WTC Final: Dale Steyn explains how Tim Southee dismissed Rohit Sharma with a three-quarter ball

India ended Day five of the inaugural of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final at 64/2 in their second innings, 32 runs ahead of New Zealand. They lost both their openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma. The latter fell just 15 minutes before stumps which put the Kiwis slightly ahead in the game ahead of the final day. Tim Southee’s mastery with the red ball got the better of Rohit and everyone is talking about the delivery he bowled to the Indian opener.

It was a nice set up from the New Zealand pacer bowling consistent outswingers and suddenly, without any change in action, he nipped one back in to stun Rohit Sharma. The batsman shouldered his arms thinking it was another away going delivery but the ball came back in enough to trap him lbw.

So did Rohit fail to pick a proper incoming delivery? No. Tim Southee has developed a delivery which is being termed as a three-quarter ball which makes it difficult for the batsman to judge whether the ball is really coming in or going away. South Africa cricketer Dale Steyn gave an insight into this delivery while speaking to ESPNCricinfo and explained how the actual delivery was bowled.

Dale Steyn dives deep into the three-quarter ball

According to Steyn, the ball is not exactly held cross seam which is why, it is being called as three-quarter seam and then the bowler can either get it to straighten or jag it back in. He felt that the variation delivery can be especially bowled to the left-handed batsmen and bring lbw or bowled dismissals into play. “If you hold that three quarter seam, you can get it to straighten or nibble back in and hit the pads, get bowled to left-handers especially from over the wicket,” he said.

Steyn reckoned that Southee worked over Rohit Sharma nicely with a few away going deliveries and then surprised him with the three-quarter seam while also stating that the Kiwi will bowl more such balls on the final day. Steyn further stated that it is not that easy to execute the three-quarter delivery. Key to executing such a variation perfectly is the wrist running behind the seam smoothly.

“The key is to try and get your wrist, fingers to really come just straight down behind it (seam). You don’t want to have any breaking of the wrist. If you have any breaking of the wrist, it (the seam) kind of wobbles too much. You want that wrist right behind the ball. Southee is good at it. You can see his wrist runs nicely behind that seam and when it lands, the ball nips back beautifully,” Steyn said.