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Bowlers who looked innocuous, but were actually effective!

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
Some bowlers don't look like they are difficult to face for the batsmen but their numbers tell a completely different story.

For e.g.
Clint McKay in ODIs.
When you think of Aussie pace bowlers, you think of pace, bounce and pure aggression. McKay was the total opposite of that, he didn't bowl that fast, nor did he get ridiculous swing or seam movement. He simply bowled with accuracy and slight movement and got most of his wickets with his subtle pace variations. His ODI bowling record shows how good he was, although you won't feel like those numbers belong to him when you actually see him bowl because his bowling looked average to the naked eye.

I can say the same for Roger Telemachus, looked pedestrian when he bowled, but could snap wickets every now and then out of nowhere for the team.

What are some other bowlers who look ordinary, but are effective.
 

vcs

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There are some bowlers who seem to have a knack of picking up wickets off crap... or bowl lots of crap and toss in the odd wicket taking ball. Shardul?
 

Senile Sentry

International Debutant
Philander - a short, stocky bowler who bowls at 125 kph who managed to outshine even the ****ing Steyn.

Jadeja - two hops and a twirl, rinse and repeat - an ATG Indian spinner now.

Muhammad Shami - balding 30 something looking short, stocky guy - runs up and bowls typical Indian trundler length - has more wickets at similar average as Shoaib Akhtar.

Bumrah - bowls with a wierd action and has a run up shorter than Nathan Lyon
 

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
Philander - a short, stocky bowler who bowls at 125 kph who managed to outshine even the ****ing Steyn.

Jadeja - two hops and a twirl, rinse and repeat - an ATG Indian spinner now.

Muhammad Shami - balding 30 something looking short, stocky guy - runs up and bowls typical Indian trundler length - has more wickets at similar average as Shoaib Akhtar.

Bumrah - bowls with a wierd action and has a run up shorter than Nathan Lyon
Shami(in tests) and Bumrah look pretty good, I mean the batsmen look fairly uncomfortable facing them for the most part.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Along the same lines as Clint McKay, Lonwabo Tsotsobe. He just bowled left arm meds angling across the right hander. Occasionally he'd roll his fingers across one and bowl an off-cutter but it didn't seem particularly well-disguised, and even though commentators used to talk about his swing sometimes it was totally mythical.

His Test career played out more as less as you'd expect from that description, yet he took 94 ODI wickets @ 25.

Nuwan Kulasekara was I suppose somewhat along these lines in terms of inexplicably being ranked #1 in ODIs with the ball, but in his defence he bowled a good inswinger and was very accurate. To me McKay and Lopsy seemed to just happen to be bowling when wickets fell, rather than appearing to take them - weird stuff.
 

Line and Length

Cricketer Of The Year
Botham. Bowled absolute filth for the majority of his wickets.
He bowled without fear of being scored off. To dismiss the majority of 383 Test victims with such a sweeping statement is not only an insult to Botham but to the victims who fell prey to him.
I will concede that your statement might be applicable to the twilight of his career but not to the majority of his wickets.
 

Daemon

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Along the same lines as Clint McKay, Lonwabo Tsotsobe. He just bowled left arm meds angling across the right hander. Occasionally he'd roll his fingers across one and bowl an off-cutter but it didn't seem particularly well-disguised, and even though commentators used to talk about his swing sometimes it was totally mythical.

His Test career played out more as less as you'd expect from that description, yet he took 94 ODI wickets @ 25.

Nuwan Kulasekara was I suppose somewhat along these lines in terms of inexplicably being ranked #1 in ODIs with the ball, but in his defence he bowled a good inswinger and was very accurate. To me McKay and Lopsy seemed to just happen to be bowling when wickets fell, rather than appearing to take them - weird stuff.
Excuse me McKay Tsotsobe is supposed to be my thing

Tsotsobe and McKay were pretty lucky I thought. Both have very similar numbers in ODIs that are pretty amazing tbh. Averages of ~24 with economies of 4.75.
Why are guys like Tsotsobe, McKay, Mills and Perera so successful bowling their up and down pies in ODI cricket?
Don't get what makes Tsotsobe and McKay so successful in one dayers. So damn effective for no apparent reason.
 

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