tooextracool
International Coach
A bit hard to play a bloke who's swinging the ball around corners, both ways, even if he's wayward. Unless of course you can pick it from the hand, which few batsmen have ever been able to do. Think we tend to have 'new era syndrome', we're a bit spoiled by watching batsmen tonking bowlers around at 3-4 runs an over on flatter wickets. My personal opinion though from what I've seen is that batsmen of the 80's were probably of lesser quality than a lot of the batters today, I've seen many a wayward spell from that time rewarded with a flood of wickets. By that theory, I think bowlers of that era are probably flattered by their records.Just shows what playing in a top-shelf team does to a bloke's confidence and vice versa. Even with Marshall bowling quite waywardly and Patterson out early with an injury, the Aussies were still too scared to hit the ball off the square. So it didn't matter to the other bowlers that their gun was having an off day and they were one short, they had to step up a bit, did so and won the match easily.
Goes without saying that this is the first time I've had the chance to watch ball by ball stuff of Marshall, so a little disappointing to see one of his more wayward spells. Not only was he wayward in line but his length was a fair bit too short given the swing he was getting - most of his deliveries that were in line with the stumps were still going over the top. If anything it goes to show how bowlers who can swing the ball both ways are infinitely harder to play than the ones who just swing it one way who become far more predictable. If Marshall had got his line and length right that day, he'd have got half of that batting lineup back in the hut on his own with very little on the board.
Thanks for the clips Robelinda, great stuff.
Last edited: