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All eyes on Ishant as India aim to keep chin music on against England


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As the delivery continued to follow him, Ajinkya Rahane kept arching backwards to get away from its line before he finally fell flat on his back. It was quick, evasive action from the batsman against a quick one fired in by Ishant Sharma. In Friday's nets, the lanky India pacer was testing out his new-found confidence as a bowler with a lethal bouncer on his teammates. This India pace attack was tipped to have some tricks up its sleeves, but going into the series, no one thought playing the rising ball would be an issue with the England batsmen. The perception has changed after the Lord's Test. Five of Sharma's seven victims in the second innings perished facing the short ball. Weakness spotted A dominant India now believe England have a weakness there. They would be looking to probe that again in the third Test at the Rose Bowl. The Indians are hoping to get a wicket with bounce. "On a wicket with good bounce, our bowlers can be lethal," a member of the team management said. The Indians are confident of "giving it to them at Southampton as well". All eyes will be on Sharma. The in-form pacer has captured 25 wickets in four Tests this year, his 7-74 at Lord's was his third five-wicket haul in 2014. Putting his height to good use, Ishant has been able to generate disconcerting bounce for the batsmen. As skipper MS Dhoni revealed, the bowler himself wasn't sure whether to try the length. But now the confidence in his ability to do damage will be higher. The key will be to use it as a surprise weapon. Also, the success of the short-ball strategy will depend on England's response - whether they keep attacking like they did and perished at Lord's or whether they take a safer option of swaying away from deliveries. England's next move is keenly awaited. On Friday, their pacers were working on pitching it up and swinging big: following the Bhuvneshwar Kumar model. The patience shown by the Indian batsmen has clearly affected Anderson & Co's gameplan. The likes of Vijay and Pujara have taken the game away from England by grafting for runs with their technique of playing with their hands very close to the body. Experts believe England pacers lost the plot on the first morning at Lord's. With so much movement available, it was criminal on the part of Anderson and Broad to pitch short. In England's first nets since the second Test defeat, Anderson and Broad were bowling in tandem with Plunkett to their top order. Anderson was the most impressive making it move both ways. Broad was aiming for the same, but did not get the same result. The Lord's result has hit England hard, all eyes are on how they respond. - See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/sports-news/cricketnews/all-eyes-on-ishant-as-india-aim-to-keep-chin-music-on-against-england/article1-1244716.aspx#sthash.rWQsCtfD.dpuf
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It wont work for him every time as he does not have that kind of pace and they wont play stupid shots too.
but he should know its one of his big weapons.Going by Dhoni's comments,it seems he's not comfortable with it.
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He bowled with good pace during his last spell at Lord's when he picked 5 wickets. Though I think he won't bowl with the same intensity at all times.
Pace was not anything threatening, 135-140, which isn't the kind of pace batsmen will be running away from or cannot negotiate. They did play some poor shots in trying to show that they do not fear short balls. They could have easily left or blocked those deliveries but instead they went for shots.
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but he should know its one of his big weapons.Going by Dhoni's comments' date='it seems he's not comfortable with it.[/quote'] Bouncers are always good if you can bowl at decent clip around 140 to keep batsman honest. It can also unsettle the footwork. So, he needs to work on it. Being a tall bowler, he must use bouncers effectively.
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but he should know its one of his big weapons.Going by Dhoni's comments' date='it seems he's not comfortable with it.[/quote'] Short ball can work well for him especially on these pitches which have some good pace and bounce and because he is tall and can hit the deck with his action. Back home on slow pitches if you bang it in, the short the ball will sit up nicely to be hit. So he could have got in the habit of not using the short ball regularly and may have lost some confidence. He should be encouraged to use it more often.
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Pace was not anything threatening' date=' 135-140, which isn't the kind of pace batsmen will be running away from or cannot negotiate. They did play some poor shots in trying to show that they do not fear short balls. They could have easily left or block those deliveries but instead they went for shots.[/quote'] It depends on the surface they are playing on. 140kph is good pace provided you bowl well. There are not many bowlers in test cricket who bowl 150kph in test cricket, perhaps Mitch Johnson or Morkel.
