful in test cricket (he was the leading
test-match spin bowler in 2010), was competent without being outstanding
(12 wickets at an average of 25.75)9, perhaps vindicating those who insist
that spinners in the sub-Continent, receiving little or no help from the wicket,
really have to conjure-up extra bounce or turn in order to do well there.

So

why did others succeed, when these highly-rated bowlers (admittedly

Shoaib, with his well-documented weight and fitness problems, was not
expected to be much of a success) were not able to?
Despite the accomplishments of the spinners, the success of the faster
bowlersZaheer Khan, Southee, Lee, and Malinga have been mentioned so
far, to these we can add Kemar Roach of the West Indies, who took 13
wickets at 15.00, and Umar Gul of Pakistan, who took 14 wickets at 19.42-really stood out. Malingas feats in the one-day game have long been noted
and accounted for, since few batsmen over the years have found a way to
play his toe-crunching yorkers bowled at 90 miles an hour from a whippy
round-arm action which enables the ball to be delivered from just over
stump-height by the 57 (1.70m) bowler.10 The challenge for a bowler of
Malingas type is bowling to a very precise length-- the difference in length
between a virtually unplayable yorker and a half-volley which can be clipped
away or driven comfortably is only a few centimetres, centimetres which
invariably mark the difference between discomforting the batsman and

perhaps taking a wicket or handing the batsman the gift of an easy boundary.
The slinging action gives Malinga hardly any room for error.
Despite a somewhat patchy start to his career, the left-handed Zaheer
Khans qualities have been apparent for over a decade (he was a Wisdens
cricketer of the year in 2008) -- the ability to swing the ball both ways in
unhelpful conditions and to reverse swing the old ball, to bowl both over and
round the wicket with equal ease, as well as the knack of slipping in a
meanly accurate bouncer alongside carefully concealed changes of pace,
these qualities being augmented by strong self-discipline and a mental
resilience when the batsmen are taking the upper hand. The sense that
batsmen have to work for their success against a bowler who gives very little
away was confirmed in this World Cup, where Khan, who took 21 wickets,
was elected to the ICCs World Cup XI at the end of the tournament. Khan
was Indias impact bowler in this tournament: he took two wickets in two
balls against England to derail a run chase which was going well, he was the
most economical Indian bowler in the important game against South Africa,
and he made telling contributions in all the other matches.
Tim Southee was perhaps the surprise bowler of the tournament, and
was elected as 12th man in the ICCs World Cup XI. Hailed as something of a
teenage prodigy, he has never been able to establish himself in the New
Zealand team; although still aged only 22, time is clearly on his side.
Lacking real pace, he bowls at around 80-85 miles per hour, and has thus
been vulnerable in the past to the calculated onslaught on easier batting
wickets, designed to undermine his confidence and remove him from the

attack. Southees strengths have become his ability to bowl a late

outswinger and a crisp yorker, the invaluable capacity to bowl well with the
white ball (which of course is standard in day-night matches), and in this
World Cup he also showed he was resilient enough not to wilt under pressure
during the run chase at the end of the innings. Some of Southees recent
improvement has been attributed to New Zealands current bowling coach,
the great South African fast bowler Allan Donald. In the World Cup
Southee's best performance was against eventual semi-finalists Pakistan,
where he took 3/25 in New Zealands victory, all his dismissals coming at the
expense of batsmen in the top 5 of the Pakistani order. Southee was very
consistent, and claimed wickets in every match, taking three each against
Kenya and Zimbabwe and two against Sri Lanka (the latter being a semi-final
game).
Brett Lees success can be put down to qualities that have been
palpably evident for more than a decade: an indomitable spirit manifesting
itself in unsparing effort even when the cause has become hopeless, as well
as the ability to combine pace with movement, and with age and experience
has come the acquisition of a guile not always associated with the fast
bowling clan. His 4/28 against Pakistan in a losing cause was one of the
performances of the tournament. With his fellow bowlers lacking the
tightness of length and line needed to defend a small total of 176, Lee,
taking up the challenge on his own, bowled with menace and acumen
throughout, and his victims included the key Pakistani batsmen Younis Khan
and Misbah-ul-Haq off successive deliveries.11

