Wednesday 18 May 2011

Bowling of the day: Dominic Cork, Old Trafford, 1995


One of the great bowling oddities, and a pleasure to watch. On paper he should barely have been a county bowler, let alone a pretty successful Test one.  He had a beautiful action, but he rarely reached 80mph even in his prime, and he didn't move it all that much. He was just had an irrepressible will to take wickets and a superb bowling brain, particularly in his mixing the hooping outswinger with the faster straight one. He's still able to shock people even as he touches 40 - just ask Keiron Pollard. In 1993 during the B&H cup he completely befuddled Wasim Akram with the bat, using different guards so intelligently that Akram had no idea. Truly the thinking man's cricketer, and it's no wonder he's been able to sustain his career to such a ripe old age.

6 comments:

  1. Along with Malcolm Marshall and Merv Hughes, a fine exponent of the sharply angled run-up. I think there was a decent Pakistani quick who also ran in from mid-off but can't remember who it was.

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  2. Yes, there was, and I think it was either Ata-Ur-Rehman, Aaquib Javed or Mohammad Akram - maybe the first?

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  3. Nope, think it was Aaqib Javed, hot-headed gooseberry to Wasim and Waqar on the seminal (for a number of things including reverse swing and a decade of underachievement by English batsmen) 1992 tour of England.

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  4. Hmm, had a look on Youtube and it's inconclusive. You're right about the hot headedness - he was the one who caused all those arguments by trying to bounce the crap out of Devon Malcolm. Beautiful action though.

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  5. Pakistani cricket in a nutshell: wonderful technique allied to a wildly volatile temperament.

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  6. Like Afghanistan: they play cricket like war. Huge sweeping generalisation, but I think there's some truth to it...

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