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How to counter Amir's opening spell


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The major issue when we face pak in short format of late is the threat of Amir.  We have seen it in Wt20 in Bangla and in Ct17. 

If we are able to play out his 5 overs , i think we will get an upper hand  over PAK in any match .

Sow how we should counter his opening spell ?

 

For that we need to check how he gets his wickets in his opening spell - 

1. He will bowl a very accurate in ducker which is almost very full . A deadly ball for right handers.

    He got Rahane in WT20 and Rohit in CT17.

 But i have not seen him bowling lot of in dippers regularly from good length as Zaheer use to do.  

2.  He bowls good length deliveries which moves away with an angle .

      Again a wicket taking ball to right handers . Wickets /edges of Rohit /Kohli  come to mind.

3. he will bowl a sharp bouncer to catch batsman on the hook. 

 

4. Tries to bowl a bit of back of lentgh ball cross seamer to get extra bounce .

     Specially uses them against lefties on Off stump.

 

5. Above all bowls the opening spell with full force and very accurate too.

 

Here i am talking about decent batting wickets and not heavy seaming wicket.  

 

How he needs to be countered : 

1. Most of the wicket taking balls are either very full or good length and batsman are beaten by movement  /angles he creates from that length  .

    What if batsman takes guard a meter outside the crease ?  This may force him  pull the length back if he wants to bowl good length / full length balls .

     When ball is bowled bit short , it has less chance of movement in air . Also a shortish ball gives little more time for batsman to see the ball.

2.  Flip side of standing that much outside the crease ,  it may  expose batsman to short rising ball / Bouncer .

     I think batsman should be ready to take  rising ball on their body rather than risking getting out to pull /hook if not in control.

     Also leave alone the bouncers .

3.  Ensure as many balls of his opening spell is played by Left handers as possible . Why?

     a. A leftie  should be able to play a full in ducker (an outswing for him)  better than right hander.

      b. As i said i have not seen him bowling lot of good lentgh ball  in swingers  regularly which could a wicket taking delivery for a lefties. 

      c. His angling ball from off stump Right handers will be going towards leg stump for lefties , with much less chances of LBW or catch.

      d. Other wicket taking ball cross seamer on offstump with extra lift should be the one a leftie should be watching for and  should leave it alone . 

4.  Objective should be to not to give away wicket in 3-4 overs and look just to pinch singles.  If a bad ball on its was cash on it.

 

5. I am sure by that time he will start experimenting with other deliveries by that stage . 

6.  may be use 2 lefties against PAK if we do find  2 top level batters with atleast OK technique . 

 

 

I am not a hard core pro cricketer and as such  would  like others to comment what they think about the above and  also put forward their suggestions / innovative methods of countering his initial spell. 

I think RKT , Express ji and other esteemed borders ( i might have missed names sorry !)  would have lot more ideas up their sleeve to make this thread very interesting and informative .

Hope some real good ideas come up 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Have to be very cautious against him when the ball is still swinging. Particularly true for right-handers who he will trap for LBW. Best move is not to play any shots during his opening spell. Unfortunately for India there was huge scoreboard pressure and they had to play.

 

If there is no reverse than you can try scoring on his second and death spells. However he is still very accurate and usually does get a little reverse.

 

 

 

 

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My two cents @prudent_kreeda

 

Straight Bat Straight Bat Straight Bat 

 

Our openers all through out this tournament have started slow and have been watchfull barring this game against Pak because the moment probabaly got better of them.

 

 

I will give my two cents from what I have learned after playing cricket regularly from past 12 years at a higher level.

 

Recently Amir has been struggling to get wickets if anyone followed Pakistan's games. He had bowled well in Australia but was unlucky at times with catches dropped or that his spells were played with straight bat. He got wickets against us because he bowled wel but we also fell for his swing and at times by his pace.

 

 

The best time for him to bowl is the first 3-4 overs when the ball is swinging. Our openers lacked the ability to rotate with the straight bat. A left arm seamer will always not like someone "tapping" and taking a run of his bowling.

 

This is what Dhawan and Rohit failed to do and this what Kohli also could not do before he edged the 2nd time and got out.

