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Bowling straight no virtue for Ojha
GREATER NOIDA: Despite the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik sports complex being rough and dry, there was little spin on offer on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy
GREATER NOIDA: Despite the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik sports complex being rough and dry, there was little spin on offer on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy tie on Sunday. India Green left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha struggled, though off-spinner Jalaj Saxena surprised India Blue skipper Gautam Gambhir with a couple of deliveries that turned square.
But Ojha, the former India left-arm spinner, despite his high-arm action, has been unable to turn the ball, returning figures of 18-1-75-0.
During his India Test stint before he was grounded for a suspect action, Ojha was a different bowler. After re-modelling his action, he has lost his effectiveness. Ojha used to bowl off a diagonal run-up, which helped stay closer to the stumps and the high-arm action helped land on the middle and off-stump. The ball would turn away nicely, drift and even dip from that height.
It seems the changes to his action have diminished the strengths of a spinner who could turn the ball even on wickets that helped less turn. Now, with a straighter run-up, Ojha rarely gets near the stumps. Earlier, he would go wide of the crease to bowl an armer as a surprise, but now every delivery is bowled from the same spot.
In the first Duleep Trophy tie, he took three wickets against India Red, two of them through arm deliveries to dismiss lower-order batsman Ishwar Pandey.
While the bent in his arm had helped put revolutions on the ball, the pivot of the front foot helped get the ball to dip. After changing his action to root out the illegal deliveries, he is unable to complete the twist and hence the ball drops short. His usual deliveries land with an angle and because of that, the pace increases and batsmen cover it well.
West Indies finger spinner Sunil Narine too faced problems after his bowling action was rectified. His deliveries lost dip and turn, rendering him ordinary.
On Sunday, Mayank Agarwal dominated Ojha. He appeared helpless. He showed his frustration to ‘keeper Parthiv Patel saying he pitched it right but the ball did not turn. Ojha was never in such a position before.
