In this new Cricbuzz series - Name of the Game - we unravel the technical facets of the game. First up, is the art of seam bowling.
NAME OF THE GAME: EPISODE 1
Seam Bowling: Spells from Hell
Perhaps more enigmatic than the scrambled-seamer, is the seam-up ball that goes rogue. Here’s Mohammed Shami making Moeen Ali second-guess his visual senses. © Getty
A good seam bowling spell may not yield a wicket. Most seaming deliveries, in fact, do far too much to take a wicket. When the ball does just enough, however, it is a sight to behold. In this section, we look at the most testing spells of seam bowling in contemporary cricket, which have rendered the best of batsmen helpless.
A spell by Mohammed Shami to Moeen Ali in the 5th Test at the Oval, 2018 was the unanimous pick by our ball-by-ball commentary team - a series of seven consecutive plays-and-misses in a probing spell of seam bowling.
50.5 Shami to Moeen Ali, no run, dies through to the keeper, after starting on a back of a length, beating Moeen's compulsive half-defence
50.6 Shami to Moeen Ali, no run, the beat-o-meter is going off the charts. This time it's on the inside-edge though, seaming in sharply to go through the wide bat-padgap
52.1 Shami to Moeen Ali, no run, 140kph. The usual - beats the bat - perfect seam presentation, nipping away just enough to go past the defence
52.2 Shami to Moeen Ali, no run, more of the usual - beaten on the outside edge. Ali ensures he doesn't press himself a lot in front this time .. as the ball whizzes past
52.3 Shami to Moeen Ali, no run, an angled-batted half-defence, half-leave. Good nagging line as it goes past the bat
52.4 Shami to Moeen Ali, no run, on the drive, spotting the pitch up as he looks to go through the line. Shami finds a grassy spot and it beats the inside edge this time
52.5 Shami to Moeen Ali, no run, five of the same. Shami pitches it up, Moeen plays, misses. It's turning into a never-ending script - where the only fun is watching whether he's beaten on the inside or the outside
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Mohammad Asif's scrambled seamers got the better of VVS Laxman in Karachi. Twice. ©AFP
It was the bowler's Test match from the very first over; a first-over Irfan Pathan hat-trick had left Pakistan reeling, only to be rescued by a counterattacking hundred from Kamran Akmal. India, on the backfoot, were in dire need of a Laxman special.
And then it happened. A sixth-stump line is hardly a virtue for a bowler, particularly a sub-130km/h one. Yet, Mohammad Asif scrambled the seam into a blur, and entropy took over. Laxman's off-stump had been knocked back. It happened in the second innings too - another nip-backer, creating the illusion of beating him for pace.
Mohammed Shami left Faf du Plessis flummoxed with a spell-binding in-seamer ©
In the Vizag Test of 2019, South Africa were set a target of 395 to win, with an entire day to bat. After the fall of the openers, Faf du Plessis joined Markram at the wicket. He was watching the ball well. He was defending them well too. Until that ball from Shami.
It was an ordinary, wide, length ball. Faf, quite rightly, played the line late, and shouldered arms - only to hear death rattle behind him. With a disbelieving stare at the diabolical pitch, he walked back. Shami ran through the line-up and recorded another five-wicket haul in the second innings as India went on to win by 203 runs.
Glenn McGrath ran through the England batting line-up in 31 balls - at Lord's ©
Glenn McGrath was the quintessential poster-boy of Test match bowling, known for his impeccable control and accuracy. In the Lord's Test of the 2005 Ashes, Australia were bowled out for a paltry 190 in the first innings. And yet England were blown away as a world-beating seamer weaponized the slope.
Then Lord's went into overdrive: plays, misses, alarms, disaster. Marcus Trescothick flicked at an away-seamer, edging to third slip. Andrew Strauss even covered the movement to an extent with a defence, but it seamed away just enough, thanks to The Slope, and nicked off to the cordon. Michael Vaughan played, missed, and was caught hopping at an incoming ball that kept low to rattle the off stick - the cross-seamer skidding on. The compact Ian Bell and the explosive Fred Flintoff, were knocked over by nipbackers.
And just like that, all the big names were brushed aside by an even bigger one, within 31 balls - handing them the momentum that would result in an eventual win.
Ten years on, Stuart Broad avenged McGrath's Lord's massacre, at Nottingham ©
England went into the Nottingham Test 2-1 up sans James Anderson (side strain). Alastair Cook chose to bowl on a green top and immediately let the gazelle loose on a trampoline - Stuart Broad. Chris Rogers and Steve Smith had their techniques ripped apart by diabolical scrambled seamers - and Australia were all but knocked out by the end of the first over.
Shaun Marsh couldn't handle Broad's incoming angle combined with late away movement. Adam Voges and Michael Clarke stood no chance with their loose drives. In 19 balls, Broad had a fifer - a record. He ran through Starc, Johnson and Lyon and finished with 8-15, mortally wounding Australia and their pride.
When Vernon Philander landed the old one-two on Virat Kohli ©Getty
Target - 208. Situation - 60/3. Virat Kohli stood between South Africa and victory. Du Plessis knew that it was now or never, and threw the ball to Philander.
It began with outswingers. Repeatedly. And then, against the beat of the sonnet, one nipped back in sharply off the wobbly seam, and blew the subtle trigger apart into a gaping hole - Kohli, plumb in front of the stumps.
"Two-and-a-half overs of away-swingers and then the one back at him. It was definitely a plan to keep him quiet, and to drag him across to make sure that when you do bowl the other one, he is on the other side of the off-stump," said Philander in the post-match press conference.
Also read:
Feature by Rishi Roy: Scrambling the seam
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