 

Bowlers hate when a batsman who has been beaten by him, takes a quick single by tapping.  Had Dhawan and Rohit succeeded in doing that they would have changed Amir's line who would have tried to bow a different line in search of wickets, plus on top of this, the frustration of changing the field for a right-left combo is massive.

 

 

Here are the dismissals

 

Dhawan

 Dhawan here should have clearly played with a straighter bat or looked to leave that ball. A well-left was ideal which he did not do. It was a good ball to leave.  Also a straight bat shot or defense would have earned him a four or a single 

Lively.gif

 

 

Kohli

Check this Kohli's wicket. He is kind of getting square and trying to play it down mid wicket or near cow corner region. But the ball could have been easily driven straight or dropped short with a straight bat for a quick single. This is what Sehwg was doing a lot with Gambhir earlier a lot. 

 

What Kohli did is what we call "cross" shot. Kohli played across and felt for it. Ball was not on the leg which be thought and should have played straight.

 

Important - Kohli should have taken leg stump guard for Aamir and exposed his off stump which would have made it easier for him to tackle that ball drifting down off.

 

 

 

 

 

Lively.gif

 

 

 

Rohit's wicket.

 

Again here, this is where one can say the face of the bat wasn't there. Beaten a bit by pace and was a casual shot. He looks lethargic in this. 

 

He was trying to flick too early and in the end the bat came late. Best way to flick is to  bring the bat straight and then rotate it. Rohit did not do either and was found plumb.

 

 

Lively.gif

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Cricketics said:

 

 


@prudent_kreeda

The best time for him to bowl is the first 3-4 overs when the ball is swinging. Our openers lacked the ability to rotate with the straight bat. A left arm seamer will always not like someone "tapping" and taking a run of his bowling.

 

This is what Dhawan and Rohit failed to do and this what Kohli also could not do before he edged the 2nd time and got out.

 

Bowlers hate when a batsman who has been beaten by him, takes a quick single by tapping.  Had Dhawan and Rohit succeeded in doing that they would have changed Amir's line who would have tried to bow a different line in search of wickets, plus on top of this, the frustration of changing the field for a right-left combo is massive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is what even I thought. Rotating strike by stealing singles is the best strategy against an aggressive wicket-taking bowler. If you look at Rohit's dismissal, the bowler set him up in a trap by pitching first two balls as out-swingers. The third one was a deceptive in-swinger. 

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16 minutes ago, dark_profile said:

 

That is what even I thought. Rotating strike by stealing singles is the best strategy against an aggressive wicket-taking bowler. If you look at Rohit's dismissal, the bowler set him up in a trap by pitching first two balls as out-swingers. The third one was a deceptive in-swinger. 

Yes, if one has played the game or has bowled a lot, one would know that if a player has bowled few good balls and suddenly a batsman takes a single, its very frustrating. It certainly is for me. I don't like a player take a single. I rather get hit for a boundary and keep the batsman on strike to get him out on the next ball than let the batsman rotate.

 

Now in this case, we had even better option, rotating here is double bonus as the fielders also have to move around since the fielding is set differently to both the batsmen as one is RH and the other is LH. Its big mess for fielding team to keep changing the positions from point fielder to square to long etc. Few singles in the over makes the bowler to change his line. 

 

This is what Kohli does better and Dhoni used to be good at. Tendulkar-Gambhir-Sehwag were also good at this, though Sehwag was a lazy runner. 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

Yes, if one has played the game or has bowled a lot, one would know that if a player has bowled few good balls and suddenly a batsman takes a single, its very frustrating. It certainly is for me. I don't like a player take a single. I rather get hit for a boundary and keep the batsman on strike to get him out on the next ball than let the batsman rotate.

 

Now in this case, we had even better option, rotating here is double bonus as the fielders also have to move around since the fielding is set differently to both the batsmen as one is RH and the other is LH. Its big mess for fielding team to keep changing the positions from point fielder to square to long etc. Few singles in the over makes the bowler to change his line. 

 

This is what Kohli does better and Dhoni used to be good at. Tendulkar-Gambhir-Sehwag were also good at this, though Sehwag was a lazy runner. 

 

 

 

Right. The bowler sees it as a duel between him and the batsman. But if the batsman refuses to acknowledge the bowler's challenge by stealing a dirty single, it really pisses off the bowler, "He doesn't want to face me? What a coward!"

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