In 9 innings Doug Bracewell has 3 times taken a wicket off a no ball.
In his first test he had Regis Chakabva out off a no ball. It was picked up on the TV replay.
In his second test he bowled Michael Clarke, but then Asad Rauf checked upstairs and Clarke was recalled.
Yesterday he had Jaques Rudolph out plumb lbw, but the delivery turned out to be a no ball.
Given this it would be fair to expect that he was bowling no balls left, right and centre. So it's a bit of a surprise to see that he has only bowled 13 no balls in 131 overs. That's roughly one no ball every 60 deliveries. It's just that three of his no balls have been particularly costly.
It leaves three interesting possibilities.
1. When he bowls a no ball, the difference in where the ball comes from makes more of a difference to the batsman than seems likely. It's hard to see this being the case, but 3 wickets in 13 balls is fairly compelling.
2. He bowls more no balls than this, but because other deliveries are not checked they are not picked up. If the third umpire was checking all deliveries then perhaps he would bowl a lot more.
3. The way he runs might make it difficult for umpires to pick up his foot position. This might be the reason that none of these 3 balls were picked up by the umpires, and it required the 3rd umpire each time.
I'd suspect a combination of 2 and 3. And I've suspected 2 is a lot more common these days. Umpires have become a bit lax about no balls. Like the run out, the 3rd umpire is an overused crutch.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree. However batting is a game of inches, and perhaps an inch different is what meant that the Clarke (for example) edged it, rather than middled it.
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