England crawled to 229 for 5 despite being 164 for one at one point. The collapse was triggered by a sensational spell of reverse swing bowling by a bowler fast maturing into one of the finest at the world stage today, Zaheer Khan. His fast bowling partner, Ishant Sharma has also shown remarkable skills with the old ball. So much so, that the two of them could quite easily be called the best 'old-ball' pair in world cricket today. I use the term 'old-ball' quite loosely since the two of them can make the ball reverse from the eighth over itself.
Suddenly everybody is talking about reverse swing and the role it has played in recent Indian victories. We have had good reverse swing bowlers in the past with the likes of Manoj Prabhakar and Ajit Agarkar, but for the first time we have two fast bowlers who can reverse it both ways, bowling in tandem.
They complement each other perfectly with the left and right hand combination. Add to that their unerring control and the effortless variations in pace, and you have a pace bowling pair which can give any batting line-up a run for their money. The Australian will testify that. It was reverse swing which accounted for crucial wickets at critical junctures in the previous series.
Suddenly everybody is talking about reverse swing and the role it has played in recent Indian victories. We have had good reverse swing bowlers in the past with the likes of Manoj Prabhakar and Ajit Agarkar, but for the first time we have two fast bowlers who can reverse it both ways, bowling in tandem.
They complement each other perfectly with the left and right hand combination. Add to that their unerring control and the effortless variations in pace, and you have a pace bowling pair which can give any batting line-up a run for their money. The Australian will testify that. It was reverse swing which accounted for crucial wickets at critical junctures in the previous series.
While Ishant can blast through a batsman’s defenses through his pace and bounce, Zaheer keeps a much fuller length and tests out the foot-work of the batsmen. He isn't averse to using the short-ball either, as Pietersen found out today. Both are capable of bowling those toe-crushing Yorkers at 90 miles an hour.
The way Zaheer got Bell out today was a classic. The first ball was angled across and Bell poked at it tentatively, it was followed by a quicker fuller ball which came back into the batsmen and caught him plumb in front.
We have only seen them together on sub-continental pitches; it would be really exciting to see them in action on pitches which offer more to the pace bowlers early on. Only then can we judge whether they are the best fast bowling pair in the world, especially with the likes of Lee-Johnson and Ntini-Steyn around.
The way Zaheer got Bell out today was a classic. The first ball was angled across and Bell poked at it tentatively, it was followed by a quicker fuller ball which came back into the batsmen and caught him plumb in front.
We have only seen them together on sub-continental pitches; it would be really exciting to see them in action on pitches which offer more to the pace bowlers early on. Only then can we judge whether they are the best fast bowling pair in the world, especially with the likes of Lee-Johnson and Ntini-Steyn around.
