What makes a great bowling partnership?

Walsh-Ambrose (Image - Google Search)

For almost a decade, the fast bowling pair of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad have helped England to register many remarkable victories in test cricket. Both of them developed themselves as one of the best fast bowling pair to have ever played the game.

As Anderson and Broad prepare for what will surely be their final Ashes series as a pair, West Indies fast bowling legends Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose shared their views on what it takes them to form a great bowling pair.

Walsh (519) and Ambrose (405) have collectively taken 924 test wickets in 230 Test matches. They opened the bowling together in 52 Test matches, sending 412 batsmen back on their way. Only two new-ball partnerships have managed more scalps.

“As part of the fast bowling fraternity, and very passionate about it, I love to see fast bowlers doing well. For me, it’s a pleasure to see bowlers doing better than former greats”, says Ambrose.

“What Jimmy and Broad have done for the game, for example, is tremendous,” says Walsh.

“History will tell you that our records were broken, but it’s good to be able to say that. Hopefully another partnership will come along that will be even better, ” Walsh added.

Between 1988 and 2000, only Australia won more Test matches than the West Indies. Their win-loss ratio was also second-best until the end of 1995, when the standard of the team around them began to decline. Who will win Ashes 2019? Know the possible scenario of Ashes 2019 on Betway.

How important is understanding the partner in a pair?

Remembering about their partnership, Ambrose recalls,” Our partnership didn’t start from when I made the team. In 1990 we became roommates, and that is when we learned a lot more about each other and our friendship really started.

 

“We’d have good nights where we’d have dinner together, we’d chat, we’d discuss other things than just cricket. It helped us to understand each other, and how we each thought about things.” Walsh said.

 

“There is no secret or magic to it. If he was taking wickets, then my job was simply to make sure I kept the same pressure from the same end. If it was my day, he’d do the same” Ambrose says.

 

“We looked after each other. I would look to him from the boundary and tell him what I had seen or what I had noticed. And he would do the same for me,” says Walsh.

 

“The best partnerships complement each other, but don’t compete against each other.”

 

Does any competition ever exist between Walsh & Ambrose?

 

 

“Yeah, we would always have a smile, seeing who was going to get the most wickets that day,” says Walsh. “But it was a jovial thing. Curtly was the sort of guy who said, ‘Let’s see who can do things first.’”

 

Ultimately, Walsh and Ambrose had a common goal that would always extinguish any personal tension.

“One of the highlights of the West Indies team was that we cherished everybody’s company,” says Walsh.

“It was a tremendous effort all round – every time you looked at that particular team you’d think, ‘Wow’. What we did was what the team required first and foremost.”

Walsh and Ambrose will be right in the mix, but they won’t really care about the conclusion.

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With Interview Inputs taken from Betway