The art of bowling and other tricks

After seeing the mayhem in ODIs, the consensus was that batsmen would become even more brutal in its pocket-sized version; almost everybody expected the bowlers to be reduced to bit-role players and mini-cameos in T20. The IPL edition has, however, confounded every line of thinking with its twists and turns. Brendon McCullum sent adrenaline soaring with his maniacal 73-ball 158 in the opening match; Symonds and Michael Hussey too plundered centuries to raise the batting stakes. But then, like it often happens in life, the lowly ones struck back. Slowly but visibly, the bowlers clawed their way back into the game. Now, as the tournament enters its final and decisive stage, the verdict has become sharper: if you want to win, you need venom, guile and firepower in your attack too. Hyderabad failed to see this and ended up at the bottom; Chennai is not exactly bristling on this front and is, arguably, the weakest link in the semifinals. Jaipur has pace, variety and depth in its bowling and is, therefore, the hottest team left. Mohali has also progressed smoothly as they have a fairly potent attack; Delhi were doing well until Mohammed Asif pulled up with an injury. Glenn McGrath has toiled bravely but one-man armies won’t do in this highly-demanding format. All the teams have clearly learnt their lessons. One crucial aspect, though, has not been mastered by any captain or coach so far: how and when to use the game's endangered species for maximum impact? To crack this, one has to understand the uniqueness of T20: here there are no sleepy overs; no time to consolidate. Indeed, every ball, every second counts. In ODIs, the initial overs and slog overs are deemed to be the most crucial. The accepted practice, therefore, is to give the strike bowlers the first few overs; they are then saved for the death. At times, they are summoned to break a budding partnership in the middle, though. Surprisingly, the same tactic has been used in the IPL too. The best bowlers are given two, at the most three, overs and then consigned to the wilderness. It has not mattered if he is in the middle of a dream spell or is being particularly devastating. Eventually, when the same bowler is brought on, he struggles to contain the flurry of runs. Virtually every match has shown that there is nothing but bloodbath in the last few overs: the last five invariably go for a minimum of 50. So why are the captains saving these bowlers? The logical thing would be to use everybody at one go: from start to finish. A bowler anyway needs a few deliveries, if not one or two overs, to warm up and get everything right. Why pull him out just when he is getting into full flow? If he goes for too many runs, of course, he can be withdrawn. The most interesting tactic would be to keep one of the smarter bowlers for the last four overs: for the 14th, 16th, 18th and 20th when runs are flowing like blood. It might backfire once in a while but then isn't that life? Keep an eye on Warnie though: he is the one who will come up with something new.