Lack of support for Fallah?

Maharashtra Ranji coach Shaun Williams doesn't think so

Suhrid Barua, Pune Mirror, November 16, 2008

The limitations in the Maharashtra bowling attack were exposed in thedrawn Ranji game against Andhra. Take out Samad Fallah out of thebowling equation and there's hardly anything to gloat about the otherbowlers in the team. Fallah took eight out of the fifteen wickets to fall for Andhra. Andthat doesn't speak much good about the other bowlers. Terming thewicket as a flat one would only be tantamount to an excuse or how elsethe likes of Fallah and Andhra's M Suresh (he reaped 4-75 inMaharashtra' first innings) got richer with the wickets.

So what does coach Shaun Williams think about the lack of support forFallah? "Fallah bowled superbly in both the innings against Andhra.But it doesn't mean the other bowlers were bowling a heap of rubbish.I won't buy the theory that Fallah lacked support from the other end.I thought Aditya (Dole) looked good but was unlucky not to be amongthe wickets. As for Enamul, people are having 'unrealisticexpectations' from him. If you think someone is not bowling well justbecause he is wicketless, then I don't know what to say. As far as Iam concerned, there is nothing wrong with his bowling, you must haveseen how a quite number of close lbw shouts went against him againstAndhra. If a few of those decisions went in Enamul's favour, thingswould have been different," the Aussie jumps to the defense of theformer Bangladeshi tweaker.

Even leg-spinner Digambar Waghmare was used sparingly in the match,bowling just twenty six overs in two innings. Williams tries tojustify that. "Look, save for the second session today, where we driedup the runs, we have struggled to keep it tough from both ends in boththe Ranji games. You don't want to have a leggie bowl from one endwhen the runs are flowing from the other end. It's only when runs dryup from one end you employ them," he explains.

But hasn't Fallah looked the only bowler who looked like gettingwickets every time he comes on to bowl? "Fallah is on top of his gameat the moment. Any team would want their most in-form bowler bowl themaximum overs and the same is the case with us," Williams puts things in perspective.

But there's also a lurking apprehension of 'overbowling' Fallah sincethe youngster has already bowled 91 overs in three Ranji innings. Sowhat's the ideal number of overs a seamer should be bowling on beltersin India? "Ideally, a seamer should be comfortable enough to bowl 25overs a day whatever be the conditions, said Williams, who admittedthat the Maharashtra left-arm seamer is taking a heavy workload."Fallah is bowling a lot and I'm not denying that. Also, rememberFallah is a lot fitter than he was this time last season thanks to thehealthy involvement of our physio and trainer. We are not putting anypressure on Fallah to bowl more. On the contrary, Fallah loves to bowlall the time. He wants the ball on his hand always but at the sametime we are monitoring on our part to ensure he doesn't break down. AsI said before, he's getting stronger than before and is very muchcapable of sustaining the bowling workload he is carrying at themoment. He has four days break before the Uttar Pradesh game and thebreak would do him a lot of good and also to the other players," heexplained.