Harshal Patel: 'There's nothing wrong in bowling 24 slower balls in a T20 spell'

[sage]

28 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

Of all the teams in the world, he had to walk in to RCB!!

 

 

He was a good fit for RCB. I spotted him early and knew he would succeed in IPL. 

 

[zen]

How many types of slower balls do you have?
I just have two. Both are offcutters. The difference is whether I want to use the pitch, whether the pitch allows me natural variation, or not. If I don't want to use the pitch, then I try and bowl it from the front of the hand because it allows me that topspin. So it works on better pitches with better bounce, where even if you fail to deceive the batter in the air, sometimes what happens is, it sort of just kicks enough on you [as a batter] and that doesn't allow you to get timing and trajectory in the shot - it goes higher rather than flatter.

 

The other thing is, when I'm bowling on pitches like Dubai or Chennai, where there's enough in the wicket, then it is just bowling it into the pitch as hard as I can and trying to roll the fingers down the side, so that if the wicket has a little bit of softness or sometimes there's a bit of dampness or the wicket is breaking, I can make use of that and actually turn the ball into the right-hander or away from the left-hander.

 

What happens when there is dew and the ball is wet?
When there's a lot of dew, I usually don't try and bowl the fuller slow ball because I have zero control over that. When you hold the ball loose and the ball is wet, especially the seam part, it's a coin toss whether you land it straight into the keeper's hand or it goes at the batsman's head or at his boot. You don't know where it is going. But when the ball is wet you can actually go a little shorter and bang it into the pitch, which can give you a little bit of deception, but it is not as great as on a drier pitch with a drier ball.

 

Even when the ball is wet, if you have put enough work in, you can get the batsman to break their momentum just a little bit and that is more than enough to get them out. Also, when there's dew, the wicket is a little flatter and the ball skids on nicely, so there are other ways to deceive the batter when the conditions are not suited for bowling the slower ball.

 

 

Can you talk about what you have learned from two players who have been masters of the slower ball, Dwayne Bravo and Bhuvneshwar Kumar?

Bhuvi's slower balls are very subtle. He not only deceives the batter with pace but every time you see him bowl a slower ball it is either wide of the line, or when the ball is swinging, like yesterday [in the Asia Cup], he got a couple of Afghani batters out with knuckleballs which swung in…

 

For lack of a better word [Bhuvneshwar's slower ball] is not as flamboyant as mine or Bravo's, or even Jasprit's [Bumrah]. Because he [Bhuvi] does it subtly, he has to keep the element of line and length in play as well. You will rarely see me bowl wide slower balls to right-handers. I want to keep the stumps in play. He does it a little differently, bowls it wide of the [off-stump] line and expects the batters to try to drag it through the leg side.

 

From Bhuvi I learned sequencing [of slower balls in an over]. His slower balls are sequenced in a way which makes it even more dangerous. He will bowl a couple of brilliant yorkers at the feet and when the batter is trying to sort of move away and dig that yorker down the ground, he will bowl the slower ball wide outside off stump. And he knows exactly when the batsman is going to do that. So his sequencing is brilliant.

 

Bravo is someone who will always keep the stumps in play. And that's what I have learned from him: his slower ball and mine are pretty much the same. But I would say that his is better than mine because he can actually get his slower ball to almost 100 kilometres an hour without changing his arm speed at all, which is an incredible thing. I can't imagine doing that. Last IPL I tried doing it and the slowest I could go was 110kph. My normal slower ball would be around, say 115-117kph. And the slowest I could go without compromising on my arm speed is about 107-108kph.

 

 

 

[zen]

Let's give him a PhD in slow balls 

[Sandz]

Teams play spinners to do that job 

[Vilander]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

At least Vinay Kumar and Sid Kaul had fast bowler's attitude. 

Vinay bowled a ball a legit ball at 150 in Australia. He could bowl fast but controlled better at 135 which he did. Harshal bowls his stock at 125 nothing more to it. 

