T20 World Cup 2026 | Marco Jansen puts on show his bag of tricks

Ahmedabad: Just like any other sport, cricket has undergone massive change over the years. The flat surfaces, the improved bat qualities and the shorter boundaries have all resulted in reducing bowlers' role to that of mere participants in white-ball formats.  

Trends and consumption demands suggest cricket will remain a batter-friendly sport, and the latest being the hype around 300-plus totals in the ongoing T20 World Cup. 

To their credit, however, bowlers constantly look to evolve to keep themselves relevant by expanding their bowling armoury.  

Among a myriad variations that have been discovered, the knuckle ball and the back of the hand slower delivery have been the most effective for fast bowlers. 

For the unversed, a knuckle ball is the one where the bowler grips the ball with their knuckles of the index and middle fingers instead of using the finger tips. 

Whereas for the back of the hand delivery, the bowler rotates the wrist to generate top spin, so that the ball dips before it gets to the other end. 

At the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad here, Marco Jansen unfurled his full repertoire of tricks, en route to his career-best T20I figures of 4/40. 

"I've been training that knuckle thing. It's not a knuckle, but it's also not the palm. It's basically like my own version between the two," Jansen said. 

Just when New Zealand were crawling back into the game, from a wobbly 64/4 to 138/4, Jansen deployed his new weapon, completely bamboozling a set Mark Chapman. 

The delivery held in the surface, inviting a mistake, as Chapman was a little too early on the shot and had his leading edge go to backward point. 

"There was a period where people bought the palm ball. But this, it is a little different as you keep it deep in the palm. Very satisfied that it is coming off." 

When asked about where he found the inspiration to add to his skillset, Jansen said it was about constantly evolving as a bowler. 

"Personally, it was just to get another ball to add to my arsenal. I felt like I only had the one variation and the batters could line me up. So that was the whole thought about it." 

Earlier in the powerplay, Jansen had dismissed the dangerous Finn Allen with another one of his variations: the off-cutter. 

The left-arm quick's off-cutter is slightly lower in trajectory than his knuckle-palm ball, and dips a little quicker than his new variation. 

"The off-cutter is just a normal off-cutter that I've just been training to be a little bit better. And they both worked for me today."

While unpredictabiliy remains a necessity in a game that's constantly changing, Jansen also underlined the importance of sticking to the strengths and adapting to each surface. 

"Normally I try to go a bit fuller because I get more bounce, which has helped me. And then, it's just basically what the wicket offers. If the wicket has a nice pace and bounce, I try to stick to my line and lengths.”