Swann & Hauritz Prove Contemporary Batsmen Can’t Handle Basic Spin

There are two ongoing test matches and both have them proved that no matter how flat the wickets are, no matter how inventive the batsmen have become and no matter how enterprising shot-making has become, one simple, fact cannot be altered — most contemporary sides cannot handle even average-quality spin bowling if it is dished out on a sustained basis.


Just look at the Pakistani side. They were supposed to struggle against the fast, Aussie bowlers but they have fallen prey to a fiver from Hauritz. No disrespect towards Nathan Hauritz, but by no means is he a match-winning Tweaker. By no means Hauritz can be described as a big spinner of the ball. He is simply a line and length, off-spinner who has the ability to stick to a line and wait for the batsmen to commit a folly and usually that doesn’t work since the pitches are so flat these days that all sorts of strange, counter strokes can be played to negate whatever little spin he is able to generate. The same applied to Kumble for a long time when he could take buckets of wicket at home because the pitches were up and down but was redundant in overseas conditions because simply pitching the ball between the stumps didn’t make an impact. The same applies to South Africa. Graeme Swann does have the talent to make the ball dip in the air but he cannot spin it an impressive extent even if his own life dependent upon it. He simply owes his wickets against South Africa to the Proteas batsmen being apprehensive on the slight indications of some, meagre turn on a wicket that is slowly wearing out.
The final result — two average spin bowlers have delivered what are potentially match-winning spells.

Pakistan's fielding standards set new benchmarks for being hopeless

If you did happen to miss the second test match between Pakistan and New Zealand then consider yourself lucky in a way for you didn't have to witness what must be one of the worst fielding displays by any team. At one point, commentators from both the nations, Pak and NZ simply said that they had 'resigned' to the fact that this Pakistani side was hell-bent on mocking the demise of the NZ innings by delaying it via dropping a catch, nearly every 20 mins! Shoaib Malik was actually seen retracting his hands from a simple, straightforward catch that came his way in a manner that suggested that he was instructed no to accept a catch - yes, some of the catches were so simple that Waqar Younis who on air commentating actually said that he had seen school cricket games that had set better fielding standards. An the biggest irony - even after so many lef-offs the Kiwis were still sent packing> you can call it the talent of the Pakistanit bowlers to deliver despite the utter chaos that was unleashed around the stumps or another nail in the coffin of test cricket.