Pune Warriors' Bengal bowler Ashok Dinda on how he generates pace despite not being a six-footer
When you are five feet something, with a physique that would suit a gymnast or a diver, fast bowling is probably the last thing you can dream to do, especially on unresponsive sub-continent wickets, unless you are Ashok Dinda.
Ashok Dinda celebrates a wicket against Kings XI Punjab at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune on Sunday. Pic/Suresh KK
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This 28-year-old has been one of the stars at the start of IPL-V with five wickets in two games including a four-wicket haul against Mumbai Indians for Pune Warriors India.
So how does this Bengal lad break the 140kmph barrier on a consistent basis with this kind of physique? “It’s all about rhythm. I am feeling really well throughout my run-up. Rhythm gives you confidence, and that helps me bowl quick,” Dinda told MiD-DAY yesterday.
“I am asked often about my physique. People say I look like a TT player, or a wicketkeeper, or, at the most, a left-arm spinner. But I have always been like this, very solid (laughs). All I can say is, size doesn’t matter.”
Apart from his ability to generate pace, Dinda’s belief in his former KKR and now Pune Warriors India captain Sourav Ganguly has paid the right-arm pacer rich dividends. “Sometimes I think Dada understands me better than myself.
He just gives me a field and asks me to bowl according to that field, without worrying about anything else. That works for me,” is how Dinda puts it, and one can see an almost blind belief about Dada in his eyes.
Credit to Dada
Dinda also credits Ganguly for his brilliant showing in the domestic season, where he finished with 59 wickets for Bengal. “Dada said that I should have been in the Indian team that went to Australia.
To get that kind of compliment from such a great player motivates you. If Dada hadn’t said that, I might not have bowled as well (in the later part of the season) as I actually did.” u00a0
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