There are bound to be ups and downs; this series saw a particularly nasty downer on his home ground in Mullanpur this week. Leaking 54 runs in his four overs with a relentless spray of wides that was likely key in South Africa putting up the 200+ total. But with his new-ball heroics in Dharamshala on Sunday, he showed that bouncing back from those setbacks takes more than just mental resilience. It requires a mastery of craft that bowlers, for whom the margin for error is so much greater, need to be developed with painstaking discipline and tactical acumen.
As Proteas skipper Aiden Markram put it after the game: “You can have friendly conditions but ultimately, the bowlers still have to land the ball in the right areas, and that’s what (India) did. From ball No.1.”
And it was Arshdeep that started with a scorching opening over, and formidable new ball spell. From over the wicket, he unfurled the typical left-armers trick of testing the right-handed Reeza Hendricks’ off-stump. The plan, though, was slightly atypical.
Most left-armers would test the edge from angling the ball away from the off stump line with balls that start from middle or middle-and-off. It’s the easiest thing to do, but it can’t get batsmen squared-up. Or at times even getting it around off with the ball that seemingly shapes in from just outside off. It can be vicious, but predictable. Instead, Arshdeep hit a line that was landing closer to leg stump, and then got the ball to deviate away.
It’s not a line that’s often bowled by left-armers for the fear that it falls in the hitting arc of a big leg-side heave. But Arshdeep got the confidence and the skill to swing the ball out of hand and seam it off the pitch. The angle left Hendricks squared up on the first two balls he faced. The plan can only work for a bowler with Arshdeep’s refined abilities to get the ball to swing both ways. On the next delivery, Hendricks played against the line expecting the ball to move out again, but this time, pitched up on middle, it swung in sharply and caught him leg before.
These gambits in T20 smackathons require very fine execution; betraying in length or line slightly can leave the leg side fully open for maximum runscoring. The fact that it was planned showed in skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s field placements, his two fielders outside the circle in the first over were both on the leg side as protection – at deep square and fine leg. But Arshdeep, determined to exorcise the demons of Mullanpur, hardly erred.
Variations, deep arsenal
It’s not for nothing that the 26-year-old Punjab pacer has become India’s go-to bowler in T20s, with Jasprit Bumrah’s participation always up in the air due to his workload management plan. He is India’s highest-wicket taker in this format, with 109 wickets in 71 matches. And that is not merely thanks to his new-ball exploits or that he is a wicket taking ace.
Story continues below this ad
Arshdeep has a deep arsenal he can tap into when he is given the ball to protect runs at the death. Whether it is the angled wide-yorker ploy – the same one that repeatedly failed to Quinton de Kock in Mullanpur and led to the 13-ball wide-ridden over – or those slower balls that angle into the batter and make scoring runs with brute power so difficult.
His roaring comeback on Sunday should not be a surprise. Arshdeep is no rookie in dealing with setbacks. Back in the 2022 Asia Cup, he was subjected to some merciless online abuse after he dropped a routine catch against Pakistan. A lesser player may have buckled, but he played it off without fuss.
The dry humour in his public persona betrays a deep self belief too. “When I got to know that I wouldn’t be playing in the first game of the Champions Trophy, I was very bored in my room, and that’s when I started my YouTube channel. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” he had said, rather cheekily, earlier this year.
He played off the Mullanpur mishap on Sunday in similar fashion, telling the broadcaster: “I just put the ball in the right areas and tried to get as much help from the wicket. When you play at this level, there are days when you won’t execute the things you want to. That was just a one-off day.”
Story continues below this ad
India’s firing frontline bowler is expected to play a big role in their World Cup title defence at home in six weeks. He believes it too.
IND vs SA | Intelligence, skill, and heart: How Arshdeep Singh took out Reeza Hendricks to make stunning comeback | Cricket News
Arshdeep Singh is perhaps the most specialist white-ball bowler India has had of late. He doesn’t have searing pace nor crazy swing, but yet delivers time and again, with his crafty brain work.
There are bound to be ups and downs; this series saw a particularly nasty downer on his home ground in Mullanpur this week. Leaking 54 runs in his four overs with a relentless spray of wides that was likely key in South Africa putting up the 200+ total. But with his new-ball heroics in Dharamshala on Sunday, he showed that bouncing back from those setbacks takes more than just mental resilience. It requires a mastery of craft that bowlers, for whom the margin for error is so much greater, need to be developed with painstaking discipline and tactical acumen.
As Proteas skipper Aiden Markram put it after the game: “You can have friendly conditions but ultimately, the bowlers still have to land the ball in the right areas, and that’s what (India) did. From ball No.1.”
And it was Arshdeep that started with a scorching opening over, and formidable new ball spell. From over the wicket, he unfurled the typical left-armers trick of testing the right-handed Reeza Hendricks’ off-stump. The plan, though, was slightly atypical.
Most left-armers would test the edge from angling the ball away from the off stump line with balls that start from middle or middle-and-off. It’s the easiest thing to do, but it can’t get batsmen squared-up. Or at times even getting it around off with the ball that seemingly shapes in from just outside off. It can be vicious, but predictable. Instead, Arshdeep hit a line that was landing closer to leg stump, and then got the ball to deviate away.
It’s not a line that’s often bowled by left-armers for the fear that it falls in the hitting arc of a big leg-side heave. But Arshdeep got the confidence and the skill to swing the ball out of hand and seam it off the pitch. The angle left Hendricks squared up on the first two balls he faced. The plan can only work for a bowler with Arshdeep’s refined abilities to get the ball to swing both ways. On the next delivery, Hendricks played against the line expecting the ball to move out again, but this time, pitched up on middle, it swung in sharply and caught him leg before.
These gambits in T20 smackathons require very fine execution; betraying in length or line slightly can leave the leg side fully open for maximum runscoring. The fact that it was planned showed in skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s field placements, his two fielders outside the circle in the first over were both on the leg side as protection – at deep square and fine leg. But Arshdeep, determined to exorcise the demons of Mullanpur, hardly erred.
Variations, deep arsenal
It’s not for nothing that the 26-year-old Punjab pacer has become India’s go-to bowler in T20s, with Jasprit Bumrah’s participation always up in the air due to his workload management plan. He is India’s highest-wicket taker in this format, with 109 wickets in 71 matches. And that is not merely thanks to his new-ball exploits or that he is a wicket taking ace.
Story continues below this ad
Arshdeep has a deep arsenal he can tap into when he is given the ball to protect runs at the death. Whether it is the angled wide-yorker ploy – the same one that repeatedly failed to Quinton de Kock in Mullanpur and led to the 13-ball wide-ridden over – or those slower balls that angle into the batter and make scoring runs with brute power so difficult.
His roaring comeback on Sunday should not be a surprise. Arshdeep is no rookie in dealing with setbacks. Back in the 2022 Asia Cup, he was subjected to some merciless online abuse after he dropped a routine catch against Pakistan. A lesser player may have buckled, but he played it off without fuss.
The dry humour in his public persona betrays a deep self belief too. “When I got to know that I wouldn’t be playing in the first game of the Champions Trophy, I was very bored in my room, and that’s when I started my YouTube channel. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” he had said, rather cheekily, earlier this year.
He played off the Mullanpur mishap on Sunday in similar fashion, telling the broadcaster: “I just put the ball in the right areas and tried to get as much help from the wicket. When you play at this level, there are days when you won’t execute the things you want to. That was just a one-off day.”
Story continues below this ad
India’s firing frontline bowler is expected to play a big role in their World Cup title defence at home in six weeks. He believes it too.
Source link