Faulkner explains battle of the bluff

In addition to sleight-of-hand slower balls and unhittable yorkers, Australia’s World Cup Final hero James Faulkner has revealed bowlers are now also resorting to blatant bluffing to try and quell rampaging batsmen in limited-overs shoot-outs.

As the ever-increasing size and power of bats along with the correspondingly shrinking girth of playing arenas means limited-overs games are skewed heavily in favour of runs scorers, Faulkner concedes the battle is now as much a mind game as a cricket match.

Quick Single: Bowlers preparing for more carnage in NZ

As an allrounder who understands the expectations and capabilities with bat and ball, Faulkner admits that bowlers and captains are setting fields to try and trick batters into thinking they will employ a specific mode of attack only to do precisely the opposite.

Which is not only counter-intuitive, it also heightens the risk of being hit for even more runs if the batter is awake to the scam and is able to exploit it to his own advantage.

For example, Faulkner explained today as he prepared to join his fellow ODI squad members in New Zealand for the three-match series against the Black Caps starting on Wednesday, the sight of a square leg fielder on the boundary combined with mid-on and mid-off inside the circle would ordinarily signal a short-pitched delivery is on the way.

WATCH: Aussie quicks brace for short Auckland boundaries

Instead, by bowling full and straight, the wishful bowler might hope to trap his adversary with his weight on his back foot which, in turn, would stifle attempts to hit the ball back down the ground.

However, should the batter guess right, then yet another boundary is all-but assured.

"It’s so hard to defend it doesn’t matter how good you are and if you execute (bowling plans), teams can still hit you for a minimum of 10-12 runs an over," said Faulkner, man-of-the-match in Australia’s World Cup triumph over New Zealand at the MCG last March.

"If you’re going into the last 10 (overs) only two (wickets) down and you’re not getting 100-plus (runs) off that, then I don’t think you’ve done well enough with the bat.

"So I think you’ll find a lot of bowlers at the moment will double bluff - set fields because batters are so good now at reading the play with what bowlers are going to bowl that you have to take the punt every now and again.

"Maybe throw one a bit wider and slower when you’ve got a field that’s not really protecting that (delivery), or full and straight when you might not have a square leg out just to try and get the batsmen off guard and get wickets.

"Because the best way of restricting a team to under 300 and stop them from getting 350 is taking consistent wickets throughout the innings.

"That’s stating the obvious, but you’ve got to find a way because batters are so skilful these days."

In the wake of last year’s ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, playing conditions for the 50-over game were changed to try and minimise the dominance that bat continues to enjoy over ball when games are played on hard, flat pitches that offer nothing but pain for bowlers.

The need to maintain a fielder in catching positions for the first 10 overs was ditched, as was the batting power-play and the minimum number of fielders the bowling team is allowed to employ beyond the 30-yard circle in the last 10 overs of an innings was increased to five from four.

But of the 69 ODIs played worldwide since that change came into effect on July 5, two-thirds have yielded an aggregate scoring rate of five or more runs per over - the recipe that sees teams often post totals in excess of 300.

WATCH: India chase down 330 in Sydney

In the first 20 years of ODI competition, that 300 benchmark was breached less than two dozen times.

Over the past decade, when the number of ODIs played has grown exponentially since the first ICC World Cup was staged in 1975, instances of teams either batting first and posting 300-plus or chasing down that lofty mark is approaching 350.

And despite his prediction that the likelihood of swing from the new ball on NZ pitches might offer some rare encouragement to seam bowlers, Faulkner expects that trend to continue in the upcoming ODIs in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton.

"(We’re) going to expect high scores, so it’s a matter of who can adjust early and against the new ball that swings," he said.

"If it’s swinging around ... it's obviously a lot tougher and early wickets tend to fall (but) every team at the moment is setting up to go hard in the first 10 (overs), consolidate through the middle and try and have wickets in the shed to try and launch (at the end of the innings).

"Especially with the smaller boundaries (which are a feature of NZ grounds).

"So I think if you find the ball isn’t moving there will be high scores.

"More times than not at the moment, 300 tends to be the base and every run over that is so valuable because every single batter in most teams can bat these days so it makes it really tough for the bowlers."

As a bowler who also bats, Faulkner knows that while bowling at any stage of the innings can be thankless work, so too is coming to the crease as a lower-middle order batter with only a handful of deliveries to face.

Although, as the man dubbed 'The Finisher' for his ability to get his team home with the bat when the ball count is dwindling accepts, the fact that he got to face just 30 deliveries in the five-match ODI series against India last month was due largely to the success of his top-order colleagues.

If the white ball behaves in the hands of NZ seamers the way that it did during their home World Cup campaign last summer, there is a chance that Faulkner might be required to perform more often and more productively with the willow.

WATCH: Faulkner seals chase of 300+ in Perth

And if that’s the case, he will be calling on his natural ability as a ball striker given he has done so little batting over the past month he has no clue as to whether he is in-form or in need of a lengthy innings.

"I think a lot of it at the end (of an innings) is a little bit natural (instinct) because I have been in that uncomfortable position on numerous times now in different formats, not just in one day cricket," Faulkner said when asked as to how adequately he can rehearse the role of late innings 'finisher'.

"But a lot of it comes down to my training as well.

"When I’m not having much of a hit (in matches) I tend to look at it as a positive it means our batting order, our top half are doing an exceptional job.

"The more times I’m not batting, the more games that we tend to win as a country so that’s a massive bonus.

"I just have to make sure I’m training well and specifically for times when I come out.

"It’s been the last six or seven balls (of the innings in recent weeks) so it’s hard to get a gauge on how you’re going because you have to get going from ball one."