New Zealand’s Bowlers Masterclass: The Art of Bowling Fuller Lengths on Green Mamba Pitch

Green mamba pitches are a hallmark of Tests at Basin Reserve, Wellington. The surface is often indistinguishable from the verdant square and outfield until the groundsman paints the crease lines.

Batters lower their ambitions at the sight of the terror, all the way down to gritty thirties. Pacers rub their hands in glee, approaching the analyst with a weird request: finding the captain’s win-loss record at the toss.

In recent times, however, the seemingly unmowed tracks at the venue have flattered to deceive, rather astonishingly. Sent in, teams have managed first innings scores of 580/4, 435/8, and 460 in the last three Tests.

As the Australian openers put up a fifty partnership, Tim Southee grew anxious. Was a familiar tale unfolding? Such helpful tracks can be red herrings, making bowlers think wickets are a given.

If you are lulled into this false sense of entitlement, discipline goes out of the window and greed overpowers sensibility. New Zealand being the hosts knew better. A gusty breeze behind him, Matt Henry elicited tight, gasp-inducing leaves from Usman Khawaja after squaring up Steve Smith twice in his first over thanks to the scrambled seam.

Practically on the move due to his exaggerated trigger movement which takes his backfoot right across the stumps, Smith was hit thrice on the thigh pad by first change Will O’Rourke and even had a frontfoot lbw appeal against him turned down.

27 runs came off 15 overs in the first hour of play as New Zealand denied Australia a runaway start, with Smith’s pursuit of a kamikaze single indicative of his bubbling edginess.

Although the scoreboard was slowed to a crawl, the fact that New Zealand had no rewards to show for their control meant they were nailing the defensive lengths when the conditions were ripe to attack.

Smith and Marnus Labuschagne fell in identical fashion, sitting in the crease to poke at away-nibblers. It was an uncharacteristically withdrawn knock from the protege known for occupying the middle with incandescent purpose.

On a couple of occasions, he stonewalled half-volleys, lumbering to 1 off 27 balls before the curl engineered by Scott Kuggeleijn’s round-arm action extended his lean patch.

Within the last 13 months, Labuschagne’s Test batting average has dipped from 60.82 to 50.82, the nadir since November 2019.

Henry had rigorously tested Khawaja’s awareness of the off-stump with the new ball from over the wicket and the southpaw passed the test with flying colors, notwithstanding the theatrical oohs and aahs.

Having done the hard yards, Khawaja played all over the inswinging brute while Travis Head, his mind possibly preoccupied with the bouncer owing to the placement of leg-gully and deep square leg, flashed at William’s tempter as Australia plopped from 61/0 to 89/4.

The advantages of bowling a length landing closer to the batter are manifold. To begin with, the fuller ball swings further because it is in the air for longer, and therefore has more time to deviate.

Fuller balls deviate less off the pitch. That is, they hit the ground with a smaller vertical component to their velocity, and so are less likely to deviate off the pitch, and do so to a lesser degree.

This is then exaggerated by the fact that any deviation on pitching will have a greater effect the further the ball travels afterwards. It explains the large number of plays and misses in the first hour.

The ball was seaming appreciably off the good length but since the openers refrained from feeling for the ball, nicks were non-existent, by and large. The deviation was essentially too great to produce an edge.

Pitching the ball fuller reduced the degree of deviation, increasing the potential for a graze. Last but not the least, fuller lengths bring the stumps into play more, snowballing the scope of bowled and lbw dismissals.

Cameron Green’s rearguard act dragged Australia to 279/9, but the fact that New Zealand stand a good chance to wrap the innings under 300 boils down to the amendment that was made when the peekaboing sun was about to reach its zenith.