The advent of short-form cricket has pushed bowlers to use new weapons, among them deceptive slower deliveries

Franklyn Stephenson’s throaty chuckle rolls down the phone line. “You know the hardest thing about bowling that ball? I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw how the batsmen were trying to play it! They’d be jabbing here or ducking there, most of them were so clueless!”

Since the earliest days of cricket, bowlers have bamboozled batters with deceptive changes of pace. You can picture those old tricksters now, flannelled and moustachioed, deploying an assortment of sky-high lobs and skiddy, scudding deliveries with a glint in the eye, wreaking havoc on the wealds and downs of southern England.

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2nd over: Australia 12-1 (Inglis 5, Green 0) Cameron Green joins Inglis in the middle. Ireland buzz around but Inglis calms a few nerves with a languid back cut for four through the off side.

Head is run out! Squirts a shot behind square and sets off for as dodgy single, doesn’t get there and is gone!