Saeed Ajmal: 22 yards and 15 degrees of England!

Bent arm or not, he has bent quite a lot of batsmen!

While watching the bicentenary match between Marylebone Cricket Club and Rest of the world at Lord’s, this one man fascinated me like no one else amongst the legends did.

Saeed Ajmal came in with a smile, and in a whiff he had dismantled the legendary lineup of ROW. In the rival side, two greatest spinners in the history in Murali and Warne were about to bowl in tandem (which sadly didn’t happen) and there was Daniel Vettori, one of the greatest left-arm spinners of all time, by his side, but Ajmal had already taken the “best spinner of the day” trophy home in the battle of immortals.

Ajmal is Pakistan’s finest spinner since Saqlain Mushtaq, arguably better if we leave records aside. Despite starting late, he has made his own mark in the world of cricket with his quirky doosras.

He is Misbah-ul-Haq’s greatest workhorse as well as knight. The skipper always finds him needful of this amazing talent. With 169 scalps in 33 Tests, Ajmal hasn’t disappointed his cricket crazy nation either. Even the Lankans and Indians, two best spin playing sides fear his spells. Watching him bowl against the team you are supporting can be painful as the best of the batsmen helplessly submit to his prowess more often than not.

His biggest quality is his ability to deceive the batsman with his fingers. Let me explain that in a little detail.

The ‘other’ doosra

Other than him, his senior Saqlain Mushtaq who invented it, Muttiah Muralitharan and Harbhajan Singh are notable names who used doosra in their arsenal. In all the other three cases, the legendary bowlers did the trick with their wrist. If a batsman was able to observe the wrist movement before the delivery, they could distinguish the doosra.

In case of Ajmal, his fingers do the trick. Till the very end of his delivery of the ball, one can hardly say whether it is a doosra or a normal off-spinner. He also bowls a lot flatter trajectory. This makes him someone not like anyone before.

Ajmal has this amazing brewing love for England. He was first recognized by Worcestershire in 2011, when he took 16 wickets in eight Twenty20 appearances and 17 in three Championship matches at county. He was recently reinstated by the county club for 2014 season and the off-spinner from Pakistan is better than anyone else by miles. Among his own teammates, Ajmal remains the top scalper with 56 wickets in 8 matches at an average of 15.

But England has not been too rosy for Ajmal either. Recently during a county game, he was accused of chucking by English legend Michael Vaughan.

Vaughan posted a still photograph of Ajmal’s bowling during the game on Twitter with the caption "You are allowed 15 degrees of flex in your delivery swing.... #justsaying."

7 for 19 for Saeed Ajmal this week....!!! pic.twitter.com/daCKtCfwm9

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) May 21, 2014

If that was not enough, Stuart Broad, English pacer, commented on the post,

"This has to be a fake photo?!" before a further tweet stated: "Bowlers can bowl very differently in a lab while being tested compared to needing wickets in the middle."

Ajmal felt offended by the derogatory comments of Englishmen and asked ECB for action.

It has long been known that Ajmal bowls with a bent arm. That is not against the playing regulations of ICC though, and after comprehensive testing, the authority concluded that his arm did not flatten by 15 degrees and therefore his action was declared genuine.

It is not new for the Englishmen to bash Asian spinners for their actions. No one could avoid that. Legendary Murlidharan had to go through a public test on TV in 2002 which became more of a reality show. It was utterly humiliating for World’s greatest ever off spinner.

Mystery balls were always been looked with an eye of disdain and mistrust by the English.

While several other countries welcomed the unconventional ways which led to inventions such as the doosra, the vast majority of English spinners continue with the traditional methods in an environment that has become, with improved technology, pitches and more aggressive batsmen, ever more antagonistic.

The ECB still uses a different technique to measure the legitimacy of bowling actions to that used by ICC. While they often deny the severity of their yardsticks, the fact remains that very few heretical bowlers have emerged out of this process in England.

Any foreign player, in this case Ajmal, has to go through same severity when playing in County despite being cleared by ICC.

But has that stopped this amazing performer from succeeding in England? No!

With the best figures of 7/19, average of 15 and 56 wickets in 8 matches this year for Worcestershire; one has to wonder in amusement about his talent.

Here is respect and adoration from across the border to one of the greatest spinners of our times.