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It depends on the surface they are playing on. 140kph is good pace provided you bowl well. There are not many bowlers in test cricket who bowl 150kph in test cricket' date=' perhaps Mitch Johnson or Morkel.[/quote'] Even Morkel and Johnson do not bowl 150 consistently, never did Lee or Akhtar did. They are manly between 140-150, averaging around 142, odd balls 150 or more. I dont think England batsmen were really uncomfortable against his bouncers bar Broad, but they tried to hit them out and you cannot time every short ball well and that is was the ploy was. Ishant bowled short balls after short balls, some went for 4, some went to fielders. It is not like he got them out fending at short long or leg gully or pulling uncomfortably. Even the best batsmen of short ball cannot hit every short ball well especially when there are fielders positioned. It was a suicidal ploy by England batsmen.
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Bouncers are always good if you can bowl at decent clip around 140 to keep batsman honest. It can also unsettle the footwork. So' date=' he needs to work on it. Being a tall bowler, he must use bouncers effectively.[/quote'] Exactly.being tall he should be ready to bang it in once a while.He's not a swing bowler so needs to avoid floating the ball.Even good length should be hit hard
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Even Morkel and Johnson do not bowl 150 consistently' date=' never did Lee or Akhtar did. They are manly between 140-150, averaging around 142, odd balls 150 or more. I dont think England batsmen were really uncomfortable against his bouncers bar Broad, but they tried to hit them out and you cannot time every short ball well and that is was the ploy was. Ishant bowled short balls after short balls, some went for 4, some went to fielders. It is not like he got them out fending at short long or leg gully or pulling uncomfortably. Even the best batsmen of short ball cannot hit every short ball well especially when there are fielders positioned. It was a suicidal ploy by England batsmen.[/quote'] Moeen Ali was very uncomfortable and took his eyes off the short ball. Root was hit on the shoulder a few times before lunch. Prior had a tough time against the short ball even against Sri Lanka. Broad visibly looked out of sorts. The reason why they were trying to pull and hook all the short deliveries after lunch is because they are not confident about their defense technique. They think if they keep defending they will get out eventually, a bit like Jadeja. So they thought they might as well try and score and put some pressure back on the bowlers but Ishant bowled some good bouncers, kept changing the angles, from around the wicket to right hander and over the wicket to left hander which meant the ball was going across the batsman as he was trying to play the horizontal shot and kept the fielders in the right positions and got the wickets. Even when England batsmen got out against Johnson in the Ashes, many of them were not unplayable deliveries. Aus bowlers just bowled with a plan and got them out.
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It wont work for him every time as he does not have that kind of pace and they wont play stupid shots too.
Yep so he should stick to lengths before that as he was bowling beautifully even on morning of second day ..,bouncers should be good addition but should not try to bowl like Johnson
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Moeen Ali was very uncomfortable and took his eyes off the short ball. Root was hit on the shoulder a few times before lunch. Prior had a tough time against the short ball even against Sri Lanka. Broad visibly looked out of sorts. The reason why they were trying to pull and hook all the short deliveries is because they are not confident about their defense technique. They think if they keep defending they will get out eventually, a bit like Jadeja. So they might as well try and score and put some pressure back on the bowlers but Ishant bowled some good bouncers, kept changing the angles, from around the wicket to right hander and over the wicket to left hander which meant the ball was going across the batsman as he was trying to play the horizontal shot and kept the fielders in the right positions and got the wickets. Even when England batsmen got out against Johnson in the Ashes, many all of them were not unplayable deliveries. Aus bowlers just bowled with a plan and got them out.
Johnson mainly employed short ball technique to soften them up. Lot of his wickets came on fuller deliveries too.
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Johnson mainly employed short ball technique to soften them up. Lot of his wickets came on fuller deliveries too.
What I meant was its a plan which worked just like how wickets fell in Ashes and its not as if they just gave their wickets away like you mentioned. They kept pulling everything, so it stood to reason they will edge a few eventually. If Eng batsmen get a bit more selective in shot selection, then you may have to bowl a lot more fuller deliveries mixed in with a few short ones.
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What I meant was its a plan which worked just like how wickets fell in Ashes and its not as if they just gave their wickets away like you mentioned. They kept pulling everything, so it stood to reason they will edge a few eventually. If Eng batsmen get a bit more selective in shot selection, then you may have to bowl a lot more fuller deliveries mixed in with a few short ones.
In Ashes, they were beaten for pace most of the times. It was not the case here. Here, their shot selection let them down. Yes, bowling bouncers is an important thing to mix the length up and not let batsmen stand on front foot all the time, but main wicket taking bowling will always be hitting the good length area.
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