The ICC Under-19 World Cup kicked off in a grand manner last Friday when a spirited Afghanistan U-19 side took down hosts South Africa by a massive margin of 90 runs. It was leg-spinner Shafiqullah Ghafari’s six-wicket haul that led to the destruction of the Proteas.
Ghafari produced a mesmerizing spell of bowling during which the South African batsmen completely failed to read him. Even though they were dealing with his leg-breaks somehow, Ghafari’s googlies turned out to be a menace for the Protea batsmen. That’s why four of his six scalps resulted from googlies and that sums up the whole story.
Just when it seemed like it would take quite something to match this kind of performance, two other leggies jumped right into the scene. Australia U19’s Tanveer Sangha registered nine wickets in his next two matches, which also included a five-wicket haul against Nigeria U19, and India U19’s Ravi Bishnoi followed suit with six wickets in his two matches, four of which came against Japan U19 during India’s thumping 10-wicket victory.
All three of their bowling averages have been under 10 in the tournament so far. Ghafari has the best bowling average of 2.50 followed by Sangha (4.88) and Bishnoi (8.16). That goes on to say how they have not only picked up wickets but have also been mean in terms of conceding runs.
The most fascinating part about them is how similar their bowling style is. Even though their bowling actions are unique to themselves, all three of them have been moulded to suit the modern-day game. They do not belong to the classical category of leg-spinners who used to bowl slow, focusing more on the flight and imparting as many revs on the ball as possible.
In fact, these three have perfected the art of turning the ball along with bowling fast. More pace on the ball makes their googlies and flippers even more lethal. These deliveries are already hard enough to read and more pace means the batsmen find a lesser amount of time to adjust to the delivery. So it will land the batsmen in trouble on more occasions than what a classical leg-spinner would do with the same delivery. Moreover, the fact that they are leading the wicket-taking charts in the tournament at the moment sums up all about their skill.