Graeme Swann's hugely spinning off-break from well outside the off stump, which knocked back a bewildered Ricky Ponting's middle and leg stumps could lay claim to being the ball of this century
If Shane Warne's incredible first delivery which consumed the bemused Mike Gatting, bowled round his legs in the 1993 Ashes series, was the ball of the last century, Graeme Swann's hugely spinning off-break from well outside the off stump, which knocked back a bewildered Ricky Ponting's middle and leg stumps on the fourth day at Edgbaston could lay claim to being the ball of this century.
According to England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, Swann's off-break was even better than the one which former England captain Michael Vaughan delivered to bowl India's great Sachin Tendulkar between bat and pad at Trent Bridge in 2002.
"That ball that Swanny bowled was the perfect off-spinner's dismissal," Flintoff said.
|
|
Australia skipper Ricky Ponting looks back bewildered as a Graeme Swann off-spinner crashes on to his stumps on the fourth day of the third Test at Edgbaston on Sunday. pic/Getty images |
"It's on par with Michael Vaughan getting Tendulkar at Trent Bridge.
"It was a fine ball and if you are going to get the best player out in the world you have got to bowl good balls and that was one of the better ones.
"When you get Ricky out it always gives you a lift. He is probably the best player in the world. To get him out, you've got to bowl a decent delivery."
Meanwhile, the Australian bowlers have been struggling to come to terms with the English Duke cricket balls, even as the home team's pace bowlers have swung it disconcertingly.
Interestingly, Australian Troy Cooley, who has returned as his country's bowling coach, was the one who helped England's pace quartet of Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard win the 2005 Ashes series at home with their superb swing bowling.
Cooley has been replaced by Ottis Gibson, who played two Tests and 15 one-day internationals for the West Indies in the 1990's. Ironically, it was Cooley who helped Gibson cross over from playing in English county cricket to becoming that country's bowling coach.
Gibson is being hailed as the inspiration behind the success of England's swing-centric pace attack of Stuart Broad, Andrew Flintoff, Graeme Onions and his own protu00c3u00a9gu00c3u00a9 Jimmy Anderson, the team's finest exponent of swing bowling ("He swings better than Benny Goodman", someone remarked).
In the words of England's South African-born coach Andy Flower: "Ottis has formed good relationships with all the bowlers, and in doing so has talked the bowling game with them, influenced them in subtle ways."
With young Australian quicks Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle struggling to swing the Duke balls, Anderson said: "I don' think they've bowled too much with the Duke ball before and they've only had a few weeks out here.
"Hilfenhaus has swung the ball and has bowled really well throughout the series, and the other guys are just pretty much hit-the-deck bowlers and don't swing it too much.
"Ottis Gibson has done a fantastic job, looking at the footage of those guys and we've looked ourselves.
"I think the plans are working for us at the moment, but throughout the series they might get adjusted slightly.'
Australian captain Ponting also expected his pace bowlers to get swing as the ball got older.u00a0
"The difference between the Duke and the Kookaburra is that the Duke's got a lot more lacquer on it and it tends to swing less when it's got the lacquer on," Ponting said.
"The great art of getting the ball to swing over here is getting the lacquer off quickly and getting to work on the leather. As we've seen right through this series, the brand new ball hasn't swung much at all as the ball got older."
