CRICKET: Jon Swift
THERE can be no doubting the petential matchwinning abilities of Richard Snell as a seam bowler. He is one of the few South Africans who can regularly produce the unplayable ball.
Snell remains an enigma. At the heart of the South African one-day revival with four wickets for 37 runs off the nine overs and one ball he sent down in the humiliation of the Pakistanis at the Wanderers, he also provided — admittedly with the lion-hearted Fanie de villiers as a foil — a spel of sustained aggression in his opening salvo.
Yet, come Centurion Park and the New Zealanders the following day, Snell was heavily punished for some raggedly wayward deliveries to the tune of 32 off the only four overs he sent down.
Sir Richard Hadlee, without question a fine cricketing mind, put his finger directly on the inherent problem with Snell’s bowling. It all has to do with Snells delivery stride in the opinion of Sir Richard. And his analysis does much to uncloud the waters which regularly ebb and flow across the rhythm and ability of the angular Transvaal seamer.
“He’s a fine bowler,” says the New Zealand cricket great. “And what’s more, he gets some movement and pace off the pitch. “but with the high foot action, he is always likely to stray a little at times.
“Lifting the left leg as high as he does in his delivery stride means that Snell has to get his foot down precisely in the right spot every time. The margin for error in bowling the way he does is far greater than it would be in someone who bowls through the crease.”
It is a point well made. And one which will remain a poser for both the national selectors and skipper Hansie Cronje.
Snell is far too good a player to sideline — not least of all his ability to get runs quickly down the order. And too much canot be made of his ability to turn a game very rapidly with the ball in his hands.
Thankfully though, Cronje has — at last — got something like the depth of all-rounders to take up the slack on the days when Snell’s foot does slide that minute distance out of true.