Pathan in the 'swing' of things

For Irfan Pathan, the most important wicket of the just-concluded one-day series against Pakistan was not his first wicket, that of Shahid Afridi, nor was it the delivery that crashed into Taufiq Umar's leg-stump in the final game in Lahore. It was the one that rapped Yousuf Youhana on the pad in the fourth one-dayer.

For him, it was the outcome of well-planned strategy.

The joy of planning a dismissal is the fundamental reason for a bowler to bowl. And nobody understands that better than Pathan today.

At a press conference, Rahul Dravid was asked why Pathan opened the bowling ahead of Zaheer Khan. The Indian vice-captain refused to divulge details of the tactical ploy. Actually, he did not want to admit that Zaheer is not back to peak fitness and Pathan's in-swinging deliveries are Yousuf Youhana's bane.

Pathan told rediff.com that before dismissing Youhana in that over he rapped him on the pads twice but the ball had pitched outside the line.

"It was a maiden over and he was eager to score off me. I swung the ball right into him and fortunately it struck him in front of the wicket," he said.

Pathan reckons the dismissal put Pakistan on the back foot in that crucial game, which India had to win to square the five-match series 2-2.

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"I swung the ball well in the over that I got him. I was confident since I had got him earlier. Dada [Sourav Ganguly] asked me to bowl a bouncer, which I did. I followed it up with a full length delivery pitched up to him and it hit him on the pad, right in front [of the wicket]."

Pathan says the other two dismissals in the final one-dayer, where he returned figures of 3 for 32, were also very satisfying.

"I noticed that Taufiq Umar was shuffling a lot across his stumps and was playing superb strokes on either side of the wicket. If you give him width he goes after you through the off-side; if you bowl across him, he moves to the off and hits you through the on-side. I knew there was no room for error with him.

"So I decided to force him to play from the crease. Two balls earlier we were trying to change the field for him. Dada and I were discussing if we should keep the same field that was kept for him when Balaji was bowling. We thought of pulling fine-leg up and having a deep extra cover. Then I told Dada to just keep the field unchanged. I bowled within the stumps, the ball swung late and he was bowled.

"I got Younis Khan in the 14th over when the ball was not moving much. I was bowling short of length to him because each time I pitched it up he was hitting the ball. But I thought I had a chance there and took the risk. I pitched it up and had him caught."

Irfan's in-swingers were also responsible for souring Shahid Afridi's return to international cricket.

"Afridi is a very good hitter of the ball and that's why it is important to give him a delivery that is not too full. He smashes anything that is pitched up to him. Instead, a short of good length ball that would hit the bails after pitching is the ideal length that worries him," says Pathan.

The 19-year-old's ability to swing the ball both ways without any visible change in action brought him success in the VB Series in Australia, where he emerged the leading wicket-taker with 16 scalps. In the just-concluded ODI series he picked eight wickets in three games to again finish as the top wicket-taker for India.

"It is very important for a left-arm bowler to have a good in-swinger because that is his main weapon. Without that he will never take wickets. Sometimes seam movement happens on its own while at other times you have to toil hard to swing the ball or extract movement from the wicket," adds Pathan, knowing very well that opposition batsmen will soon have a counter to his strategy.

That is when he will have to display his steel as a pace bowler. But, for the moment, there's no doubt the boy from Baroda is in the swing of things!