Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh heaped big praise on paceman Mohammed Shami for his incredible numbers in the ODI World Cup history. With a fifer against Sri Lanka on Thursday, Shami has now become the leading wicket-taker for India in the World Cups – 45 wickets. The senior pacer has been in terrific form in the ongoing mega tournament with 14 wickets in just three matches.
Harbhajan suggested that Shami’s number of wickets in the World Cups is equivalent to eight to nine centuries for a batter in 14 matches.
“It’s a stat that if I have to compare it to a batter, it’s like eight to nine hundreds in 14 matches. It is such a huge performance, which we probably do not count. At times it seems like it is a batter-dominated game, there is no doubt about that,” Harbhajan said on Star Sports.
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Shami ran riot with the ball against the Sri Lanka batters as they failed to put up any challenge and were bundled out for just 55. It was Shami’s second fifer in the ongoing World Cup.
Talking about Shami’s bowling versus Sri Lanka, Shami suggested that the paceman stuck to his basics and made things difficult for the batters.
“It was old-fashioned bowling. This is real bowling. Cricket is about basics. The basic thing is that you have to beat the bat and it will only happen when the bat is close to the ball and there is late movement. He makes that happen,” he added.
Harbhajan further talked about Shami’s stock ball and seam which makes him one of the best in the world at the moment.
“You might have a lot of variations but those variations are useful only if you have a good stock ball. He has such a good stock ball, the seam is so good, the ball pitches at the same spot and moves either in or out. The most important thing is that he knows how to make the batters play,” he added.
Harbhajan pointed out how Shami set up the wicket of Angelo Matthew on Thursday.
“He knows when to make the batters drive the ball, play on the backfoot, or bowl the bouncer. See how he dismissed Mathews. He first kept the ball away from him and then bowled an absolute full delivery which he completely missed. Then he deceived the new batter and got him caught in the slips,” he concluded.
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