Search the Internet          Tips

Wisden 20:20 - Hunting on a good length

Dileep Premachandran

Zaheer Khan bowled just 83 balls in the New Zealand first innings, finishing with career-best figures of 5 for 30. On a pitch that did enough, and more, he didn’t have to do much apart from pitching the ball on a good length.

Zaheer bowled 52 deliveries in that zone and as many as nine yorkers, perfect tactics on a pitch where the batsmen’s footwork was all-too hesitant.

His line too was spot-on, 67 deliveries pitched on or outside middle stump, with 36 of them in the off stump corridor.

Zaheer’s hustling pace and accuracy forced as many as 23 uncontrolled strokes from the New Zealand batsmen, though a spiteful pitch played its part.

Two of the four edges off his bowling resulted in slip catches – to give him the wickets of Lou Vincent and Daniel Vettori. The ball thudded into the pads nine times, two of those deliveries seeing Mark Richardson and Robbie Hart make the long, unhappy trek to the pavilion.

His ability to swing the ball both made the Zaheer show truly special. There were as many as 35 inswingers, compared to 21 that shaped away from the batsmen. Stephen Fleming fell victim to one of those, lobbing a return catch as New Zealand lost the plot completely in the second session.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India