Cricket classics: 10 strokes from yore
Scoring runs may be a batsman's business, but the style of his stroke play is something that cricket fans often obsess over. This writer is no different, and here is a list of ten strokes (plus a few honourable mentions) played by retired batsmen that he won't mind binge-watching.
1. Rahul Dravid's square cut
Has anyone ever seen a wall play a square cut, let alone a technically masterful one? While Dravid's constructional nickname may forever remain inked alongside the names of other fine exponents of defensive batting, his square cut - as his bat went up in a curlicue towards second slip, only to come down with the apparent intention of really cutting the ball in half––was an example of genuine aggression expressed through wrist-fuelled bat speed. It was also an artistic original, especially when viewed alongside the dominant Bombay-school style of square cut.
2. Jacques Kallis' front foot cover drive
A frontfoot cover drive is among the most poetic of cricketing things, but you wouldn't think it the way Jacques Kallis played it. His exposition of the stroke told of breathtaking power and great balance, both utilitarian instruments intended to put bowlers in their place. It supports the general view that Kallis was an artisan. The high left elbow that often shimmered through the stroke does hint at a romantic fondness for the batting basics.
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3. Inzamam-ul-Haq's loft-down-the-ground
Whenever a spinner came on, and started to toss the ball up, it was only a matter of time before Inzi glided - for there was little real rudeness in the man - down the pitch and lofted the ball, with a clean swing of the bat, straight down the ground. Considering Inzamam's imposing stature, the method he used to hit straight sixes hints at a paradox: it relied on swift feet (yes, Inzi's) and the subtlety of timing, rather than on crease-presence and the brutal grossness of brute strength.
4. Alec Stewart's pull
As Alec Stewart's backfoot moved across to position itself in front of the middle stump, inadvertently encouraging fast bowlers to get him out LBW, it set him up perfectly for the pull. Almost always, the Surrey stumper executed the stroke with a neat roll of the wrist, the flourish provided by the fine timing that blessed most of his strokes. During the 1990s, as English cricket endured a prolonged period of gloom, the Stewart pull must have been a welcome expression of sunshine to a good many cricket watchers in the Isles.
5. Sachin Tendulkar's straight punch
If aliens ever visited earth, and wanted to know the essence of batting, they would probably be shown clips of Sachin Tendulkar's straight punch ('straight drive' seems like too prosaic a label for the shot). The stroke's beauty lay in the economy of movements which made it possible: a precise front food stride, quickly followed by the punching bat, and an ever-so-slight turn of the wrist, coaxed the ball between the bowler and a mid-on. When the wrist work was cut, based on the field set, the ball was cajoled to go between the bowler and mid-off instead.
6. Matthew Hayden's sweep
Sweeping can drive a spinner to distraction, but few batsmen have employed the sweep with as much power and alacrity, and as consistently, as Matthew Hayden did in India in 2001. The Australian left-hander's modus operandi was simple: look for a 'flighted' one, use giant stride to take front foot outside off-stump (rule LBW out), sweep on line… And sweep Hayden did to the tune of 549 runs in six innings.
7. Very Very Special On-drive
If VVS Laxman had become a doctor, would he have used the scalpel any more adroitly than he did his bat while playing the on-drive? One can only wonder...It didn't matter to him where the bowler's hand instructed the ball to go. In fine Hyderabadi batting tradition, with a lovely twirl of the wrist, he could (and would) send it rolling anywhere between long-on and square leg on most days. That the Australians were often at the receiving end of Laxman's on-drives makes them even more magical in memory.
8. Mahela Jayawardena's leg glance
Mahela Jayawardena's leg glance was a thing of minimalist charm which inspired maximum excitement. All that the ball needed to do was home in on the stumps, and Mahela would, with a hardly visible roll of the wrist (during which time the ball too seemed to pause), glance it to fine leg, and then stare smilingly at the exasperated bowler, who thought he nearly had him leg before wicket. Great artists do that, they tantalise!
9. Brian Lara's square drive
Remember the square drive which took West Indies to that win against Australia in 1999? Brian Lara played that stroke and many like it during a glittering career punctuated by long innings which were also, somewhat paradoxically, breathtaking. The genius of the stroke lay in how impossible it often seemed (to mortal eyes, at least), coming as it did in the wake of a painter's back-lift that sometimes greeted leg slip and seemed to close the square territory on the off-side to his stroke play. Lara though did the apparently impossible as a routine on the field, so his ferocious square drives weren't really a surprise.
10. ABD's unnamed
It is IPL 2014. AB De Villiers is ready for the last ball of the over from his countryman Dale Steyn, having already robbed 18 runs off it. The ball arrives and what does AB do? Goes down on one knee, and with a flick of his wrists, scoops the ball over long leg for six. Was the stroke a sweep, a flick, or a scoop? Was it a fusion of three strokes, or a new invention perhaps a 'swickoop'? In deference to Mr. Dr. 360, this writer prefers to leave the stroke unnamed.
Honourable mentions
Andy Flower's reverse sweep, Ricky Ponting's hook, Kevin Pietersen's 'flamingo', Gary Kirsten's forward block, Saeed Anwar's on-drive, Sanath Jayasurya's cut-scythe-dab, Mark Waugh's flick, Sourav Ganguly's inside-out cover drive, Mohammad Azharuddin's non-aerial variant of the helicopter and Douglas Marillier's frenetic introduction to the latter-day 'Dilscoop'.
Classics of an era gone by. That rounds up the trip to the past that flew by, 10 strokes from yore.
Also read: 5 breathtaking Glenn Maxwell strokes