We waited long for this ball, as Zaheer Khan may not court greatness, but at least he can deliver the yorker.
The laws of aerodynamics will provide the explanation for the yorker. But no law can explain the sense of exhilaration at seeing a yorker dip menacingly and shatter the stumps after sneaking in under the bat. In the list of cricket’s many endearing sights, the yorker will rank way up; it doesn’t matter that it works its magic by moving down.
The yorker is a great coming together of art, science, and sport. Why this sudden interest in the yorker? The reason is that we are finally part of the action after the Vadodara debutant Zaheer Khan unveiled two delectable ones from his yet unseen armory in the match against Kenya in the ongoing ICC Trophy. If a Pakistani youngster dipped a couple of them, it would have us yawn. For he comes from a land that has produced some of the most devastating fast bowlers, who crushed many toes with disdainful ease.
Indian fans have every reason to fuss about a new fast yorker boy. It is a delivery that Indians could only admire and talk about. Almost all their medium-fast bowlers worked hard to master the yorker, but few succeeded. Javagal Srinath especially could have done wonders for his career if he could bowl it at will. But try as he might, he could not master the yorker. No one in the Indian team could bowl classy yorkers. Now we know that Zaheer Khan can bowl lethal yorkers. And we also know that, unknown and unseen, this young man kept plugging away on gloomy evenings on some dusty flat track, promising himself that he would learn the yorker.
What is the magic formula for developing the yorker? No fast bowler has told us in any detail. It must have something to do with rolling the two leading fingers across or down along the seam at the moment of delivery and, more important, hitting upon the right length and pace for the ball to go dip, dip, dip. And then the rattle of timber and the gasp of anger and awe from the batsman. There is danger in attempting the yorker too often without mastering it. A yorker gone astray is like a violin string snapping during the crescendo. It is a shame.
The most bewildering thing about the yorker is that the batsman can spot the wicket-seeking scud coming, but many of them cannot unfurl any defense mechanism. At least not in the time the ball lands somewhere near his toe. The ball curves down way beyond his expectation and finds that four-inch space under the bat to squeeze through. For a batsman who reads the yorker early enough, the only way to salvation is to dig it out. Slam the bat down on the ground so there’s no way the ball can squeeze through. The only problem is that it is not as easy as it sounds. The yorker plays all sorts of 2 tricks on the batsman before it delivers the ball. Zaheer Khan’s yorker makes his repertoire a formidable grace. Then it is a shame on the batsman.
But nothing about the way Shoaib Akhtar or Waqar Younis bowled their toe-crushing yorkers suggests that they had any degree of difficulty in bowling them. But not all fast bowlers have the Pakistani ingenuity in discovering the hidden laws of bowling, be it pace or spin. Pakistani spinners too have been credited with innovative deliveries. Saqlain Mushtaq’s “doosra” (the mysterious”other one”) is too well known. Javed Miandad, a master of mind games as well, used to shout “Terah number dal dena (deliver number 13)” to spinner Abdul Qadir, as soon as a new batsman walked in.
For the new batsman, who would have been grateful for warding off the first few overs from the spin wizard, would immediately go into a shell. Facing the 13th variation from a bowler whose balls waltzed this way and that would not be any batsman’s idea of a picnic at the crease. Zaheer Khan’s repertoire is unlikely to contain the most bewildering thing about the yorker, which is that the batsman can spot the ball coming but cannot unfurl any defense mechanism variants of fast bowling for his captain Saurav Ganguly to do a Miandad and yell, “dus number dal do.” But at least he now has the yorker. But it is too early to say whether he can bowl it at will or whether it is more of a game of chance. It will be the ultimate delight if Khan can get the ball to reverse swing as well.
So let us welcome the yorker boy and hope there’s more to come from his armory that will replenish cricketing tales from the subcontinent. This is not to suggest that Zaheer Khan marks the end of our cricketing woes. For all we know someone will come along and choose this youngster’s deliveries for a show of pyrotechnics, which will light up some picturesque ground. But at least if he masters the yorker, Zaheer Khan will not be hit all over like Malcolm Nash or that Yorkshire legend Hedley Verity, who was hit for 30 in one over (three 6s, three 4s) in 1935 by South African HB Cameron. At the end of the over, his captain told him. “Keep going, Hedley; you’ve got the batsman in two minds. “What do you mean?” a tired, dispirited Verity asked him. The captain replied, “He doesn’t know whether to hit you for four or six!
