Jumbo Paeans: Spin Guru pitches in the chorus

O’ Keefe enjoys a unique reputation in Australia as an outstanding leg-spin coach whom Shane Warne speaks to a lot even though Terry Jenner is the spin wizard’s official mentor. He is a leg-spin coach with the Australian Cricket Academy. As a Test cricketer, he did not have much success though, with only 53 wickets from 24 Tests. “When Kumble arrived, he claimed he had worked out a plan. Nobody knew what it was. It’s been inspirational, the long sustained spells and variation-based bowling,” he said.

“Kumble has used that 101-102-K slider, his two-three variations of googly which either opened the gate or had batsman hitting back catches,” he said referring to Kumble’s success on the batting tracks in Australia.

O’ Keefe looks deep at Kumble’s methods against the Australian batsmen in this series and claims what has emerged is a very crafty bowler at the peak of his prowess. “When Brett Lee came in late on the third day, Kumble bowled him a 100-K yorker and followed it up with a 78K wrong ’un, wide. When everybody was thinking he would york him the last ball, he bowled a bleepy wrong ’un,” he said. “When he got Ponting with that spearing stuff, he found the batsman looking to work him on the on side. He just kept slowing a couple up, setting it up, and then the 101-K slider just got his man.”

Ponting suffered a rare failure with the bat in the series in the first innings of the fourth and final Test at Sydney when Kumble trapped him leg-before for 25. “The emotion he showed at Ponting’s dismissal means that is exactly what he wanted. He wanted him, he got him the way he had set out. It was a triumph of thinking out a very fine player of spin.”

O’ Keefe said he has noticed Kumble hates being cut yet he used this as a ploy to get to Steve Waugh. “When I see him slow up and loop a leg-spinner, prior to sending batsmen one that is a bit quick, he wants them to nick it to slips. Whenever he gets cut, he is hurt. Every-time he is cut, he kicks the ground.”

“Yet when Steve Waugh came in, he actually bowled short and gave him a few cuts. Waugh misses cuts so he actually bowled short and gave him a few cuts, with only a man at square point. He had worked that out.”

“Steve Waugh sometimes gets out cutting spinners and he set him up for cuts. He was risking a boundary to get his man,” O’Keefe said.

“Damien Martyn wants to hit you off the backfoot. He barely gets his front foot out of the popping crease. He works standing on his backfoot and does not use his feet much. Kumble kept making it slower and higher for Martyn. He thought if I could bowl the wrong ’un and if he can’t get there, he would hit back. He gave him no width because he is such a good, wristy player. He didn’t give width, wanted him hitting and wanted to work the variations around him.”

O’ Keefe said Kumble might have found it difficult to work around Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden who use sweep-slog as an effective weapon. But to his credit, he showed a body language which was positive and sowed seeds of doubts among Aussie openers.” (PTI)