Five greatest exponents of the yorker in cricket

#2 Joel Garner

In his day, no one bowled yorkers with as much accuracy as Joel Garner

There are two types of fast bowlers that excite the fans most: those who are quick and those who are very tall. ‘Big Bird’ Joel Garner falls in the latter category. He was probably the slowest of all the West Indian great bowlers of his generation but no less effective than any of them.

A shoulder surgery early on in his career slowed down his pace but didn’t affect his skill. In ODI cricket, he was known to be the best bowler in the death overs. The biggest reason for this quality was his yorkers.

A man who was 6’8” and let the ball go at an even greater height bowling a perfect yorker would have been a great sight to behold. His accuracy was unerring and it was claimed by no less a person than Ian Botham that he never saw the big man getting hit around in the death overs. Sunil Gavaskar too, revealed that he saw Garner as the best exponent of the yorker.

When you are a giant like Garner, batsmen are anyway reluctant to get on the front foot due to the potential of extra bounce. So, when a delivery is heading towards the batsman’s toes, it would be a nightmare.

On top of that, the unerring accuracy which he possessed meant that his yorkers usually landed in the perfect spot. All that the batsmen could do is block. No wonder, batsmen of that era found him most difficult to score off in end overs.