Top 5 bowling spells of 2016

Yasir Shah dismantled England at Lords

With bats becoming bigger, boundary ropes coming in and power-plays being introduced, cricket was turning into a detractor for the bowlers. Cricket should equally be a bowler’s game besides being a sport for batsmen. Storming every hurdle, the bowlers piled on inspirational performances and demonstrated the reason why they are instrumental to the game.

Wickets hardly come at a rate of peanuts and needs massive persistence from bowlers to get into the nerves of the batsmen.  Across all the three formats, stimulating performances were displayed by the bowlers in 2016.

We take a look at some of the scintillating spells of bowling in the erstwhile year.

#5 Yasir Shah 6/72 vs England at London

Leg spinners are assets to the bowling repertoire of a team and Yasir Shah carried forward the conceptual legacy. There is a reason why he’s hailed by Shane Warne as the best leggie going around in the cricketing fraternity.

The stage was set for the first Test at Lords- the Mecca of Cricket- for Yasir to give England a run for their money and make them strain to churn out every run. After Misbah-ul-Haq’s ton lit up the series, it was Yasir’s turn to add to England’s miseries by mustering out wickets on a non-responsive deck.

After breaking an ominous looking partnership between Joe Root and Alastair Cook, Yasir never looked back and snapped up wickets by either trapping batsmen plumb in front or by running through their defence to shatter the timber.

Even in the second innings, English batsmen were high and dry against Yasir and handed him four priceless wickets. Riding on Yasir’s crafty wrist-work, Pakistan scampered to a famous victory and took a much-required lead in the series.