• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

one-dayers are not just a batsmans game

bhooth nath

School Boy/Girl Captain
among the current cricketing world, there is a lot of talk about one-dayers being a batsmans game. another thing given in defence of this is the high amont of 280+ scores and flat pitches being used. this has ultimately led to the death of bowling, especially fast bowling in cricket. none of the current fast bowlers (except irfan pathan) are anywhere as good as the great fast bowlers witnessed earlier like marshall, hadlee, wasim, waqar, walsh, etc.

fast bowlers today have become more of lambs to be slaughtered by batsman. i am saying this as i am a fast bowler myself. in the current rules, till 3 years ago, there was nothing for fast bowlers until the 1 bouncer-per-over rule came into force. currently, there is a talk of baseballisation of the game of cricket as well with new rules coming into play.

one of the rules suggested have been to have the 15 over fielding restrictions being decided by the batting team. batting team ? :-O if the batting team were allowed to decide the 15 over fielding restrictions, then most of the batting teams would go for overs 35-50 so as to accelerate the scoring in the end and this would further kill bowlers. currently, teams are able to reach 180-200 after 35 overs without doing anything worth a mention in the first 15 overs and with the field spread back, make another 120 in the last 15 to get to 300. if the fielding restrictions come over during this period, teams could make 160-180 in the last 15 with wickets in hand getting to scores like 350 in their full 50 overs making the going even more tough for us fast bowlers.

the current rules are just fine, but the changes which should be brought into the game are to have more pitches prepared like the dambulla pitch in sri lanka so that the average score in the one-dayers goes back to 225 like it was 10 years ago as comapred to 285 which it is now. another rule which can be implemented is to have a 2 bouncer-per-over rule instead of the current 1 bouncer-per-over rule in one-dayers and also make the leg-side wide rules a bit less strict. these 2 new rules in addition with preparing dambulla-ish pitches will surely help the bowlers and make cricket more exciting.

many cricketing experts are saying that the average score could be around 350 in a few years time, but the youngsters seem to have more sense as there were very less 270+ scores witnessed in the recent u-19 world cup and no team was able to chase a 260+ score. also, in the asian u-19 tournament and the emerging cup tournament played last year saw teams succesfully defending scores of less than 150 as well. pakistan defended 137 in the emerging cup against india and india defended 148 in the u-19 asia cup against pakistan last year. if these young upcoming bowlers are given pitches which suit them, then within 10 years, we could very well bring the average score in one-dayers down to 225.

IMO, there is more for bowlers in the one-day game than in the test game as bowlers have a lot more to try in the one-dayers. another thing worth mentioning is that although the record for highest succesful run chase is statistically mentioned, a similar bowling achievement for the lowest total succesfully defended does not have a mention anywhere. IICRC, then this record bwlongs to india who defended 127 succesfully against pakistan in a rothmans cup match in 1985.

for those who still want a batsmans game in the one-dayers and want to baseballise cricket, i have a suggestion, finish bowlers completely and make cricket a complete slam-boom-bang affair by playing 11 batsman with an average score of 400+ in the one-dayers.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
bhooth nath said:
among the current cricketing world, there is a lot of talk about one-dayers being a batsmans game. another thing given in defence of this is the high amont of 280+ scores and flat pitches being used. this has ultimately led to the death of bowling, especially fast bowling in cricket. none of the current fast bowlers (except irfan pathan) are anywhere as good as the great fast bowlers witnessed earlier like marshall, hadlee, wasim, waqar, walsh, etc.
:notworthy

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.
You owe me a new keyboard - coffee burnout.

