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So many injuries this tournament. Broad, KP, Tahir, Doug Bollinger to name 4 off the top of my head, and loads just before the tournament with everybody's strongest squads. Maybe the schedule is getting too hectic? Is KP actually right for once?!
Apparently Tahir's not out of it and will play through the pain, but will need a couple of weeks full rest at some point after. I'm slightly annoyed Rashid's still not in the squad given the way leggies have gone in general, but on the plus side the talk of him getting into the team sounds more and more plausible every time it comes up. Meanwhile Cremer didn't have too great a morning today did he...
It looks like Tahir is going to be getting his rest right now. I'm not sure how long this will last; I believe that it was suggested that it will take around ten days, but I'm not sure when it would be counted as having begun. South Africa's spin attack didn't look like much of an 'attack' against India, and played a fairly conservative role, while with Tahir they had all looked quite dangerous, perhaps just because there was an atmosphere of tension caused by the fact that the batsmen could get out just about every delivery. I recall that during the England game, Tahir was getting an LBW shout just about every second ball.
I had watched Piyush Chawla in his other match, and he bowled two or three no-balls in two successive overs. Grimmett would have been livid. I agree with SBCD's evaluation of Cremer. Ray Price is great, of course, and seems to have a nice mixture of a light-hearted and serious attitude to bowling.
Apparently Tahir's not out of it and will play through the pain, but will need a couple of weeks full rest at some point after. I'm slightly annoyed Rashid's still not in the squad given the way leggies have gone in general, but on the plus side the talk of him getting into the team sounds more and more plausible every time it comes up. Meanwhile Cremer didn't have too great a morning today did he...
He loves his enemy, and, as such, he wishes to ensure that the batsman enjoys watching his bowling as much as possible. After all, watching the ball carefully, as a good batsman will do, can be somewhat dull, but Price will have none of that. Pace bowlers, as Philpott pointed out, are sadists, but spinners are far more aesthetically pleasing; if one were giving somebody a painting, it would surely be a higher expression of agape to give them a better one.
Edit: Incidentally, from watching the recent Canada games, it seems that Balaji Rao also fits the 'transitional leg spinner' epithet. He's not bad, but could do with some improvement. He still got wickets, but was also quite capable of being hit, and usually he seems to not have caused many problems through movement in the air. Collins Obuya seems to have declined quite notably since 2003, and his lack of variations is somewhat notable, especially when bowling to a left-hander, a situation in which Tahir had begun using his googlies more frequently; to be honest, in an ODI, I think that the approach of using variations frequently probably makes a fair bit of sense, as one doesn't have long spells in which to execute long-term traps and plans. Also, the Zimbabwean Maruma seems to have the googly syndrome, perhaps one of you lot should advise him on that; more Zimbabwean leg-spinners can hardly be a bad thing.
Agree with everything you said except the part about balaji rao not creating problems in the air- Watch today's match closely and you will find that he gets appreciable drift and dip. (Drift is easy to see, but dip is very difficult to notice from our elevated camera views.)
http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/current/story/506345.html
By no means is he anywhere close to being the next shane warne, but he's quite good.(as long as he has control )
It looks like it's another leggie to watch here. Bishoo was really impressive; he gave a couple of looser deliveries which Wright hit for four, but he certainly ended up winning that battle. Otherwise, his bowling was really quite solid; he started off somewhat flat, but got sharp turn and eventually began incorporating more flight as well, which seems to have undone Trott and Morgan. He doesn't seem to look for the LBW as much as Tahir, and as such probably bowls a line further towards off-stump. He also doesn't use his variations as much, nor necessarily as effectively, although I do remember a time where he had put some pressure on a batsman before giving him a brilliantly flighted skidding delivery outside off stump which was only kept from the stumps by an inside edge off an attempted cut. I'm impressed with what I've seen so far from the bloke. It was also a pretty great idea to bowl him along with Roach, who was bowling quite accurately with some swing. The problem for the West Indies seems to have been that as soon as those two came off, their other bowlers didn't really seem much of a threat. Benn was pretty much tame, really, and seems a lot less effective than Robin Peterson, for example.
Clearly, the solution is more leg spin. In fact, the solution is always more leg spin.
Look at this video - Harbhajan has apparently got a new ball. We all know it is just a standard backspinner/offspinning flipper. But the amount of back spin he's getting is interesting.They've just pondered Rashid as a replacement for Shazad who's got a knackered leg on the SKY highlights and all agreed.... Nah. Not so much that they didn't think it wouldn't be such a good idea, but they didn't believe the selectors would go for it.
Clearly, the solution is more leg spin. In fact, the solution is always more leg spin.