New Delhi: For the longest time, the dipping slower ball in T20 cricket was associated with West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo. Lately, Lungi Ngidi seems to have become the point of reference for the variation. And it’s only fitting that Bravo suggested Ngidi add it to his arsenal.
The South African had been using it for a while but it became a talking point especially during the recently concluded T20 World Cup in India. He picked up 12 wickets in 7 matches at an economy rate of 7.19 but the slower ball became his attacking option.
Carrying that momentum, he has started his IPL season well. In fact, in Mitchell Starc’s absence, he is essentially leading the pace attack for Delhi Capitals. He has picked up 5 wickets in 4 matches at an economy rate of 8.04.
Talking about the variation’s origin story in a virtual press interaction, he said, “I started at CSK in 2018. Dwayne Bravo had mentioned to me, suggesting that I work on a good slow ball.”
“I asked him to teach me and he showed me a couple of things. It wasn’t perfect off the bat, but I developed it over the years.”
“It seems like everyone’s surprised, but I’ve been bowling the slow ball for years now. It’s just probably giving it a bit more flight and a bit more revs. But it’s still the same slow ball, whether I bowl it on a length or fuller.”
“It did take lots of practice though. “A lot of the guys asked me how I do it. And I think they think it’s easy because I see guys try to bowl it off the full run-up from the first ball. And I just think it takes almost close to a year to get the confidence to deliver this ball. But yeah, it has become one of my weapons. And it takes a lot of confidence to run in and get it to dip on the yorker length.
“There’s times where obviously I will get it wrong and a world-class batsman can still hit it for a boundary. But the difference is that when I get it right, it creates chances. And I think in T20 cricket, that’s what you want.”
With wickets largely favouring batters in the last few tournament editions, it is natural that just bowling fast is not cutting it for the pacers. Either variations or spot-on execution with accuracy helps bowlers excel.
“You want to create chances to take wickets or you want to stem the flow of runs,” said Nigidi. “On these wickets, with the bats that are being made these days and the size of the boundaries, pace can travel so you’ve got to find something different to try to combat that.”
Ngidi acknowledges that with teams aiming to post a score of at least 70 runs in the PowerPlay, bowlers also need to keep evolving to keep the contest between bat vs ball alive.
Having too many options can cause bowlers to overthink or overcomplicate their bowling, but for the 30-year-old, variations are weapons bowlers can rely on when they are caught in a trap. For Ngidi personally, it has ensured that batters are left guessing.
“If you’re going to keep bowling the same thing, the batter’s going to catch you at some point. So you do have to have something. The game doesn’t allow us anymore to just run in and hit the top of all for six balls. It may work for some bowlers who are maybe a bit taller, a bit shorter, or you’ve got a different action.”
“But if you’ve got a pretty clean action and you’re of average height, if you bowl the same six balls, I can probably say two of them are going to go for boundaries. So having the variations is always good because sometimes you need them when something is not working, you try something else.”
