David Leggat: A short ball for the shortest game

How closely do you listen to what cricket commentators are saying?

So much of what these spruikers say washes over the viewer like elevator music, leaving no lasting impression.

Take the gushing praise from the chatterers at events such as the Indian Premier League. Those men with the microphones are clearly under starters' orders: "Thou Shalt Not Make A Smidgeon of Criticism of Anything Remotely Related to Said Event."

One of them, a very well-known former player, took to regularly referring to suspended IPL boss Lalit Modi as "Moses". Pass the sickbag, please.

Then there's the Channel 9 mob across the Tasman who during Australia's annual summer activities reveal their true, green and gold, colours.

Still, they're playing to a specific market, and are on home turf so you'd expect a certain degree of slant.

But every now and then an intriguing thought is advanced from out of the square box. So it was by former England captain Nasser Hussain during New Zealand's Twenty20 loss to South Africa yesterday.

As New Zealand stumbled towards a 13-run loss in Barbados, Hussain offered an idea on where New Zealand's attack had gone wrong in the first half of the contest.

Things were progressing handily enough for New Zealand for a time. They'd put a hold on South Africa's run rate and the signs were that an eventual target of about 150 was a distinct possibility.

That would have been highly gettable, even for a misfiring New Zealand batting operation.

But AB de Villiers and, especially, Albie Morkel flogged 62 off New Zealand's last five overs, getting them up to 170 for four, which was beyond New Zealand's reach.

Hussain argued that New Zealand had erred by bowling too full a length in the final stages of South Africa's innings.

The most difficult ball to score off in late-innings pressure situations is the yorker, so awkward to get his bat under the ball to get any loft in the shot.

Unless the batsman is adept at stretching forward to sweep, conventional or reverse, or fancies himself a dab hand at the potentially teeth-smashing ramp shot, it is a challenge.

And remember it is at this stage of the innings that batsmen are desperately seeking runs off every ball.

The dot ball is the ideal result for the fielding side - short of a wicket, of course; a squeezed single down the ground the next best outcome.

But it's a high-risk delivery. Get it just a shade wrong, as luckless Tim Southee did in the 19th over of the innings yesterday, which went for 21, and you can be cannon fodder. Three times in that over, lefthander Morkel clubbed Southee down the ground, easily clearing the boundary rope. His 40 off just 18 balls included five sixes and effectively decided the contest.

Hussain contended that given the size of modern bats, playing on a small ground with short, straight boundaries such as Kensington Oval in Barbados, our bowlers were heading for a hiding.

He reckoned they would have been better off to have bowled a shorter length, making the batsman wield the bat horizontally on a pitch far from quick, rather than let them hit through the line.

Whether you agree or not, it was at least an interesting argument.

Funny how the game changes.

During the group matches in Guyana and St Lucia, one of the most popular deliveries from bowlers of medium pace and above, was what is now called a slow bouncer, as if it is a cunning weapon capable of substantial destruction.

Certainly on pitches devoid of pace and with a dodgy bounce, it can produce a crucial moment's hesitation in batsmen.

But for generations such balls were called long hops and were summarily dispatched.