Cricket World Cup: Seam bowling all-rounders proving vital

Seam bowling all-rounders like Mitchell Marsh could prove vital during the Cricket World Cup. Photo / Getty

Expect seam bowling allrounders to emerge as the most crucial piece of the puzzle as the World Cup progresses towards the knockout phase.

Both Indian captain MS Dhoni and his counterpart Misbah-ul-Haq pointed to the balance of the Pakistan team as a potential problem for the 1992 winners - due mainly to the fact they don't have a batsman who can bowl pace.

The batting powerplay and the fact that you can have a maximum of four players outside the circle at any given time has meant that teams can no longer get away with carrying four bowlers and hope to manipulate bits-and-pieces cricketers to get your remaining 10 overs. Captains now need to be able to call on five genuine bowlers. Unless one of them is a genuine batsman, that means you are going into games, like Pakistan did at Adelaide yesterday, with a long tail.

"With these restrictions in the field now we are not actually getting the balance right because you need a fifth bowler, so that's why sometimes you just have to sacrifice another batsman," Misbah said.

The Pakistan skipper scored a rearguard 76 in a hopeless cause, but he couldn't protect an overly long tail.

"They don't have the kind of players that they had," said a triumphant Dhoni of his greatest rivals.

"I feel their strength was all-rounders and now they don't have that luxury of that, so they have to go in with a three-two [seam-spin] combination.

"And if you don't have a seam-up all-rounder it actually affects the composition of the side."

Pakistan, in restricting a rampant India to 300-7 when a score of 320-plus looked certain, became the first team to effectively stifle a batting side in the death overs, something that is becoming increasingly difficult to do.

"What we have seen is that it can be difficult to contain because of the pace of the wicket and also with that extra fielder inside, at times you don't know really where to bowl in order to contain the batsman," said Dhoni.

Seam-bowling batsmen at the CWC
Mitchell Marsh - Australia
Corey Anderson - NZ
Angelo Mathews - Sri Lanka
Darren Sammy - West Indies
Shane Watson - Australia