Size XL dwarfs India’s batting giants

Tuffey gave away only 11 runs from his quota of 10 overs and took two wickets including that of captain Saurav Ganguly to win the man-of-the-match award in the Christchurch one-dayer which the hosts won by five wickets yesterday.

New Zealand’s three-pronged pace attack, consisting of Tuffey, Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills, has accounted for 19 Indian batsmen in the first three one-dayers at the cost of just a little over 13 runs per wicket.

Richard Hadlee, chairman of the New Zealand selection committee, said the physical presence of these three bowlers were playing no less role in routing the Indian batting.

“These are the bowlers who have physical presence. They are big, they are strong and they are intimidating to look at and of course they are getting the ball to bounce off a length,” he said. Tuffey, whose form this season has been sensational, said bowling along the wicket was not an accepted option these days.

“The Indian batsmen, for instance, can hit through the line so well. If the ball is not going sideways, they can take you on and hit reasonably good balls for four as we saw the other day with Virender Sehwag.”

Sehwag, the Indian opener, has been reduced to a shadow of his aggressive self in the current series though he struck a fine hundred in the second one-day international at McLean Park on Sunday.

The three fast bowlers are thriving on the rule of one bouncer per over in one-day games losing little opportunity in making the Indians hop at the crease. The pacers revealed they have not relied on the coaching programmes of the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) to have such a devastating effect on the Indians.

“While the group did weight-work during the off-season under NZC programmes, it was not all about developing strength,” said Oram.

“We do general strength work, but concentrate on some muscles that are specific to bowling like the shoulder. We do a lot more specific training rather than just work on our muscles,” he said. Mills spent a major part of last season rehabilitating after an injury prevented him from taking the place in the New Zealand team for the tri-series in Australia.

“It’s not all about building strength, flexibility is the key,” he said.

The Auckland player also had some questions raised about his bowling action. But he worked on that and home captain Stephen Fleming said yesterday he did not believe the bowler had a suspect action.

“He’s played enough one-dayers now, and is bowling well with good control,” Fleming said.

Hadlee praised his fast bowlers for their consistency in maintaining the pressure on the Indians.

“You can have bowler-friendly conditions and not actually bowl well. You can bowl too short on them for example. But our blokes consistently, day in and day out, particularly Daryl Tuffey and Jacob Oram, have been outstanding,” he said.

“The key for any strike bowler is to beat batsmen off a length irrespective of whether the pitch is bouncing or keeping low. The bowlers have made a tremendous stride forward and that has to be good for our game whereas in the past we have struggled a little bit,” Hadlee said. (PTI)