Extreme Skill Bowlers who Weren't Very Good...

[Valer]

Out of curiosity - I was out of the cricketing loop when Mendis fell from grace. What's the conventional argument for that? Did he just get ruthlessly analysed by opponents to the point where all of his variations were easier to pick?

Pretty much it didn't help that his action doesn't really have a lot of disguise. He also gets very little movement.

 

[social]

Narine will go the same way I reckon

Unless it is turning square, there is nothing to worry about

 

[Shri]

Out of curiosity - I was out of the cricketing loop when Mendis fell from grace. What's the conventional argument for that? Did he just get ruthlessly analysed by opponents to the point where all of his variations were easier to pick?

Sehwag/Sachin decoded him and spread the word around to start playing him like a medium pacer during a tour iirc. Steady drop in his performance after that one particular test series.

 

[doesitmatter]

Sehwag/Sachin decoded him and spread the word around to start playing him like a medium pacer during a tour iirc. Steady drop in his performance after that one particular test series.

exactly...basic mantra from them was leg stump guard and don't get the front leg across....decode complete.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Narine will go the same way I reckon

Unless it is turning square, there is nothing to worry about

Yeah, I thought he'd be quite good because his off-spinner seemed to be so lethal in his early games, but it was just so impotent in England. I think that there's still enough work on the ball for him to at least play a role though.

 

[Prince EWS]

Felt weird reading some of the names in this thread. Not that it necessarily means I'm right and the others are wrong because it's a pretty subjective thing, but I'd regard someone like Ishant Sharma as the completely opposite of a "highly skilled" bowler. He's tall, young and rhythmical so he can run it and send the ball down at a good pace and get good carry. To me that's, as far as the elite level of cricket goes, more down to natural athleticism than skill. The skill would be in moving the ball, in refining your art and in repeating your action; none of which he's very good at at all. Someone like Praveen Kumar in my books in infinitely more skilled but comparatively athletically baron and therefore more reliant on such skill alone.

 

[doesitmatter]

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan (Siva) was an extremely skillful bowler ..had a great WSC and England series..just ended up being really bad after that..Heard that drugs was one of the reason..can never forget the stumping of Javed off his bowling..

 

[Senile Sentry]

Paul Adams probably the obvious one nobody's mentioned. Bowling **** with that action would take considerable skill I'd imagine.

corrected

 

[Tkpizzle]

Dilhara Fernando. Beautifully disguised slower ball and has some natural pace. People say the reason he is tripe now is because of the injuries etc but he's never known where to put the ball IMO - even before he was plagued by injuries. That said, injuries certainly didn't help.

Re: Mendis... he's just become so predictable now. Still bowled decently in the SLPL when I saw him but he wasn't always up against world class bats.

 

[benchmark00]

Felt weird reading some of the names in this thread. Not that it necessarily means I'm right and the others are wrong but it's because it's a pretty subjective thing, but I'd regard someone like Ishant Sharma as the completely opposite of a "highly skilled" bowler. He's tall, young and rhythmical so he can run it and send the ball down at a good pace and get good carry. To me that's, as far as the elite level of cricket goes, more down to natural athleticism than skill. The skill would be in moving the ball, in refining your art and in repeating your action; none of which he's very good at at all. Someone like Praveen Kumar in my books in infinitely more skilled but comparatively athletically baron and therefore more reliant on such skill alone.

Yes I think this is right.

A bloke like Vernon Philander has succeeded almost purely due to skill despite lacking any physical superiority/advantage over his peers.

Crafty ****er. Like alot of unfashionable county pros that you'd never see playing rep levels outside of England but they just know how to make the ball talk enough.

 

[DJellett]

Damien Fleming was a lot more "skillful" as a bowler then his record would suggest - could really get the ball to do things consistently.

Might sound silly, but Ian Harvey - obviously never had the pace to really be dangerous as a bowler, but probably used what he had as good as any. Really intelligent bowler, and so far as skills or trickery goes, one of the best.

 

[DJellett]

Jason Krezja probably gets as much work as any non-subcontinental fingerspinner on the ball.

This.

Strange player - does most things technically right, but seldom brings all the pieces together. It's almost like he gets too caught up in technique and doesn't bowl to any plan sometimes; though he is a much more clever bowler than that, it seems he is perhaps overly neurotic about doing things the orthodox way - and it undermines his confidence or focus overall. May be completely wrong, you'd be in a much better position to judge as you better understand the spinner's mindset - just what my observations have concluded.

 

[akilana]

brad hogg

 

[BoyBrumby]

Felt weird reading some of the names in this thread. Not that it necessarily means I'm right and the others are wrong because it's a pretty subjective thing, but I'd regard someone like Ishant Sharma as the completely opposite of a "highly skilled" bowler. He's tall, young and rhythmical so he can run it and send the ball down at a good pace and get good carry. To me that's, as far as the elite level of cricket goes, more down to natural athleticism than skill. The skill would be in moving the ball, in refining your art and in repeating your action; none of which he's very good at at all. Someone like Praveen Kumar in my books in infinitely more skilled but comparatively athletically baron and therefore more reliant on such skill alone.

TBF the title is "extreme skill bowlers" not "highly skilled bowlers"; I read it as meaning bowlers who have an exceptional ability in one or more parts of their bowling (like Sami's pace or Sharma's bounce), but whose records are poor in spite of it.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Michael Bevan's wrong'un was an absolute ripper.

And there was a guy called Michael Bright who was rolling around in Grade Cricket in Sydney, played Australian U/19 and might've played some 2nd XI NSW stuff, who had the best flipper in the country by that far.

 

[Pup Clarke]

I've rarely seen Sharma get extreme bounce actually - rare for a bowler of his height. Maybe on his first tour to Australia he could get it to really go off a length from what I remember, as he was unquestionably "nippier", but I can't remember Dhoni having to take balls chest or head high from him.

 

[MrPrez]

I guess someone like Nantie Hayward gets in for the same reasons as Tait/Williams.

Tahir seems to be heading this way too.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

I've rarely seen Sharma get extreme bounce actually - rare for a bowler of his height. Maybe on his first tour to Australia he could get it to really go off a length from what I remember, as he was unquestionably "nippier", but I can't remember Dhoni having to take balls chest or head high from him.

His action and seam position are pretty lousy so he doesn't really exploit his natural advantages for all they're worth.

 

[Noble One]

Clint McKay. I don't believe anyone is more skilled than Clint at bowling the slower-ball bouncer.

Struggles when required to dismiss batsmen by conventional means.

 

[nightprowler10]

Harmison fits the bill, no?