That Pathan reference is priceless - keep it up.
 

chicane

State Captain
Bhooth you seriously think Irfan is in the league of Marshall! :blink: :laugh: He's done nothing yet to be compared to greats. Don't overrate him so much.
 

bhooth nath

School Boy/Girl Captain
luckyeddie and chicane, please do not deviate from the topic of the thread. currently, irfan pathan is not in the league of theose greats i mentioned, but after 5 years, irfan pathan will be in the same league. i had also included irfan pathan in my all-time odi xi as well. irfan pathan is my favourite cricketer as well and like me, he is 19 as well.

if you all have problems with that mention, i will edit the mention, but please stick to the topic of this thread.
 

chicane

State Captain
Yeah what you outlined is true, there are too many flat batting tracks and fast outfields everywhere. Only in some spinning tracks in the sub-continent, bouncy wickets in Australia and SA, and some swinging tracks in Eng and NZ the bowlers have some assistance. I'm not taking anything away from the Indian teams recent performances, but I think they were helped by the kind of wickets prepared in Australia and Pakistan. We all know what a difference Perth made.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
bhooth nath said:
luckyeddie and chicane, please do not deviate from the topic of the thread.
OK.

1. One-dayers tend to be perceived as a batsman's game, yet conversely you have to have five bowlers. Sides therefore tend to pich a couple of top-line bowlers, a couple of all-rounders and then mix and match from guys who in the past might have got 20 overs a season in first-class cricket.

Way to improve this? Remove the five bowler restriction. A pair of batsmen can play all through the innings - let the captain use his bowlers as and when he sees fit. If he's got 3 who can keep going all day with just a bit of rotation, let them.

2. Pitches. Here, we agree. Featherbeds might help wonderful strokeplay, but they are to the detriment of the game as a whole. If you could produce something like a fourth-day test match pitch which still had a bit of bounce, we'd be on a winner.

3. Tinkering with no-balls and wides : yes, on both counts. I reckon the greatest sight in cricket is a top-flight keeper taking a leg-side stumping. A little more tolerance here, please. The perfect bouncer 'follows' the batsman, and should be that awkward height and direction where he doesn't know whether to duck forward or back - a 'throat' ball. Invariably, this is marginally leg-side when it gets to the batsman.

There's plenty of scope for bowlers to 'improvise' (same as batsmen) in one-dayers, but they're still on a hiding to nothing most of the time.

Give me test cricket any day of the week
 

tooextracool

International Coach
bhooth nath said:
among the current cricketing world, there is a lot of talk about one-dayers being a batsmans game. another thing given in defence of this is the high amont of 280+ scores and flat pitches being used. this has ultimately led to the death of bowling, especially fast bowling in cricket. none of the current fast bowlers (except irfan pathan) are anywhere as good as the great fast bowlers witnessed earlier like marshall, hadlee, wasim, waqar, walsh, etc.
okay first of all there is no need to praise irfan pathan so much....many a fast bowler has started off promisingly and then struggled throughout the rest of his career.
its interesting you put walsh in there despite the fact that he averaged over 30 in ODIs....and im guessing you have never heard of darren gough or glenn mcgrath either?
as far as the wickets for ODI cricket are concerned, i would prefer the slower wickets of sri lanka where once the ball gets old runs become hard to come by instead of the seaming wickets of dambulla, i think slow wickets provide a little bit for the batsmen and the bowlers.
 

Craig

World Traveller
bhooth nath said:
luckyeddie and chicane, please do not deviate from the topic of the thread. currently, irfan pathan is not in the league of theose greats i mentioned, but after 5 years, irfan pathan will be in the same league. i had also included irfan pathan in my all-time odi xi as well. irfan pathan is my favourite cricketer as well and like me, he is 19 as well.

if you all have problems with that mention, i will edit the mention, but please stick to the topic of this thread.
As much talent and potential he may have, he may take 300 Test scalps or not or 264 ODI wickets or not, but to put him up there is a bit premature.

I'm prepared to wait, are you?
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
bhooth nath said:
currently, irfan pathan is not in the league of theose greats i mentioned, but after 5 years, irfan pathan will be in the same league.

The great thing about Cricket is that sort of statement can never be proven correct - there are no guarantees.
 

Top