WC 2015 NZ vs BAN: Spinner captain revives revolution with new ball

Opening the bowling with a spinner is as old as the three card-trick of the card sharp operating at street corners. While early cricket history shows opening the bowling with leg spinners was the norm more than a century ago, ODI cricket took to it too, never more memorably than in the 1992 World Cup.

On Friday, Bangladesh, cock-a-hoop over having qualified already for a quarter-final - against India in Melbourne on March 19 - took an extreme measure of opening with spinners at both ends to give the tactic another twist.

It might have seemed a no brainer for spinner spin bowling all rounder captain Shakib al Hassan, in charge of the game as the national skipper Mashrafe Mortaza had to skip due to injury. Given the slow wicket conditions of Hamilton, it might have appeared a legitimate tactic to try with Shakib himself opening the attack and giving the other new ball to Taijul Islam. Success was all Shakib’s as he picked up two wickets to give the islanders a bit of a shock.

The surprising tactics were not to be dismissed offhand, which is what Martin Gupthill thought as he played out a maiden first up.

But it was the opener in a hurry, Brendon McCullum who strangely fell into the trap, mistiming a lofted drive into long off as if programmed when long off and long on were the two fielders allowed outside the circle in the opening power play.

And then when the in-form Kane Williamson fell tapping the ball into cover, it appeared as if Bangladesh had put a whole new spin into their contest with New Zealand.

The spin effect did not last long as Gupthill deposited a couple into vast empty stretches on the onside, but it had shaken up the chase somewhat. Accustomed to choking off the chasers at home in spin-friendly environment with their mainly orthodox slow left arm spinners, Bangladesh brought the strategy into a World Cup which had not experimented too much with early spin, although both Daniel Vettori and Ravichandran Ashwin did extremely well when challenged to bowl very early in the innings with the extreme field placement restrictions.

McCullum’s early fall seemed like a replay to the 1992 World Cup when in a match in Dunedin, the shrewd Martin Crowe tossed the new ball to his off spinner Dipak Patel against Krish Srikkanth, a well known big basher of the new ball in those days.

Chika hit the ball straight down the throat of Latham, who was the only fielder positioned outside the ring then, in attempting an egotistical clearing of the fielder.  Crowe was credited with great acumen for bringing this tactic into the World Cup. Shakib took a leaf out of his book to open the bowling with two spinners on Friday.