The Three Men

“It’s a game for the dashers” that’s what all of us believed about the latest format of the game. When we spoke about T20 we always talked about players like Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Yusuf Pathan etc. In short we always spoke about the dashers of the game who aren’t particularly known for their technique. What this IPL has taught us is that any player can play the format effectively. This IPL we have seen the likes of Tendulkar and Kallis among the runs, these two are obviously known for their technique and experience and were at one time dubbed as not fit for the “young man’s game.” How wrong have they proved everyone in this tournament? Then we also have a young man from Chennai who was thought to be a test match specialist, scoring runs at a really rapid pace. Murali Vijay has proved a huge asset to the Chennai Super Kings in the last few games. His hundred against Rajasthan yesterday was a pleasure to watch as he played some good cricket shots with panache.
We have the example of three players in front of us. All the three of them have scored a lot of runs in this years IPL at a rapid rate and as effective as the dashers. This just shows us the importance of technique in cricket. What technique gives a player is more stability and more consistency. We all have been talking about the antics of players like Pathan and McCullum in the past but if we compare the stats then we see that players like Kallis and Tendulkar are more consistent that the dashers in this format. Obviously with players like Pathan there is always an unpredictability factor and you should have guys like him in your side but in tough situations you have to always depend on your “dependable” players. Kallis has been giving good starts upfront for Bangalore. What he does is that he paces his innings and holds the Bangalore batting together which gives the opportunity to guys like Pandey and Uthappa to go after the bowling. He also goes after the bowling when it is required as we saw in the game against Punjab where they chased down 203. He doesn’t have a very high strike rate compared to Tendulkar and Vijay but is effective nevertheless. A very good sign for South Africa with the World T20 coming up.
What to say about Sachin Tendulkar? Words are not enough to describe this man’s prowess with the bat. He came into this IPL in top form with a 200 in an ODI behind his back and is really in his elements here too. Sachin has literally creamed the bowling around this year. He has played classical shots and has kept the scoring rate high. The common feature in all his outings was his timing and the fact that there were no slogs all natural shots. If you can play natural shots well why waste your energy on slogs for which you may get the same reward but a higher chance of getting out. The cover drives, straight dives, the flicks to square leg are still a joy to watch and they make us believe that the art of batting will survive in the T20 era.
One man who has taken the IPL by storm is M Vijay. Some called him a test opener, others said he isn’t fit for this format but he has laid all this to rest. The Vijay revolution started from the game against Rajasthan at Ahmedabad when he creamed over 20 runs in an over. The shots he played were good cricket shots and the flicks over mid wicket in particular were a joy to watch. He played another gem against Bangalore but his hundred was out of this world. He started the innings playing good classical shots, the cover drives, straight drives etc. He then went after the bowling just using the pace of the bowlers and those shots weren’t exactly slogs. He played a few slogs in the end but the core of the innings was full of good textbook shots. A good find for Chennai and who knows, he could be used by India for T20’s too. What this has done is that it has relieved the pressure of Matthew Hayden’s shoulders and he wouldn’t always have the burden of providing Chennai with fast starts. There is a man at the other end who can do it just as well.
The moral of the story is: A good test player can become a good T20 player…….but can a good T20 player become a Test player?