Saeed Ajmal has reiterated – something that he had exclaimed last year – that he has created a “special delivery”, tailor-made to cater to the English batsmen’s maladroit approach to playing spin bowling; and that the unveiling of the aforementioned ‘variety’ would take place this month as Pakistan lock horns with the top ranked side in the world.
Now, while the teaser has been floated by our spin wizard, the exact dynamics of the delivery have not been revealed by last year’s leading wicket-taker, much to the intrigue of cricket scientists. Spherical geometry, UAE’s geography and Ajmal’s biography have all been thrown into the mix, as we vie to unravel the mystery.
Saeed Ajmal has the traditional off-spinning delivery, and of course that little monster we call the ‘doosra’. The doosra of course is a misnomer; Ajmal uses thedoosra so frequently that we might as well start dubbing it the ‘pehla’. And this is a not-so-pleasant flashback to the twilight of Saqlain Mushtaq’s international career, where the doosra is all that he bowled, much to the delight of batsmen and tail-enders alike. While Ajmal has been near impeccable in assorting his deliveries, he should not overuse his doosra, lest he loses grip over his stock delivery. Maybe that’s the special ‘variety’ he has saved for England – double bluffing the English batsmen with a barrage of prodigiously whirling conventional off-spinners?
Another bluff in the garb of specialty could be more use of the flight; surely this scribe is not the only one leery about Ajmal’s constant “I’m not comfortable, giving the ball flight” rhetoric! The English team would have memorised the 671 pager ‘How to play Ajmal’ manual compiled by Andy Flower by now, and hence Ajmal might have to think out of the book. Ajmal’s deliveries’ rendezvous with air is as extensive as the English media’s association with sanity; and while the latter would always be narcissistic nut-heads, the former should enhance his amity with air – you never know when it might come in handy.
Saeed Ajmal could also have taken a leaf (a plant or even a bush) out of Afridi’s book – if one might call that – as well. Boom Boom has so many deliveries up his sleeves, that his bowling repertoire is like a box of chocolate – and as the cliché goes: you never know what you’re going to get. So does Ajmal have the 135 kph dynamite in reserve for England? Or maybe he has developed a conventional leg-spinner; with the added menace of a googly perhaps? If the leading off-spinner in world cricket were to bowl a googly, wouldn’t that just be the most outrageous double bluff in the history of the sport!? However, reason and her good friend logic, both suggest that this is not going to be the case.
While tweaking his repertoire might be a judicious approach, Ajmal should ensure that whatever earth-shattering invention he has convened, does not dismantle the strength of his existing array of deliveries. For, Ajmal not being at his best in 2012 would be disastrous for Pakistan. Speaking of disasters; what calamities in the name of “Thunder Down Under” are going on in Australia!
