Top 5 bowlers with best bouncers

Top 5 bowlers with best bouncers: The existence of bouncers is being questioned today post the tragic demise of Australian batsman Phil Hughes after he was hit by a rising delivery from New South Wales bowler Sean Abbott. That gave us the inspiration to dig into the history of cricket and pick out the best bouncer bowlers and justify why is this delivery so dear to the bowlers and a must have the weapon.

So a bouncer is the effort delivery, usually bowled by a fast bowler; the one  he pitches short of length so that it bounces off the pitch and rises high enough to fly off in front of the batsman’s eye. It is bowled once in a while, used mostly for playing with the minds of the batsmen and for pushing him to the back foot and then setting him up for a fuller one.

This intimidatory style of bowling was famously used for the first time in the 1932/33 Ashes series which was also termed as “The Bodyline series”. It was famously used by the Englishmen as a tactic to stop the touring Australians, especially Sir Don Bradman from piling up huge totals. Later during the 1970s to 1980s, bouncers were used as part of a team’s intimidating tactics to subject batsmen to additional pressure; especially by the West Indies team. This particular type has been used by the bowlers to challenge the batsman and add spice to the contest between the ball and the bats, this fact has been accepted by many fast bowlers who love to bowl the shorter stuff.

Although it is a tough delivery to handle, with proper technique it gives the batsman a scoring opportunity as well. If the batsman has the ability to read the length of the delivery early he can choose his option either to duck under the delivery or to defend it and can attack it with the hook the pull shot.

However modern-day batsman have more innovative options to cope with the chin music bowlers subject them to. The attacking approach tends the batsmen to take on it with the upper cut, which if hit with perfect timing guarantees at least a four, even six sometimes.

Still the effectiveness and impact a well pitched and directed bouncer has can never be ignored. Who can forget the havoc Mitch Johnson wrecked on English batsmen at the Ashes that they looked helpless in front of him. In another and rather rare incident India’s Ishant Sharma pulled up a historic and match winning performance at the Lords test this summer bouncing 6 England batsmen out. India eventually won the test match and made history with it.

Here are some bowlers who had utmost control on their bouncers with which they unsettle the best batsman’s around the cricket world:

5.Malcolm Marshal (West Indies):

Arguably the best fast bowler amongst many others West Indies has produced. Malcolm Marshal had a very good control over his line and length and would outsmart and surprise the batsman with short delivery, most of the times also resulting into painful blows. He had hit Mike Gatting during an ODI in Jamaica in 1986 on face leaving him with a bleeding nose. The impact of the blow was so horrid that the ball rebounded to the bowler after hitting Gatting.