I’ve been busy for the past couple of months with this mindfuckery called education. Today was no different – It’s a Saturday and here I am at home trying to eek out a project management proposal for a project that doesn’t really exist. Sigh. Decided to take a break and so pointed my browser to what is fast becoming my favourite hangout spot on the internet: YouTube. I was watching videos of South Africa’s new fast balling sensation Dale Steyn (great talent by the way, probably the best up and coming fast bowler in the international circuit) when YouTube’s related videos thingy offered up a Wasim Akram video.
Good Fucking Lord. Kick me for I’ve forgotten what an incredible privilage it was to grow up watching this fast bowler – nay, artist – tie batsmen up in knots. Glen McGrath took more wickets, yes, but he did so by repeatedly – dare I say monotonously – challenging the batsmen to dictate terms. Wasim Akram chose, instead, to make batsmen look like fools. Like deer caught in the headlights of an eighteen wheeler truck driven by a man intent on having roadkill for dinner.
Indeed my first memories of cricket – the 92 World Cup to be precise – was punctuated by the feats of three men: Jonty Rhodes and his amazing superman runout of Inzamam, Inzy himself (who everyone in my third grade class at school wanted to emulate) and Wasim Akram’s fabulous bowling in the finals.
I didn’t know it then but Wasim’s two wickets in two balls in the finals is the stuff of dreams: how else does a left armer bowling round the wicket swing the ball into middle stump and make it deviate away to uproot offstump, let alone doing it in the midst of the most important spell of his career? Kamran Abbasi, writing on Cricinfo’s Wasim Akram profile says it best: “A dream cricketer. At his best Wasim Akram plays like most of us would wish to. He has complete mastery over swing and seam, and sometimes moves the ball both ways in one delivery.”
You’d think that for a self-confessed Akram fan/devotee, I’d have seen most of the memorable moments which have come to form the legend of Wasim Akram. Evidently, no.
Here’s a video that I came across today of a Wasim Akram delivery that has me flabbergasted (I’ve been dying to use that word for ages now). If you have seen it before, do you share my sentiments (which are, more or less, along the lines of ‘WTF’ and ‘how the hell did he do that?’)? If you haven’t, then I beg of you do so and offer any explanation of how any mortal can do that.
The video in question:
Here’s Mike Selvey describing the particular delivery:
“Halfway down the pitch towards the right-hander, the delivery seemed innocuous. Delivered left-arm from round the wicket by Wasim Akram, it had the usual slithery speed, and was up there in length – an attempted yorker probably, but too full. It began to angle down the leg side, a low full-toss just ripe for Robert Croft, the England offspinner, to flick away to fine leg for an easy boundary. Croft planted his front foot and began the process of turning the ball away. He missed, the ball thudded into his pad, and Wasim roared his appeal. Negative, said the umpire, and we in the press box nodded knowingly: missing leg by miles.
Then came the replay, in super slow motion, and it was so astounding it left mouths gaping. For in the last 10 feet or so, the ball ceased angling down the leg side and instead swung back the other way, eluding Croft’s bat by six inches. Unquestionably it would have hit middle stump, but it all happened so fast and late that it deceived the eye of everyone, not least the umpire. The single most astonishing delivery that I have witnessed failed to produce a wicket.”
Imran Khan was of the opinion that Akram was the most naturally gifted cricketer that he had ever seen. Allan Border said that if he were afforded the chance to be reborn as a cricketer, he’d chose to be Wasim Akram. Those of you who have seen Akram at his pomp would certainly agree. I, for one, do.
The Left Arm of God
14 Comments
January 13, 2008 at 12:01 am
I always attributed that particular delivery (which I’ve seen before, but not on Youtube – thanks for the link) to something Hoggardish.
source
A bit cynical, I know. Also, I never noticed until I looked closely – but did the ball actually flip over from shiny side to scuffed side towards off in mid delivery? That would explain the lateral movement. (Either that or I need my eyes checked).
The coolest thing about his bowling (for me at any rate) was that he generated almost all the pace in later years from his shoulder – and this allowed him to use his runup length as a weapon too.
January 13, 2008 at 12:20 am
oh my god…speechless
January 13, 2008 at 12:48 am
Drac: Heh, I love hearing Hoggard explaining his bowling. Makes it sound all like an episode out of a comic book: a wang here, a woosh there.
As for this ball itself, you are right: the seam doesn’t seem to be upright at all so maybe the flip had something to do with it. If that’s the case then people like Dilhara Fernando – who, funnily enough, I’ve never seen deliver a delivery with an upright seam – should be delivering such balls on a regular basis, no?
Niran: Good to see you in these parts. Happy New Year, macho.
January 13, 2008 at 5:55 am
Stupendous! Wasn’t Wasim the one who started this whole reverse-swing phenomenon?
January 13, 2008 at 9:25 am
Java: Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan are credited as the pioneers while Wasim and Waqar perfected the art.
January 13, 2008 at 11:27 am
sensational
January 13, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Thanks guys. It was nothing,really….;-)
January 15, 2008 at 4:21 pm
happy new year to you machang
January 16, 2008 at 11:08 am
Mother of GOD ! Wasim to me was the epitome of fast bowling(barring maybe a few oldies) and Ive seen a fair few players in my time.
Ive seen this ball before and looking at it now I remember how I felt back then.
Amazed is the word . There is no other way to really describe it. How can the ball possibly do that ?
Im pretty sure(having been a bit of bowler my self from my junior college days) that the rotation of the ball may have caused it to swing out in that last min. Maybe it was the conditions as well, cuz this was played in England and it usually does swing a bit there usually all day.
Swing bowling isnt an exact science in any case.
For now lets jst be marveled at his brilliance.
January 28, 2008 at 11:55 am
Wasim is still unmatched and might remain so. And did you notice how Vass’s action are now quite similar to him.
February 10, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I recall Chaminda Vaas stating that when he approached Wasim during his playing days to get some tips he asked Vaas to come back when he retired! He was some character too..
The stats prove that Wasim was a far superior bowler than Mcgrath. Averages and strike rates added to the fact that Wasim played rarely on bouncy seamer friendly surfaces projects what skill he possessed.
Both Wasim and Waqar were strike bowlers who completely took the pitch out of the equation they would swing the ball in the air (late) at great pace.
Waqar and Wasim made the English look like school boy cricketers on a tour to England in the early 90’s with reverse swinging yorkers. The English who couldn’t get the ball to swing once the shine wore off so they called them cheats claiming they were ball tampering. Tampering or not to get the ball to reverse swing at good pace and also be accurate takes more skill than any tampered ball could offer.
February 15, 2008 at 12:12 am
Theena,
Did you receive that response to the Youtube message you sent me? ..On the DVD’s?
May 15, 2008 at 1:36 pm
wasim the greatest ever fast bowler
August 29, 2008 at 1:09 am
Wasim takes a hat trick in test match against australia at sharjah, This must be in the 1990’s. Please rate and watch my other videos:-
http://super100sports.com/Play.aspx?vid=586