This, however, was very much a World Cup for spin bowlers.12 Spinners
bowled 46.81% of the deliveries made, a ready contrast with the 2007 World
Cup, where spinners accounted for 31.33% of the balls bowled. To quote S
Rajesh, Cricinfos statistician:
A look at the spin numbers for the last seven World Cups reveals
that this is the most spin-dominant, in terms of number of overs
and the wickets taken by them. Not surprisingly, the two
previous World Cups played in the subcontinent are the nextbest, both in terms of percentage of balls bowled and wickets
taken. In 1996, spinners bowled about 38% of the deliveries and
took 41% of the wickets; this time, they bowled nearly 47% of all
balls but took about 43% of the wickets.

Where individual bowlers are concerned, if Tim Southee had been the
surprise among the fast bowlers, then surely Shahid Afridi and Yuvraj Singh
were the equivalent for the spinners. Afridi, who had played in three World
Cups prior to this one, had only taken 7 wickets at an average of over 40 in
these three tournaments, and surely could not have been expected to be the
force he turned out to be.

But force he indeed was, taking 4 wickets each

against Sri Lanka and the West Indies (the latter in the quarterfinals, where
the West Indies were dismissed for 112), as well as two 5-fors against
Associate nations, and this came on top of his inspirational captaincy of a
team torn-apart by the spot-fixing scandals in the year leading up to the
World Cup, and which of course had not been able to play international
cricket at home for nearly two years prior to this World Cup because of the
security situation in Pakistan. Needless to say, Afridi was elected to the
ICCs World Cup XI at the end of the tournament, as was the other surprise
performer of the tournament, Yuvraj Singh.

Yuvraj was uncertain of his place in the Indian team as the World Cup
approached. His splendid performance during the tournament was
described thus by Cricinfo:
A few months ago, Yuvraj was talking about how 2010 was his
worst year in international cricket, and was struggling to keep his
place in the national team. Now he has a Man-of-the-Series
award in the one-day World Cup, to go with his decisive
performance in the 2007 World Twenty20 triumph. It was a
transformation which coach Gary Kirsten called "as good a
turnaround I have seen in world sport". Not only did Yuvraj rediscover his touch with the bat, his left-arm spin proved so
effective that he was frequently called on to bowl a full 10 overs.
He walked off with a record-equalling four Man-of-the-Match
awards.
As a bowler, the orthodox left-arm Yuvraj, with his tantalising mixture of
sliders and high-loop balls, out-bowled his more highly regarded teammate
Harbhajan Singh, and his record-tying number of man-of-the match awards
indicates that he made major contributions in most of the games played by
India in this competition.

His bowling feats were complemented by 362

runs scored at an average of 90.50 (only the peerless Sri Lankan batsman
Kumar Sangakkara exceeded this average), including a devastating knock of
57 in 65 balls that was instrumental in eliminating Australia from the
tournament.

Yuvraj was by far the best all-rounder of the 2011 World Cup.

South Africa, with sub-Continental conditions in mind, included three

spinners in their squad for this competition. Imran Tahir and Robin Peterson
took 14 and 15 wickets each, at an average of 10.71 and 15.86 respectively-Tahir having the best average of all the bowlers in the tournament who took
6 or more wickets. To this tally can be added the 4 wickets taken by the offspinner Johan Botha, thereby almost enabling South Africa to rival the

Pakistani trio of Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez and Saeed Ajmal, who took 37
wickets between them, as the most potent spin-attack of all the teams in this
tournament.

