IRE vs SA | Wayne Parnell steam-rolls the Irish batting

South Africa and Ireland faced off in the second match of the T20 series at the County Ground in Bristol, United Kingdom. With the type of fight displayed by the Andrew Balbirnie's team in the first match a close contest was expected in the curtain closer of the series. 

The start of the match made the viewers even believe that Ireland might end up winning the contest. But a tremendous batting show by Heinrich Klaasen, followed by Wayne Parnell's knockout punch ensured that South Africa emerged as the convincing winners of the series. 

The Proteas set a target of 183 runs for the host after batting first in the match. But Wayne Parnell struck early and derailed the Irish chase. 

Parnell picked up 5 wickets for 30 runs in the match, his career best. What he did throughout the match was executing set plans as per the batter he is bowling to and the situation of the match. 
He bowled two spells in the match, each of two overs. Let us look at the lengths and variations he bowled in the two spells.

(Here we will consider his second spell as the Death Overs because he was brought in with the objective of finishing the tail off quickly).  

Spell Wise comparison of Parnell's bowling:

Phase wise length comparison of Wayne Parnell

Now let us see the type of deliveries he used in the two phases

Phase wise variations of Wayne Parnell

So, the two figures gives us some indications of how Parnell bowled in the two phases.

Powerplay:

• In the Powlerplays, Parnell looked to bowl full and tried to get a bit of movement of fthe pitch.

Death Overs:

• In the Death Overs, he shortened his length a bit and used different types of variations.

Now, if we take a look at the wickets he got it will give us an idea how Parnell read the pitch and the conditions very well.

Parnell got 2 wickets in the first spell and 3 in the second. These are the lengths and variations where he picked up those wickets.

Wickets in the First Spell:

Wickets in Second Spell:

So, Parnell's tactics to look for movement rewarded him with two wickets in the first spell. While in the second spell, he did the right thing in using his varieties. As, it was the cutters and the pace-off delivery that gave him wickets in the second spell.

The bowling analysis speaks of a matured bowler who understands the conditions and the match situation perfectly. It seems like during the five year break from International cricket, Wayne Parnell has developed himself into a willy T20 specialist. 

Also Read: Wayne Parnell's career-best figures help Proteas seal series