April 2013

There are some shots in every great innings. Then there are some great shots in every innings. Some of the batsmen bring their own flair to the game with their trademark shots. Here, I walk down the path to give the list of some of those shots.

Cover Drive

Kumar Sangakkara

No left hander plays the cover drive as gracefully as this man does. Sanga often sits on a leg and drives the ball through the cover area. It is a sheer delight to watch the Sri Lankan play this trademark stroke through the crowded off side. This is one of my favourite shots of all time.

Straight Drive

Sachin Tendulkar

A straight drive is a great shot in itself. It gets more delightful when this man plays it. It can be called the perfect shot of the most perfect batsmen. It is a shot that indicates that Sachin is in top form. Flawless is the word for it. Amazing balance and an artistic follow through.

Front foot pull

Ricky Ponting

A shot that makes you wonder at the balance he brings with it. Punter’s single stride forward and a thundering pull crushes the bowlers’ morale into tatters.

Switch Hit

Kevin Pietersen

A shot that is unconventional yet creative. You need to have some reflexes to send the ball for a six from that line. KP can take a bow for that.

Dilscoop

T Dilshan
A shot that can make a captain think of fielding placements. Dilscoop is a shot that will leave a smile at your face just for the cheeky way it gets executed. For a man with such good range of shots, Dilscoop is an added advantage.

Helicopter shot

MS Dhoni
Not out of the textbook manual, Ms Dhoni uses this shot effectively in ODIs to bring down the required run rate. The brilliance of the helicopter shot is to make look a good ball a bad one. A powerful and delightful shot.

Intimidating walk

Matthew Hayden
A shot that Hayden was known for was his gentle walk down the crease and a casual whack for a six. It made the bowlers and captains scratch their head out. Most of the times, wicketkeeper was brought close to the stumps for damage control.

Reverse Sweep

Andy Flower

Few might know that the now popular reverse sweep was the shot Andy Flower had trendified. A great batsmen who never got the status he belonged to. The reverse sweep was there to stay.

Square cut

Steve Waugh and Saurav Ganguly

A back foot cut was something Steve Waugh was master of. But the ‘God of offside’-Saurav Ganguly’s placement of square cut could beat nine fielders in that cordon for the boundary.

Leg Flick
Sanath Jayasuriya

An effortless yet destructive flick that ended up in the stands, Sanath Jayasuriya could change the match within overs with those flicks.

Upper Cut

Virender Sehwag
It invokes images of Akhtar ‘s bouncers being sent off for sixes into the third man boundary area. Sehwag’s shot,however, is also his nemesis.

Dance Down The Wicket
Saurav Ganguly had a liking for the left arm spinners. With one of those in attack, one could always expect those danced down sixes in long on. 183 against Sri lanka had many of such adorning the innings.

Wristy Flick
VVS Laxman

Laxman was an artist playing those trademark flick shots even from outside off stumps. A gentle casual roll of wrists that was magically awe-inspiring.

McCullum Scoop
Brendon McCullum

A slight variation of the Dilscoop, Brendon McCullum brought the witty and cheeky scoop to the smallest version of cricket. A shot only he masters at.

Unbelievable Reverse shot
Eoin Morgan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG2Gc49nx04

Eoin Morgan stunned the world with this reverse slap kind of shot off Ravi Rampual. This shot is an unbelievable one for sure.

'On a good length' feels Sanga Drive is very special.