The Pakistan-born Tahir is clearly an outstanding talent, taking

4 wickets each against the West Indies and England with an uncanny ability
to disguise his variations, but it remains to be seen whether he can translate
his success to less friendly pitches elsewhere and also to test cricket. At the
age of 32 time may be running out for him. Peterson, also in his 30s, and
having had a spotty international career since he played for the under-19
South African team, had the tournament of his life. Peterson seemed to
draw strength and inspiration from the irrepressible Tahir, and gave the
opposition absolutely no respite when Tahir and Dale Steyn, South Africas
much-feared pace bowler, had to end their spells.
So why did South Africa, one of the favourites to do so, not win this
World Cup?

The cricketing press has given a variety of answers, ranging

from South Africas lack of bottle when it comes to the crucial moments in
high-profile matches (a trait, if it indeed is one, allegedly also displayed in
previous World Cups and not just this one); over-confidence and
complacency having achieved a string of early wins without too much
trouble; to somewhat more technical answers to do with the balance of the
team; the wrong selection policy; uninspired captaincy (it should be noted
that Graeme Smith gave up the captaincy of South Africas one-day team
after this tournament); the lack of experienced or skilled batting in the lower
order, with only J-P Duminy to hold things together once the first 5 of Amla,
Smith, Ingram/someone else, Kallis and de Villiers were dismissed; and so

forth.

The lack of bottle charge is really no explanation, since it begs the

question why New Zealand, who eliminated South Africa in this World Cup,
has been able to play so resolutely at key moments in the last couple of
World Cups, with a much smaller talent-pool to drawn on, and a much less
imposing longer-term international record to fall back on for morale-boosting
purposes. The only persuasive answer here is that there is no real answer to
this conundrum, though South Africa and its supporters may want to take a
serious look at the failure rate of the rest of the team once the top-order
batsmen have been sent back to the pavilion. It is true that MS Dhoni is a
better one-day captain than Graeme Smith; that under Afridi Pakistan played
as a much more cohesive unit than South Africa and most other teams; that
New Zealand fought every centimetre of the way, which South Africa did not;
that South Africa would love to have a batsman of the calibre of Dan Vettori
to come after Duminy and bat at 7 or 8; and so on. But none of these
truths, however salutary they may be, really provides an answer for South
Africas lack of success, and the South Africans are still left with a puzzle.
The 2015 World Cup will be hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand, with
playing conditions almost guaranteed not to favour spin, and South Africa,
with Steyn, Morkel and the emerging Tsotsobe, still in their pace-bowling
prime, will certainly be a contender, especially if it finds a way to shorten its
batting tail by 2015.
As for the rest, where the 2015 World Cup is concerned, despite its now
ageing team Australias vast reservoir of players will always allow it to be a
force at home. India, with a by-then 36-year old Zaheer, a 34-year old

Yuvraj and Harbhajan, and a truly ageless Tendulkar if he continues playing,

will need significant replenishment over the next few years. Sri Lanka will
always have to supplement its conveyor-belt of supremely talented batsmen
and coterie of spinners with a decent pace bowler or two-- it missed the
excellent but now retired Chaminda Vaas in the 2011 tournament, and
Malingas worn-out knees are not likely to survive the IPL, let alone 50-over
cricket, in the next four years. England has found the consistently reliable
Jonathan Trott, but Kevin Pietersen has not of late been the game-changing
batsman he was earlier in his career, and England will need to find a batting
core to supplement the seemingly limitless array of fast-medium pace
bowlers it can bring to any tournament. New Zealand-- especially if the still
young Guptill, Ryder and Taylor become truly excellent batsmen over the
longer term, and if Southee continues his already marked improvement as a
swing bowler (developing an inswinger to go with his already formidable
outswinger has to be his next priority), and if he is backed up by some
reliable medium pacers and a spinner capable of a solidly economical 8-10
overs game after game-- is likely to achieve its now customary place in the
semi-finals.13 It is impossible to make predictions about how Pakistan is
likely to fare in the next World Cup-- with its well-known deep reservoir of
fast bowlers who can reverse swing, and the constant presence of a handful
of very capable batsmen, it will probably be in the mix for the Cups knockout stages, but Pakistans much publicised problems have taken place off the
field in recent years, and one fears that these will have as much bearing on

the teams success in 2015 as anything that takes place within the confines
of a cricket ground.

