Former Indian left arm finger spinner Bishan Bedi has passed away aged 77. Bedi played 77 tests and 10 ODI's in an international career spanning from 1967 to 1979. Bedi took 266 test wickets at an average of 28.71.
Of the 82 bowlers to have taken at least 200 Test wickets, only three - Lance Gibbs, Richie Benaud and Derek Underwood - have better economy rates than his 2.14.
Bedi played for Northamptonshire in the County Championship, taking 434 first class wickets at an average of 20.89.
Mike Brearley had this to say about Bedi as a bowler
"Like most great bowlers, his variation was subtle. Of all the slow bowlers of Bedi's time, none forced you to commit yourself later than he did. With tiny, last-second adjustments of wrist and hand-angle, he could bowl successive balls that looked identical, perhaps as if each would land on a length just outside off stump. But with the first he would utensil his wrist more, deliver the ball slightly higher - it would spin sharply, stay wider of off, and be shorter than you anticipated.''
''The next ball, ever so slightly undercut and a little quicker, would pitch further up and come in towards middle and leg stumps. To the first ball you were likely to play inside the line, and away from the body; to the second, outside the line, and round your front leg, so that there was a risk of inside edge on to the pad.''
''The error of judgment induced in the batsman could be as much as a yard in length and a foot in width. And he could make these changes according to what he sensed the batsman was trying to do, in the moment of delivery, so firm and balanced were his action and rhythm."
Brealey's full analysis of Bedi can be read here: Never a cricketer of the year
Of the 82 bowlers to have taken at least 200 Test wickets, only three - Lance Gibbs, Richie Benaud and Derek Underwood - have better economy rates than his 2.14.
Bedi played for Northamptonshire in the County Championship, taking 434 first class wickets at an average of 20.89.
Mike Brearley had this to say about Bedi as a bowler
"Like most great bowlers, his variation was subtle. Of all the slow bowlers of Bedi's time, none forced you to commit yourself later than he did. With tiny, last-second adjustments of wrist and hand-angle, he could bowl successive balls that looked identical, perhaps as if each would land on a length just outside off stump. But with the first he would utensil his wrist more, deliver the ball slightly higher - it would spin sharply, stay wider of off, and be shorter than you anticipated.''
''The next ball, ever so slightly undercut and a little quicker, would pitch further up and come in towards middle and leg stumps. To the first ball you were likely to play inside the line, and away from the body; to the second, outside the line, and round your front leg, so that there was a risk of inside edge on to the pad.''
''The error of judgment induced in the batsman could be as much as a yard in length and a foot in width. And he could make these changes according to what he sensed the batsman was trying to do, in the moment of delivery, so firm and balanced were his action and rhythm."
Brealey's full analysis of Bedi can be read here: Never a cricketer of the year
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