Josh Hazlewood has been expensive in recent games.
Josh Hazlewood’s lengths are immaculate, which makes him so effective in the powerplay. Hence, batters need to disrupt his lengths and force him to think differently to succeed. That’s what they have been trying to do in recent matches.
ALSO READ:
Shubman Gill and the Gujarat Titans (GT) came in with a settled plan to deny Josh Hazlewood the use of his trademark good length right from the start in Ahmedabad a couple of weeks back. As a result, the openers, especially Gill, stepped down the track or consistently came on the front foot to attack him. The move worked, as Hazlewood conceded 37 runs in his first two overs, including his joint-most expensive over for 24 runs, and never recovered.
Later, Mitchell Marsh and Rohit Sharma were also seen doing the same in RCB’s next two games. They didn’t mind playing on the up by either coming down the track or leaning forward. That showed there’s a clear pattern developing in how batters approach against Josh Hazlewood early in the innings.
In the first five matches, batters played just 44.19% of deliveries on the front foot or by stepping down the track in the first four overs against Hazlewood. In the last three games, that figure has jumped sharply to 74.19%. The shift suggests a clearer plan: turning his hard lengths into fuller ones since he refuses to change his lengths.
This change is reflected in the interception points as well. Across the first five games, batters met the ball on average 0.31 metres in front of the crease. In the last three, that point has moved out to 0.74 metres – a sizeable shift of 0.43 metres.
In other words, the intent to attack remains the same, but the approach has become far more deliberate and refined. That, in turn, has nudged him slightly shorter: his average length in the first four overs has moved from 7.22 metres in the first five games to 7.73 metres in the last three. He can’t afford to bowl too full (4-6 metres) anymore; that share has dropped sharply from 20.93% to 6.45%, while deliveries pitched at 8+ metres have risen from 25.58% to 35.48%.
Batters have nullified his threat successfully with a proactive approach. In the last three matches, Josh Hazlewood has conceded 14.20 runs per over and a boundary every 2.50 deliveries in the first four overs. More importantly, he has gone wicketless in all three innings during this phase.
KKR have Finn Allen, who is well-suited to take on Josh Hazlewood in the powerplay. Ajinkya Rahane hasn’t been in great form, but he has the game to counter the RCB pacer. Still, the onus will mostly rely on Allen to follow the template batters have employed in the last few matches.
He has played around 63.26% of deliveries from the front foot or by coming down the track in the first four overs vs pace this season. His strike rate and balls-per-boundary on such balls have been 145.16 and 3.44, respectively. Allen has been dismissed twice in 16 deliveries against Hazlewood, but will still need to go hard.
The plan should not be to let him settle or hit those consistent lengths, even if that requires taking extra risk. That’s also been Allen’s strength, for he attacks around 81.94% of powerplay deliveries. He must do the heavy lifting for the Knight Riders when the ball is new again.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
