A lion in gold, and a lamb in white

I think it’s a combination of batsmen forcing the pace against him in ODIs and the fact that he suffers from a bit of the ‘Symonds problem’ – he needs a simple, clearly defined task. I just don’t think he has it in him to bowl to a plan a la Mcgrath/Clark et al.

There’s something about the ball difference I reckon.

Watch him play with the white ball, and he gets dramatic swing early on, and more importantly it is late swing.

He just doesn’t seem to be able to do that anywhere near as often with the red ball, and when he does achieve swing, it’s rather early in the trajectory, and the batsmen have time to play the ball.

The thing I don’t get with Lee is why he still bowls so many no-balls. Why not just back it all off by 10 cm? He’s not going to lose that much pace… and he’s got a fair bit to start with.

Another thing that strikes me about Lee is that he rarely ever seems to out-think batsmen. He’ll beat them with sheer pace, or a wicked reverse swinging yorker, but he doesn’t seem to have the ability of McGrath or Clark (or even Gillespie at his best) to stick to a plan that outwits the batsman.

I think he’d have to think his position was under threat after this series if he doesn’t pick up his performance, but I guess with McGrath leaving….

Actually, when the batsmen get after him in a ODI, all that happens is that he goes for a lot of runs. At his speed the slightest tap or mishit easily goes for 4 or 6 over the fieldsman’s head. When I have seen him, he is at his best in a ODI or test when the batsmen are in a defensive frame of mind, then get frustrated and try to speed up their scoring. He is also best in short spells, particularly against new batsmen who haven’t yet got the measure of his pace. Unsuccessful long spells rapidly frustrate him and he starts bowling rubbish bouncers. He lacks answers when conditions favour the batsmen, lacks accuracy, and can’t tailor his bowling to the conditions the way Warne & McGrath & Clark can. He can bowl to a simple plan as we saw with his numerous and unsubtle wide balls to Flintoff, but can’t adjust when the plans fail. His one weapon is pace, which batsmen adjust to quickly nowadays. In short, Lee isn’t a great bowler, but the combination of circumstances that happen to suit his bowling are found often in ODI’s. As for his no-balls, it appears that really does need that extra few centimetres – witness his wickets with uncalled no-balls in the current Ashes series.