Spin, thought to be facing its metaphorical end with T20 cricket, is thriving instead.
Cricket has a way of thumbing its nose at the pundits. It happens several times over the course of a day’s play, almost as a matter of routine. Sometimes it gets bigger and more prominent, as in the case of Mahendra Singh Dhoni telling Ravi Shastri at the last Twenty20 World how his team had defied Shastri’s prediction that Australia would cream India. That was cheeky, and blatant. There is however a bigger phenomenon that’s unravelling.
Test cricket, with its five days and four innings, was supposed to be the big, happy, indulgent hunting ground for spinners. Armed with gentle pace, subtle variations, low strike rate, and high runs per over, they could prey on batsmen’s patience and purchase wickets. Old-timers still recall the sight of Bishan Singh Bedi, part of the famed Indian spin quartet, smiling and clapping when he was hit for sixes, as if the batsman was in fact falling for a plan the bowler had devised to get him out.
Strangely, when Test cricket ruled in the 1970s and 1980s, so did fast bowlers. So much so that by the end of the 1980s, spinners were an endangered species.
The limited-overs game came into its own in the 1990s, bringing big money into the game and spreading its popularity. It also brought back the spinners. Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, Muttiah Muralitharan, Stuart McGill and their tribe thrived when the 50-over game was at the peak of its popularity.
With the arrival of Twenty20, the pundits said the spinners were out for the count. In this breakneck format, there was no place for them. But look what is happening in the Indian Premier League. The most noteworthy bowling performances have come from spinners (Kumble, Pragyan Ojha and Jakati). In fact, the situation is such that even part-time slow bowlers are having a field day — Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma have already claimed a hattrick each. J P Duminy and Suresh Raina are not far behind.
Duminy in fact heads a list compiled by Cricinfo, the cricket website, of bowlers who bowl the largest number of deliveries without conceding a boundary. For Duminy, it’s 21 balls per boundary conceded. Kumble is second with 14.39. There is a second list, too, of bowlers who concede boundaries most frequently. This consists almost entirely of fast and medium-fast bowlers. Manpreet Gony, who shot to limelight in the first IPL season, heads this list with a boundary every 3.71 balls.
Curiously, South Africa has never been a spinners’ haven. On the contrary, it is known for pitches that suit seam and swing bowling. But again, what’s that they say about cricket and pundits?