5 Bowlers and their success with the knuckle ball in IPL 2017

The advent of Twenty20 cricket was once considered the death of the bowlers. Many former bowlers have frustratingly said that it is better off to have bowling machines instead of bowlers due to the imbalance between bat and ball in today’s day and age. The modern-day bowlers have come up with new variations to stop the batsmen from running away with the show. Shaun Pollock invented the slower bouncer, which is a common sight in cricket these days especially in the shortest format of the game. Innovations like these have restored some balance between bat and ball. One such delivery has been the knuckle ball which was on show on a regular basis in IPL 2017. Former South African pacer Charl Langeveldt was a great exponent of this delivery. He passed on the knowledge to Zaheer Khan during the IPL of 2010 and since then the knowledge has emanated amongst the Indian bowlers. Let us have a look at 5 bowlers who were highly successful with the knuckle ball in the tenth edition of the IPL: 1. Zaheer Khan Zaheer Khan. (Photo Source: Twitter) The first memory of Zaheer unleashing this delivery goes back to the World Cup 2011 when he cleaned up Michael Hussey in India’s quarter-final triumph against Australia. Since then Zak has used this bowl regularly in international cricket and this IPL was no different. Aged 38, Zaheer did not have the body to bowl as fast as he used to. This prompted the left-armer to bowl a lot of knuckle balls this year. The bewildering aspect of Zaheer’s knuckle ball for the batsmen is that his arm speed does not change at all. Apart from that, Zaheer has the ability to bowl it with a great seam position, identical of an outswinger to the right-handed batsmen, which further makes it hard to pick the variation. Kedhar Jadhav was foxed by the old horse’s knuckle ball in this year’s 5th game as he got too early into the shot to hit the ball straight to long off. Zaheer has got the best in the business out with his smart variation. 2. Andrew Tye Andrew Tye. (Photo Source: Twitter) Tye had a great first season in the IPL where he picked up a five-wicket haul which included a hat-trick. His season was curtailed to just 6 appearances as he was ruled out of the tournament due to a shoulder injury. Tye used the knuckle ball particularly well this season. The unique aspect of his knuckle ball is that it cut off the surface apart from being considerably slow than his stock deliveries. The Australian all-rounder picked 12 wickets from 6 games with an economy rate of 6.71. He was of the opinion that it is not entirely a batsman’s game as bowlers can innovate and evolve to put a cap on the run-scoring. Tye has remarkable control with the knuckle ball and apart from IPL 2017, has used it well as a weapon in the BBL as well. 3. Bhuvneshwar Kumar Bhuvneshwar Kumar. (Photo Source: Twitter) That Sunrisers have done well for the past two seasons and they were able to do that largely due to the telling contributions of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. ‘Bhuvi’ has worked exceptionally hard on his T20 skills and the results are there for everyone to see. The 27-year-old has been the best bowler on show for the second consecutive season this year. He uses his variations smartly to befuddle the batsmen, one of which is the knuckle ball. Bhuvi’s smart use of the knuckle ball keeps the batsmen on their toes. He has shown great control over this variation this IPL to be on top of the highest wicket takers list of IPL 2017 with 25 wickets from 13 games. His economy rate of 6.97 coupled with his wicket-taking abilities is worth its weight in gold. 4. Mohit Sharma (Photo Source: Twitter) Mohit has learnt the knuckle ball from Bhuvneshwar himself to use it successfully this year in the IPL. Mohit was the go-to-man for Kings XI Punjab especially in the last phase of the tournament where he picked 13 sticks from 14 games. He bowled the knuckle ball exceedingly well towards the end overs and the batsmen found it hard to pick. Mohit mixed his bag of slower balls, which included the knuckle ball, to curtail the run-scoring during the end overs. He was bold enough to bowl it in the crunch stages of a game, none more than Kings XI’s whirlwind game against Mumbai Indians where Mohit bowled a pinpoint knuckle ball to Pollard with 9 to win from 2 balls. He has been a great exponent of the variation in this season of the IPL. 5. Siddarth Kaul Sunrisers Hyderabad bowler Siddarth Kaul. (Photo: IANS) Kaul picked 16 wickets in 9 games this year. He did not play a single game in the last two editions of the IPL but was given a chance by Sunrisers in IPL 2017, and Kaul grabbed it with both hands. He has been brilliant with the yorkers during the end overs and has bowled the knuckle ball to great effect to deny the batsmen from scoring quick runs. The 26-year-old has not been afraid of using the knuckle ball when the ball is new, underlying his control over the variation. Kaul has been an integral part of Sunrisers’ plans this year and the Punjab bowler has responded well to the challenges he has been introduced with. The fact that the fast bowler has picked 16 out of 22 IPL career wickets is a hallmark of his success this year.

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5 Bowlers and their success with the knuckle ball in IPL 2017

The knuckle ball was on show on a consistent basis in this year's IPL which prevented the batsmen from scoring freely.

4. Mohit Sharma

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