Morne Morkel refuses to alter his run up despite bowling 6 no balls in Lord’s Test

South Africa lost the first of the four-match Test series against England at Lord’s on July 9. The hosts defeated Proteas by a huge margin of 211 runs with a day to spare. It was South Africa’s worst performance against the hosts. They committed a number of mistakes in the game one of which was bowling a lot of no balls. Paceman Morne Morkel would’ve had different figures had he not overstepped on deliveries that turned out to be wicket-taking ones.

Despite bowling as many as 6 no balls in the first innings of the opening Test he thinks this doesn’t call for a tweak in his run up. When Morkel got one through the gates of Ben Stokes he was batting on 44 but the umpire signed a no ball instead of raising his finger towards the sky.

“World record, thank you. Somebody needs to hold it. Its 13 wickets I’d like to have in the bank but it have not to be,” Morkel told reporters ahead of the second Test at Nottingham that beginning on Friday. “It’s not acceptable. It’s a controllable thing,” he added.

Though Stokes couldn’t capitalise on the life and was dismissed by Kagiso Rabada having added another 12 runs to the scoreboard the overstepping problem certainly needs to be addressed.

Admits his mistake

“It’s a rush of blood to the head, wanting to create something with the older, softer ball. Maybe I ran in too quickly and just over-strode,” Morkel said. The tall paceman’s long limbs are perceived by many to be behind his frequent overstepping but Morkel felt it was more down to rhythm and altering the run-up was not the solution.

Run up change not a solution

“I need a lot of rhythm and timing is crucial for me,” the 32-year-old said. “The more I’ve bowled in a test match, the better my timing and my feel at the crease was. I can’t make my run up longer, I can’t make it shorter. I’m just going to stick with it. The only thing I can do is keep on working on that work on getting the foot behind the line,” Morkel added.

The hosts lead the four-match Test series 1-0 as the teams prepare to clash at Nottingham for the second game.