[Vilander]

He compares himself to Bravo a veteran professional of the format. The guy was a a batsman and then became a slow bowler with specific loa full toss York length slower ones at death. Dude is crazy. 

[Sean Bradley]

Even Jhulan Goswami would bowl better than this Fraudigy if given a chance in Mens Cricket. Or Rather BCCI should invest in a good Surgeon and try Harshal in women's Cricket.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Sean Bradley

[nitinbwj]

Batsmen - There's nothing wrong in hitting those slower balls out of the park.

 

[The Realist]

Unadkat > Harmless 

 

Left armer

Able to mix it up

Developed his batting skills 

 

Justice for Jaydev 

[Vilander]

20 hours ago, The Realist said:

Unadkat > Harmless 

 

Left armer

Able to mix it up

Developed his batting skills 

 

Justice for Jaydev 

 

Unadkat is much better he can bowl occasional effort ball with accuracy when he needs a wicket. Although they both are mostly similar in bowling speeds.

[Vilander]

23 hours ago, zen said:

Last IPL I tried doing it and the slowest I could go was 110kph. My normal slower ball would be around, say 115-117kph. And the slowest I could go without compromising on my arm speed is about 107-108kph.

 

Trying to pass off his incompetence as a virtue.

Learning from the best I see in the form of Chetan and Mohanty.

[Lone Wolf]

I just can't muster enough courage to read this article...  From the little I read above blows away my mind.  This guy thinks of himself as some Tesla or Einstein of slower cutters...  Whatta joke yar

[vvvslaxman]

38 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

I just can't muster enough courage to read this article...  From the little I read above blows away my mind.  This guy thinks of himself as some Tesla or Einstein of slower cutters...  Whatta joke yar

 

Entire fortunes of him rely on batsmen somehow being unable to pick his 24 slower balls in a row (excluding his wides/noballs)

[Number]

So far in all games in Australia I have seen (windies and England series) all bowlers who bowled slower balls have been successful. 

No bowler in this format is a safe bet.

But I feel his style of bowling may as well be fine in Aussies conditions.

[Lord]

1 hour ago, Lone Wolf said:

I just can't muster enough courage to read this article...  From the little I read above blows away my mind.  This guy thinks of himself as some Tesla or Einstein of slower cutters...  Whatta joke yar

 

As I said, he talks better than he performs. Hyping himself up. No need of PR

[Lord]

4 minutes ago, Number said:

So far in all games in Australia I have seen (windies and England series) all bowlers who bowled slower balls have been successful. 

No bowler in this format is a safe bet.

But I feel his style of bowling may as well be fine in Aussies conditions.

 

Starc, Joseph, Cummins did well in WI series.

 

He can't even bowl leg cutter. Even in slower ball he doesn't have variety

 

[maniac]

On 10/11/2022 at 9:47 AM, express bowling said:

How does it still remain a SLOW-ER ball if no faster ball is tried ?

 

 

This right here is the post.

[vishalvirsingh]

Bhai...Getting Success in an IPL Match on an Indian wicket is not the same as suceeding on a fastish Greenish Australian track where only Pacers taste any kind of Success.  it made sense to play any left arm quick like Khaleel who could bring the Left arm angle/left arm advantage , i would say Mukesh chowdhary is a better bet than Harshal Patel.

 

All my predictions are coming true- i had said Shardul thakur would any how make it to Australia- He, Shammi and Siraj are flying to Australia.

 

Siraj will be playing in the final 11 probably in the match against PAK- that's my second prediction.

 

My third Prediction- Harshal would be thrown out of Indian team very soon - it could be after one or 2 main matches OR it could even be after 1 or 2 Practice Matches itself. he could suddenly get a NIGGLE and some one may replace him.

[vvvslaxman]

The article has this. Nagaraj Gollupudi is out of his mind lol.

 

The India and Royal Challengers Bangalore player talks about the craft of one of the most formidable weapons in the fast bowler's arsenal

 

 

[vvvslaxman]

All scientists welcome

 

@velu   @Jay @Stan AF

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by vvvslaxman