Top 5 death-bowlers in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013

With the emergence of T-20 cricket, the ODI game has changed quite a lot. Batting units have developed a lot more muscle and any total is fancied to be chased. The yesteryears’ magic number of 300 is no more a match-winning total. However, at the other end of the spectrum, rash shots have entered the game and teams are a lot more vulnerable to meltdowns. Along with that, there has been a change in the roles that are defined for the personnel in the team. There are concrete roles for a lower-middle order aggressor who lifts the run-rate with the big-shots in the slog overs. Kieron Pollard, Eoin Morgan, Brendon McCullum and MS Dhoni seem to be assigned these roles for their respective sides. Similarly, death bowling has become a critical area in the game.

England’s Jade Dernbach was widely promoted as a specialist in death-bowling but his figures in International cricket seem to suggest that he has not had much success. It is an indication of how tough that role is. The thought behind such a role is that the bowler reserves about 5-6 overs of his 10 to put in two spells after the 35-over mark. That is, he bowls 2-3 overs in the batting powerplay which is usually taken at the 35-over mark and the rest post 43-44 over mark. The bowler develops his yorkers, slower balls, low full tosses, wide-outside-the-off stump balls and everything that he can throw to surprise the batsman. With batsmen coming out with innovative shots, the challenge for the death bowler is constantly changing. Take the case of MS Dhoni and AB De Villiers. The yorker was once a go-to ball in the slog overs but Dhoni’s helicopter shot is designed to decimate the yorker whereas AB De Villiers, as Hashim Amla put it, is developing a new MCC manual of his own.

Here is a list of the top 5 death bowlers in the Champions Trophy.

5. James Anderson

Another bowler who is not ideally suited to death bowling but has done well for his team. His performance against the Aussies proves that he can be lethal against the lower-middle order and tail-end batting. He uses his full deliveries to get the bowled and leg-before dismissals into play and his slower ones are difficult to get away. He is not without his weakness though, as a swing bowler he likes to bowl length and can be whipped away.