Image Credit- AP
Any legspinner will occasionally bowl a long hop. It
is a danger at work. However, certain long-hops occur at such unfortunate times
and are received with such scorn that the united audience seems to utter a
universal sigh.
Such a long-hop was bowled by Adam Zampa on Monday in
Lucknow. Pathum Nissanka swatted the foulest of drag-downs so far in front of
the square that it was more of a crosscourt forehand than a pull. Zampa’s first
pitch in this game resulted in a boundary, raising Sri Lanka’s score to 74
without loss after 13.1 overs. Zampa gave Nissanka another gift two balls
later, a half-volley, but was promptly pounded right down the ground for
another four.
Zampa entered this match having bowled 18 overs for 1
for 123 runs over losses to South Africa and India. He already had hip, neck,
and shoulder aches, and in the days before this game, he also experienced a
back spasm.
Other teams may have benched Zampa and selected
another spinner as a result of that lethal combination of form and fitness, but
Australia had no other spinner to turn to. As a result, he was feeling, in his
words at the press conference following the game, “like adrenaline was
going to get me through and a bit of Panadeine Forte.”
With his recent bowling and wicket-taking, Zampa
demonstrated why legspinners are so crucial in ODI cricket. It wasn’t one of
the typical legspinner dismissals, and the batter largely contributed to his
own demise, but it was nonetheless a courageous and proficient bowling move. To
challenge the top six-hitter in this World Cup to hit him against the turn,
from outside off stump, and clear one of the longer square boundaries you’ll
see on an Indian pitch, patrolled by one of the fastest and safest outfielders
in the world, Zampa dangled it up and placed it within Kusal Mendis’ hitting
arc.
It would be simple to single out Mendis’ firing and
criticise his choice of shot, but that would be to miss the point. Six of them
are the outcome of taking chances. Mendis’ 14 sixes at this World Cup were all
the result of him taking a chance; you have to do that to score as quickly as
he has in this competition, against bowlers of international calibre.
In his subsequent three overs, Zampa would take three
more wickets, demonstrating not only the overall danger of white-ball legspin
but also the specific danger posed by this particular legspinner. When he is at
his best, Zampa hits the stumps as quickly and with both edges in play as
anyone else in the world of cricket. These following three dismissals—lbw, lbw,
lbw—were typical of Zampa’s greatest work: a front-of-the-hand slider to
Sadeera Samarawickrama and wrong-footers to Chamika Karunaratne and Maheesh
Theekshana, all of which sped beyond the inside edge to strike batters’ front
pads who were attempting to defend.
This wasn’t the perfect game for either Zampa or
Australia, but they will both have tasted that particular flavour of
satisfaction that comes from hanging in when you’re not at your best and
getting the job done.