The last few years have witnessed a sudden rise in the frequency of high scoring games and it is fair to assert that the game has drawn a bias in favour of the batsmen. In the modern day arena, scores in excess of the 300 mark aren’t considered any means of anomaly and similarly, high run chases have been a common feature as well.
The other night, as India made history with an epic run chase of 351 over England at Pune, the world was stunned by the sheer class of Indian batsmen. After being reduced to a paltry 63-4, the men in blue went on to scale down the mountain with 11 balls to spare.
According to English pacer Reece Topley, who currently nurses an injury, one way to curb such run fests is to be more aggressive with the ball. Topley was a key component of England’s bowling attack before an injury ruled him out for quite a while.
“Unfortunately, the rules are always changed in favour of the batsmen,”
Topley told Cricbuzz.
“Powerplays and limiting bouncers, for example, are only in favour of the batsmen. Each time they’re changed, bowlers around the world come back with answers so they change them again.”
“With boundary sizes now, it’s obviously tough but if you bowl a yorker on a small ground or a big ground, it’s normally going to go along the floor. As a bowler, you can be intimidated by the sizes of the boundary before you’ve even bowled the ball. If you look at what happens in the 22 yards, the boundaries are irrelevant,”
the left-arm pacer added.
“The bowlers that look to defend in the powerplay normally come off worse than bowlers who look to attack in the first six, look to swing it and take wickets. If you try and defend, you probably have a third man and fine leg up and a deep square and a long-on out, letting the batsman hit it for one. That opens up so much more of the ground. If you’re trying to swing it, bowl aggressively, batsmen start to play and miss. You’ve got slips in so there is a chance to take wickets. That’s the way to slow the run-rate up in the first six overs.”