CHENNAI: It is no secret that a yorker is the most valuable currency a pacer must have to thrive in the shortest format of the game. The emphasis on having one or developing one has become paramount for almost all bowlers, international or franchises, across competitions. If you have a yorker, you are, in all likelihood, going to be picked ahead of someone who doesn't.
Because that is what the numbers suggest. A perfect yorker is the best delivery in the format, for more often than not it would end up being a dot ball or a wicket; worst case scenario a single. If you have any doubts, ask Brett Lee who might know a thing or two about fast bowling. He says, "if you hit that yorker zone that I am talking about, the strike rate is at 100 or less which means that one run off that ball or less, that is over 16 years in the IPL."
That in itself is enough incentive for teams to look for pacers who can nail the yorkers, but the key word here is the zone that Lee is talking about. Quite often, the yorker zone that is shown on broadcast starts a bit ahead of the popping crease and ends at the end of the strip behind the stumps. Lee, however, seems to disagree. "I have always said that the yorker zone should start from the popping crease where the batter stands and then go about two inches above the bottom of the stumps. In other words, it is that rectangle between the popping crease and the stumps which is the return crease then the perfect yorker length," said Lee, who is an expert on Jio Cinema for 2023 IPL.
In the ongoing edition of the IPL, there aren't many who have nailed the yorkers to perfection in the zone that Lee is talking about. The death bowling numbers are a reflection of that. Tushar Deshpande has gone for 12.32 runs per over in the last four overs. Harshal Patel (11.71), Mark Wood (10.8), purple cap holder Mohammed Siraj (10.33), Jason Behrendoff (13), Mohammed Shami (10.33), Avesh Khan (11)... none of them have been spared. Sunrisers Hyderabad's T Natarajan, known for his yorker expertise, has gone for 10.85.
The ones who seem to stand out (under 9 RPO) are Arshdeep Singh (8.5), who broke the stumps twice in two balls with perfect yorkers against Mumbai Indians, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (7.75) and Matheesha Pathirana (6.66). Sandeep Sharma and Sam Curran have gone at just under 10 runs per over in the death overs this year. What have they done right? Nailing those yorkers in the zone Lee is talking about more consistently than others.
Take the 18th over of the Delhi Capitals innings against SRH. The fourth ball was a yorker on middle and leg-stump that Manish Pandey jammed behind square for a single. The next one was even better. Angled from over the wicket, Kumar nailed yet another yorker to Axar Patel that swung back into him and cleaned up the stumps. Such was the perfection that Sunil Gavaskar could not stop talking about it in the mid-innings break. He finished with 2/11 in his four overs.
However, the critical point here is that the margin of error is minimal. "If you bowl a foot in front of the popping crease which is still close to the yorker, not in my opinion but obviously the zones, then that is where the batters can go deep in the crease like an Andre Russell those types of key players, Shivam Dube, and launch it over as a half volley for six. So we just have to be very careful when we work out those lengths that they are bowling," said Lee.
The other thing is that with pitches getting slower in several venues, spinners are turning out to be a better option in death, especially in the first innings. They have given away 8.95 RPO while pacers have gone for 11.41. The pacers seem to bowl more in the second innings with dew coming in.
"When you are playing on black soil, the scores are 120-130s and I don't think that is great for cricket. I don't think it's great for the batters, only spinners get a benefit out of it and it's horrible for the fast bowlers. So, if that happens, they have to be able to adjust their lengths and almost go into a fast bowler/change of pace mode, like you are a fast off-spinner. You have to take the pace off the ball, bowling to the wicket, there's no point trying to bowl at 150kph because there is nothing on the wicket," Lee added.
Despite everything, the bottomline comes to this. If pacers are able to execute the yorkers in that rectangular zone as Arshdeep and Kumar have, the rest might not matter much.