The artists of depth overs…

As we know cricket is the territory of batsmen, and the bowlers are the one who gets beaten up, due to the short boundaries, bigger bats, ball a piece at each ends made ODI’s even harder for the bowlers. Here are some bowlers who made the batsmen think a bit before taking on them. But remember, these bowlers are not the scary ones like the Brett Lee’s or Shoiab Akthar’s or even Wahab Riaz on the other day. And they do not have a great numbers either, like the Akram’s or Murali’s or Warnie’s. But, equally effective as the above names when it comes to their department of ‘bowling at the depth overs’. In this article I’m talking about the unsung “doctors of death”, as Dean Jones quoted.

1) Adam Hollioake, England (1996-1999)

One of the most decorated captains of the English county, Adam was a talented young Victorian(Australia) born all-rounder, who made his test debut with his younger brother Ben Hollioake in 1997 was already a permanent member of their one day squad. Adam was a gentle medium pacer with which he operated intelligently by mixing up the in dippers, slower ones and the odd bouncers. His statistics don’t express anything about his cricketing ability.

He was known for his leadership ability which made him to become the captain of the England’s one day side to reduce the workload from their test captain Mike Atherton. The inexperienced English side lead by Adam lifted the Champions’ Trophy in 1998. But when T20 made its way to England in the year 2003, we saw Adam marshalling his Surrey troupe winning the inaugural title. In those tournaments, he often bowled all his quota of 4 overs where reserved till the end to finish the proceedings. It was impossible for the batsmen to deal with his mind reading ability.

In 2013 to celebrate the Decennial year of Twenty20 cup in English county, “Dream Team of English County” had chosen by the Cricket Experts. In this team of T20 Giants, Adam Hollioake was honoured as the Captain. He was also awarded ‘Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2004’ for his outstanding achievement in English county circuit. In his 35 ODIs for England, he took 32 wickets at the economy rate of 5.06.

Later when his younger sibling Ben passed away in a road accident, Adam got into the shadows of upset and moved away from the serious cricket. Now Adam Hollioake, the former England captain is keeping himself busy as a Cage Fighter in a private wrestling league.

2) Ian Harvey, Australia (1997-2004)

As a talented cricketer with all-round ability, Ian Harvey was a great asset to the Australian team in finishing the one day game with both and ball. He’s one of the rarest of ODI specialists who have never played a single test for the nation. Like Adam Hollioake, stats do not speak Ian’s ability as a cricketer. Having played 73 one day internationals for Australia, he never even scored a half century nor picked a five-for. Being country’s go to bowler at the depth overs, he bowled 60% of his overs in the last 10. He managed to pick 85 wickets at an astonishing economy rate of 4.71 which tells how well he could manage the crunch moment of the game.

The variations he possessed was quite remarkable, with a quicker one not more than 135kmph, in dippers, leg cutters, off cutters, occasional bouncers and variety of slower deliveries which includes, split finger deliveries, back off the hand, double fingered gripped ones, gentle off breaks, slower Yorkers and even slower bouncers.

The most important part of his variety was, just when he made up his mind to deliver a slower one, always used to signal the wicketkeeper (most of the times it was Adam Gilchrist) by pulling his collar upwards before starting the run-up. This made the keeper come a fraction closer than usual and make the ball carry. This was a prime example of the intelligence Ian possessed.

In 2003 when Twenty20 Cup started in English county, Ian represented Gloucestershire club and scored the First ever T20 century. Just like Adam Hollioake, Harvey used to bowl all his 4 overs at one go from the 14th till the 20th over at one end. When he was excluded from the national squad, he joined Cape Cobras in South Africa and later in 2008 he came to Indian Cricket League and joined Chennai Superstars team. Here he played as an opening batsman and a finishing bowler. He was instrumental in making his team the Inaugural T20 title and also won himself ‘player of the final’ and ‘player of the tournament’ awards.

3) Nathan Bracken, Australia (2001-2009)

Australia has always produced tall and steaming pacers, where Nathan Bracken was another addition to it. He was a great servant for his state New South Wales, was successful in breaking into the national side during 2001 for the ODIs. Bracken had very tough competition with his fellow counterparts like Brad Williams, Andy Bickel, Ian Harvey, Shane Lee, Michael Kasporwicz, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Shane Harwood, Jason Gillespie etc. where only Brett Lee had already cemented his place up with one of the most accurate bowling machines in the world called ‘Glenn Mcgrath’.

Nathan Bracken was an all-round bowler, where he was able to bowl at 140kmph and move the ball in both the direction with a new ball as well as could manipulate the deliveries by mapping the batsmen’s mind. When it comes to bowling at the depth, he was perhaps the able successor of Ian Harvey. Most of the times when he came on to bowl his last spell, we saw Gilly standing up to the stumps. His speciality was to use the reverse swinging deliveries in different pace at times and trapping the batsman on the crease.

In his International career which lasted for 8 years, Nathan Bracken took 174 wickets in 116 ODIs by giving away 4.41 runs per over, which is rarely seen in the bowlers of this era. He became a better bowler in the T20 formats, but due to his jump at his delivery stride made him an injury prone. This made Nathan to move out of the national squad.

4) Kyle Mills, New Zealand (2004-2015)

The tall New Zealander, who took 2nd most wickets for his country after Daniel Vettori, was another version of Nathan Bracken! Like Nathan, Kyle Mills used to share the new ball in the seaming conditions by keeping the runs at check. But the best part of his bowling was always at the slog overs. He was New Zealand’s most dependable death bowler. With a lazy looking side on action allowed him to use the popping crease well to create different angle to the deliveries. He was using reverse swing to the good effect as well.

Kyle was very good operator of the slower balls especially the slower bouncers. He was bowling the slower off cutter to change the pace of the ball. He played most part of the career during the era where the ODI rules inclined towards the favour of the batsmen, Mills was able to pick 240 ODI wickets at the economy rate of 4.72.

His biggest enemy was the injuries which troubled him right through the career of 11 years, which made him in and out of the side quite regularly. This might well be one of the reasons behind his retirement from international cricket after the World Cup finals last Sunday, where he sat in the bench throughout the tournament.