Explained: The wide yorker and its growing popularity in T20 cricket

Taking the pitch out of the equation, a fast searing yorker is bowled at the base of the batter's boots and by the time he moves his legs to save them and before the bat comes into play, the ball, on many occasions would have already crashed into the stumps. Many batters have been injured also when they failed to move their feet out of the line of the ball in time and have then of course been adjudged out LBW. A traditional yorker is indeed a thing of beauty when executed to perfection. Over the years in cricket there have been many exponents of the perfectly executed yorker and stumps being sent cartwheeling. In more recent times, the likes of Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Starc, Jasrit Bumrah, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult, Shaeen Afridi, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Kagiso Rabada and T Natarajan, among others, find mention on the list of bowlers who can bowl that perfect yorker. The traditional yorker:

TRADITIONAL YORKERS IN CRICKET 1

With the advent of technology, and with the edges and the sweet spot of the bats getting thicker and better, batsmen now move away from the stumps, giving themselves room to execute a wild swing with the willow and if they do connect well, the ball is bound to go past the ropes, more often than not. And with the feet out of the line of the ball, batsmen sometimes are also able to block the ball with their bats. To counter this, bowlers developed the wide yorker, which may not get them wickets, since the batters' stumps are taken out of the equation here, but can result in a dot ball, which in T20 cricket is as precious as gold-dust. So what exactly is a wide yorker? The length of this delivery is similar to the traditional yorker, bowled full. It's the line that makes it different from the age-old