Video: Unusual and innovative batting stance helps batsman counter death bowling

Highest wicket-taker in New Zealand’s domestic T20s, Canterbury’s Andrew Ellis is leading the charts again in 2014/15 Georgie Pie Super Smash T20, having taken 17 wickets this season so far. The next entry on the list is Wellington’s Luke Woodcock with 9 wickets. The difference is a clear indicator of 32-year-old Ellis’s dominance in the tournament.

This Saturday however, Wellington’s Grant Elliot devised a new strategy to counter Ellis’s death bowling.

Ellis speared ball after ball outside the off-stump, with an immaculate full length, making it extremely difficult for batsmen to get behind the ball for a late flourish.

On Saturday, in Wellington’s 25-run victory over Canterbury, Elliot made an outrageous change in his stance against Ellis. The 35-year-old stood well away from his stumps outside off, bringing some unusual flavour to the game.

Surprisingly, Ellis continued to stick to his bowling plan despite Elliot being very clear about his intentions to move around. As Elliot left his stumps vacant behind him, Ellis remained ‘stubborn’, as commentators exclaimed on the air, and stuck to his original plan of bowling wide and full.

On many occasions, the umpire had to be very clear about not calling those deliveries ‘wide’ as Elliot continued to dance around the crease. Things really got weird as a few deliveries almost landed on the edge of the surface.

Watch the spell:

Ellis finally bowled him by hitting the stumps with a straighter one, but the obvious attempt came too late as Elliot’s 23-ball-52 had pushed Wellington to a match-winning total.

Ellis ended up with 2 wickets, albeit at a cost of 43 runs in his 4 overs. After the match, he said he was expecting such innovations after his initial success this season.

“I was always expecting someone to do something to counter it,” Ellis said.

“I'm still quite happy with that option but you have to take your hat off to Grant, he did well. Maybe I have to think of a few things within that plan, maybe work out a few of the intricacies.”

It’s quite surprising that despite Elliot’s thinking being very clear to everyone, Ellis didn’t try hitting the stumps earlier. The veteran defended his actions.

“In hindsight, it probably was an option to go for that earlier, but that's always a risk. I don't have a lot of protection at fine-leg or on the legside at all for that matter.

“And it doesn't matter how good your plan is, it's all about how well you execute it,” he said.

Rising innovations

Keeping it full and wide outside the off-stump has been a usual tactic during death overs for bowlers. Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara famously kept Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni at bay with the same bowling strategy in the World T20 final earlier this year.

But like every new innovation, this is being tackled by batsmen nowadays by taking a wide stance, leaving their stumps clear in order to get behind the line of the ball.

Take for example Ravi Bopara, who has employed this tactic on multiple occasions. Against Australia in a T20 in January this year, his stance was a widely discussed topic. In Natwest T20 blast, Bopara again took a similar stance towards the end of the match (01:11).

While this tactic has helped the batsmen get behind the line, it has also robbed them of the possibility of a ‘wide’ being called by the umpires. Any movement on the crease now leaves the line outside the off-stump, marked for helping umpires call a ‘wide’, useless for such calls.

Now even very wide deliveries, if the batsman has changed his stance outside the off-stump, are declared legal by the umpires, a fair call by all means.