Can Sri Lanka’s spinners tie up Pakistan again in the Asia Cup final?
Can Sri Lanka’s spinners tie up Pakistan again in the Asia Cup final? Babar Azam shifted his stance from leg and middle to middle stump before facing the first ball of the second over bowled by Maheesh Theekshana. Babar’s goal was obvious: he intended to break up Theekshana’s line of stomping stumps.
This strategy may prompt the Sri Lankan mystery spinner to explore areas further from the wicket. Threatening the pads with his slider was an apparent possibility. But his incredible wrists could fend off any threat.
However, Theekshana saw through the scheme. He maintained his off stump to middle stump line and startled Babar with an in-swinger, or a wobble-seamer, as the ball drifted and kept swinging toward Babar.
After a moment of bewilderment, he flicked the ball safely out of harm’s way thanks to his supple wrists.
A perplexed expression crossed Babar’s face. The tremendous arc inward was a surprise to him. He’s accustomed to the spinners’ drift but not the seamer-like curve.
Spinners
It was the first time Sri Lanka’s spinners cast doubt on Pakistan’s batting lineup.
The more the game went on, the more the doubts brewed and sprouted, like non-subcontinental batters on a flaming turner.
Despite being gifted with ruthless spin bowling killers in Salim Malik and Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Sri Lankan triad of Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Dhananjaya de Silva caused them to lose confidence in their spin abilities.
The topic may come up again and even decide the championship. What a mastery of the three by Pakistan’s batsmen and their ability to scrounge runs. It was because the spinners grabbed six wickets and only allowed 60 runs in 12 overs (with no fours and just two sixes being hit) during the practice super-four match.
The Pakistani batting lineup isn’t as clueless against spin as they showed on Friday.
They made the same mistakes that English and Australian batsmen would make when they were first exposed to subcontinental spinners, such as playing from the crease, stabing with hard hands, not using their feet, and looking to sweep or slog-sweep.
It’s possible that they were frightened to see Babar die when he ventured outside and attempted to raise Hasaranga above his head. He thought it was a leg break, but it was actually a straighter break.
Because he does not generate nearly as much drift with the wrong’un, the inward drift he obtains, aided with that wonderful pivot, can sometimes fool you into thinking it’s his leg-break.
But he lost the flight and the turn, or rather the lack thereof, as Babar swung in the incorrect direction. It was a fatal error on the other batters’ part to attempt to play him from the crease.
There was an attempt at a slog sweep, but Hasaranga had shortened his length and decreased his tempo, bowling Iftikhar Ahmed. Khushdil Shah shimmed his way down the track, but he was soundly defeated in flight, got nowhere near the ball’s pitch, and shanked the shot.
How Hasaranga varies his bounce
One of the bowlers who give the impression that the surface was poor is Hasaranga. Like in nature, some of the balls would stay low, while some would bounce funny, some would veer off course quickly, and some would hold their line. However, his deception was the source of the pitch’s seemingly magical abilities.
The low-release pitchers is also slow, and he does not so much change the speed of the ball as he slides it. He squats even lower than normal, his front knee nearly touching the ground.
For the one who bounces, he increases the height of the release points, decreases the amount of knee movement, and accelerates the activity. These are in addition to the googly and leg-break, two common variations, as well as subtleties like varying the speed and flight.
Batters who use their feet and stifle the spin have had the most success against him. The 72 that Rohit Sharma scored, for instance. Because his variations are so challenging to play from the hand, he poses the greatest risk while playing from the crease or after the ball has been pitched.
With both the leg-break and the googly, he uses the same scramble seam and a comparable grip (with the first, second and third finger). Additionally, the hand position is similar; the wrong’un is not higher than the leg break.
Theekshana, meanwhile, is a completely different bowler altogether, with a plethora of variations from which to chose depending on the circumstances of each match.
If he uses in-swingers and off-breaks with a brand-new ball, he switches to carrom balls and reverse carroms when they wear out. Ifthikar couldn’t tell them apart and ended up sweeping in the dark. None could have used a paddle sweep or reverse sweep to disrupt his strides. Maybe the Pakistani batting lineup needs to dig deep and find their strokes.
Why didn’t Pakistan target the part-timer?
The fact that they let de Silva go free is the most perplexing. He switches between traditional off-breaks and off-speed bowling, varies his ball flight, and occasionally sends in a flat ball.
However, he is not an enigma or a stranger. However, they allowed him to get into a groove and did not manage to negotiate a single boundary off of his bowling. He sincerely played the role of the defensive spinner by piling on the dots and amassing pressure at one end. Pakistan may have the same results with a comparable course of treatment.
They’re not terrible at playing spin, but they lacked something on Friday that prevented them from performing at their best. Maybe in the end, it won’t matter. Perhaps the scene and the outcome would be very different if Babar could land one big shot off Hasaranga and set the tone.
Read More: Pakistan vs Sri Lanka Asia Cup Super 4, Dream11, Pitch and Weather report, Paying11