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Bowling from too close to the stumps, and bowling too close to the wicket – if there is a bowler ultimate in mastering the basics of the fast bowling, it is Australian bowling spearhead Glenn McGrath. His seam position is exemplary. And the movement so deadly that it invariably gets a batsman drawn into false strokes, like a moth to the fire.

If he does not take wickets, the tight line he exhibits ensures that the batting line-ups are well and truly strangled. Now he has Akram’s record, there will be temptation to compare the two though McGrath himself won’t like the idea. Probably Wasim was a bowler to emulate when McGrath was growing up.

"When you're playing long enough you're going to get a record here or there but Wasim Akram to me is one of the best bowlers of all time. To go past him is something pretty special,'' McGrath said, as he got to 57 wickets, breaking Wasim’s record of 55.

But this humility that great Wasim Akram generates does not mask the fact that Australia would have been quite toothless without McGrath’s incisive bowling. In South Africa in 2003, with Australia badly missing the genius of Shane Warne, banned for using diuretics, it was McGrath’s 21 wickets which got the Cup to the Australian lips.

McGrath in different World Cups

If we see, McGrath’s wickets per match have been progressively increasing with each World Cup. Normally, it is the other way round even with great bowlers. While the Australian spearhead took nearly 11 overs to get one wicket in the 1996 World Cup, his strike-rate has increased to just three overs for each wicket.

Of the 33 World Cup matches, which McGrath has played for Australia, his team has lost just four, with one tie. If they go undefeated this times, well, that will make it just one loss per World Cup in the four World Cups that he has played. Only the West Indies pacers of 1975 World Cup will have fared better with two losses in three World Cups. In comparison. Pakistan along with Akram have lost 13 out of 36 completed matches. In other words, one loss in every three matches.

Win percentage
(Akram versus McGrath)

However, probably the difference was Pakistan’s fielding, which is as unpredictable as their batting. While the Australians’ catching and fielding in the inner circle ensured that McGrath’s accuracy was always rewarded, that was not always the case with Akram.

McGrath invariably ends up with at least one scalp per match in which he bowls at least five overs. His first World Cup was the worst when in his seven matches he went wicketless in three. His failure to strike in the final probably made it little easier for the Lankans. Thereafter, in next three Cups there has been only one instance when McGrath has  bowled more than five overs without taking a wicket. And that was against Kenya in 2003 World Cup!

It would have been interesting to see how India would have fared on Saturday against McGrath’s miserly but penetrative bowling, had they qualified in place of Bangladesh. But on past records, things would have mostly been in favour of the lanky paceman.

Except in the very first match against India, a group match in the 1996 World Cup when Indian batsmen carted him for six runs per over without conceding any wicket, McGrath has always had the measure of the Indian batting.

In the 1999 World Cup, the Super-six encounter between India and Australia was extremely critical considering both the teams had entered this stage without any point and the losers would have been out of the Cup even with two matches remaining. The Australian High Commission had arranged for a special screening for Indian journalists on the evening of June 4. Batting first, the Australians had amassed a massive 282 runs in 50 overs riding on Mark Waugh’s elegantly crafted 83 runs.

The Pitch at Oval was easy but India needed to see McGrath through. However, the spirit of the Indian scribes at the High Commission was dampened by a terrific triple-strike by McGrath which enabled Australia reduce India to 17 for 4.  The deadliest of his delivery was in the first over, when Tendulkar managed to just nick an outswinger to the safe hands of Adam Gilchrist.

One Australian diplomat tried to console the Indians saying only Tendulkar could have nicked the delivery because he was too good a batsman not to have edged it!  Any other batsman would have missed the ball completely, he remarked. But it was no consolation. Despite middle order heroics, India went on to lose the match and a place in the semis. McGrath fittingly got man of the match award.

Tendulkar and India were again on the receiving end four years later when, chasing a huge target of 360 in the final at Johannesburg, Tendulkar tried to hit, of all bowlers, McGrath out of trouble with setting his eyes in. The little Master’s mistimed ariel shot was gleefully grabbed by the bowler. India’s chase once again had almost ended in the first over, despite Sehwag’s fireworks in a lost cause.

Probably, when India and other teams will plan for Mission-2011, they will need much less planning as one of the deadliest bowlers in the World Cups will be missing from Australia’s bowling line up.

A corridor bowler who knew that getting the basics right was the key to getting the desired result in the end.