NOTES

1 This was even truer of the 2011 World Cup, since it as staged at the end of the

Indian domestic season, when pitches tend to become drained of life through
repeated and frequent use.
2 However fast bowlers took 376 wickets in this World Cup at an average of 30.73,

while spinners picked up 290 wickets (admittedly the most in any World Cup) at
an average of 31.51. See Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan, Yuvrajs Feat and Indias
Batting Dominance, Cricinfo, at
http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/story/509492.html,
accessed on 10 May, 2011. All statistics used in this article are taken from
Ramakrishnan, Yuvrajs Feat, and Cricinfos 2011 World Cup statistics and
records web link, accessed on 11 May, 2011.
3 Afridi took 21 wickets at an average of 12.85, and was the leading wicket-taker

in this world Cup. He also picked-up four 4-wicket hauls, and became only the
second spinner in the history of the World Cup to head the table of wicket-takers,
the other being Anil Kumble of India, who did this in the 1996 World Cup.
4 Tahir and Peterson took 14 and 15 wickets each respectively.
5 Malinga did not match his performance in the 2007 World Cup, when he took 18

wickets at 15.77 (including 4 wickets in a row against South Africa), but his 2011
tally of 13 wickets at 20.76, with an innings best haul of 6 for 38, served as an
excellent foil to Muralitharans 15 wickets at 19.40. He also took a hat-trick
against Kenya, becoming the only bowler to take two World Cup hat-tricks.
6 Southee took 18 wickets at an average of 17.33, and only Afridi and Zaheer

Khan took more wickets. He also bowled the most maiden overs (9) in this World
Cup, followed by Mitchell Johnson and Ray Price, who each bowled 7 maidens.
7 Khan took 21 wickets at an average of 18.76, putting him alongside Shahid

Afridi as the leading wicket-takers of the 2011 World Cup.

8 Yuvraj scored 362 runs and took 15 wickets, and picked-up four man-of-the-

match awards.
9 Though it may console Swann that Harbhajan Singh, perhaps more highly rated

on sub-Continental pitches than all his rivals at this World Cup, only managed to
take 9 wickets at 43.33. Less consoling is the fact that Ray Price, of the

frequently outplayed Zimbabwe team who did not make it to the knock-out
rounds, took 9 wickets at 18.77 with his naggingly accurate off-spin-- Prices
economy rate of 3.44 runs per over was even lower than Afridis 3.62.
10 When New Zealand played Sri Lanka a few years ago, the New Zealand

batsmen asked the umpires to wear trousers of a lighter colour when Malinga was
bowling because the cherry red ball was difficult to pick out against their original
dark-coloured uniforms.
11 See Nitin Sundar, Ten performances that lit up the World Cup: A look back at

the most memorable individual performances from World Cup 2011, Cricinfo 3
April, 2011, at
http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/current/story/5090
79.html, accessed on 11 May, 2011.
12 See S Rajesh, The turn of the spinners, Cricinfo 4 April, 2011, at

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/story/509525.html,
accessed on 11 May, 2011. I am indebted to this article for much of the
foregoing, and all future references to Rajesh will be to this article.
13 Here I cannot resist an anecdote. Speaking to a New Zealand academic friend

of mine, an ex-rugby player, about the success of its cricket team in the World
Cup, he said, perhaps not entirely tongue in cheek: Look, no one here watches
cricket if they can help it, because theyd rather watch the local rugby clubs
second XV play, but theyll watch something like the cricket World Cup or us
playing a test match at Lords. We all know these blokes only play cricket
because they werent any good at rugby, and they have a bloody big chip on their
shoulders because everyone here reminds them of this, so theyve got to take it
out on opposing teams in the World Cup if theyre going to hold their heads up in
the streets of Auckland or Wellington or Christchurch.