Neil Wagner says he had to find a way to complement swing bowling experts Trent Boult and Tim Southee. Photo / Photosport.nz
Neil Wagner says he had to find a way to complement swing bowling experts Trent Boult and Tim Southee. Photo / Photosport.nz
Funny how things change. Just three years after Australia's Phil Hughes died from a bouncer bursting an artery in his neck, we are extolling the bouncer virtues of Neil Wagner, clearly the Black Caps' most valuable test bowler.
And so we should, in spite of some disquiet about short-pitched bowling, at which Wagner is very good. In 2016, he was New Zealand's most successful test bowler with 41 wickets at 21 runs apiece; he again heads the list with 36 wickets at 25 in the measly seven tests played this calendar year.
His aggressive short-pitched left-arm bowling also allows strike bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee to be just that instead of doing a lot of the donkey work.
But if he is the most valuable, he is also the most unfashionable.
There has been tut-tutting about his bodyline tactics (where the bowler aims the ball to bounce at the batman's chest from the leg side, an angle which makes it difficult to score or defend, meaning some batsmen are hit and break bones).
Some say umpires are not protecting the batsmen enough, especially after Hughes' death. The reality is, after all the solemn utterings surrounding that tragedy, nothing has really changed — and disapproval of Wagner's methods has dissipated with his success and the fact he hasn't killed anyone.
The rules technically restrict fast bowlers to two bouncers per over in tests — defined as between shoulder and head height. Of brisk but not breakneck pace, Wagner is expert at blurring the line but not crossing it.
Wagner and the Black Caps have reintroduced leg theory as a consistent tactic.
Umpires can intercede if they think the bowling is dangerous and unfair but, in these days of short-form cricket (where the bouncer is policed more vigorously) batsman-friendly pitches, bigger and more punishing bats, short boundaries and the smash-'em, bash-'em, meaningless flail that is Twenty20 cricket, it's good to see the bowler as more than just cannon fodder.
Technique against bodyline is part of batting at this level. It can be played successfully; Wagner went for 73 runs off his 15 overs in the West Indies' first innings in the second test and 102 in the first test, second innings — about five an over, expensive at test level.
And if the West Indies didn't invent intimidating fast bowling, they were certainly the best at it.
Former England batsman Allan Lamb tells the story of facing great West Indies quick Malcolm Marshall in one test when Windies skipper Vivian Richards told Marshall to give Lamb "a serious delivery".
Lamb asked what a serious delivery was. Richards produced a mirthless smile: "It's one you eat, Lamby".
Marshall, Holding, Roberts, Garner, Patterson, Croft, Walsh, Ambrose, Bishop, Hall, Griffiths — that's a West Indies fast-bowling XI all its own. They might not score many runs with the bat but you wouldn't want to be the facing opener chasing them ...
Facing the great Patrick Patterson was not for the faint-hearted. Photo / Getty Images
Patterson was possibly the most fearsome. His leading leg thrust high in the air like a javelin thrower on delivery, he had none of Holding's elegance nor Marshall's ability to move the ball — but he was jaw-shatteringly quick.
In the 1986 series against England in the Caribbean, a series where the Times cricket correspondent wrote of his fears someone would be killed, those who played say Patterson got up to 160km/h regularly.
So if those guys could be regarded as legends and with awe, what's wrong with Wagner affecting the nerves, and underpants, of test batsmen?
As I hope this column establishes, nothing. The Black Caps have rightly praised Wagner for his skill and durability in leg theory — it is easy to get it wrong and get tonked.
But it will never be the stuff of greatness. Many in cricket find bodyline a bit vulgar, not quite the done thing. The bodyliner ranks beneath the bowler who moves the ball.
Marshall had a bouncer that would go for the throat, literally and figuratively. But the man regarded by many as the finest fast bowler ever could also swing the ball both ways, cut it off the pitch — even that difficult delivery, a leg-cutter. His control was excellent; his average of 20.94 is the lowest of any bowler with more than 200 test wickets.
Boult quietly reached 200 wickets in test cricket in this series and stands poised to become New Zealand's third most productive wicket-taker (behind Sir Richard Hadlee and Daniel Vettori) if he overtakes Tim Southee (207 at present), Chris Cairns (218) and Chris Martin (233).
Wagner has 144 test scalps now — at cheaper cost than either Boult or Southee; he reached 100 wickets just one test later than the great Hadlee and three quicker than Boult and Southee.
Boult has consistently shown the ability to move the ball and it is that which will probably see him better remembered than Wagner.
But it likely won't bother Wagner. He'll just keep taking wickets and presenting batsmen with one of the most demanding physical challenges in cricket. It's just a shame the Black Caps don't play more tests ...
