World

GT vs RR: Miller leads Gujarat into final, Saha lures Eden and Sublime Samson hits “Ramani” shot – Henry Club

May 25, 2022
Bharat Times

This is a story his father Andrew often told about David Miller. When David was just two years old, how did he know that he would one day play for South Africa? Andrew had bought a golf set and rolled a plastic ball towards his child. The child hit him back. Father turned it again. kill again. Andrew turns to his wife and announces that David will one day play for the country. When South Africa didn’t pick him for the 2011 World Cup, a dismayed Miller would be revived by the trust shown in him by the IPL franchise. Earlier there was Kings XI Punjab and these days Gujarat Lions. He has been explosive this season, and in the play-offs, needing 16 runs in the last over, he sealed the deal off Krishna famous for 3 consecutive sixes in the first three balls. An emotional captain Hardik Pandya hugged him in a long bear hug. On air, Nayan Mongia shouts, “Sakshit pranaam Miller Ma!”

Long hop, long face, but a surprise awaited McCoy

So dismayed after throwing the long-hop that Obed McCoy lowered his head and began to retreat. He had seen Matthew Wade rolling into the crunching bridge and thought he had seen enough. He was so convinced he was sailing for a six, that he began to walk back towards his run-up zone. Perhaps, it was the noise of the crowd that started him to take a look behind his shoulder and couldn’t believe what he saw: celebrating a catch by his teammate Jos Buttler at deep midwicket. A sly smile spread across his face, and he laid his head on the shoulder of his captain, Sanju Samson, which was also an amusing expression. It was said that Ian Botham had a great knack for taking wickets from long-hops, with Greg Chappell being his famous victim on more than one occasion. Unlike McCoy, Botham was certainly never surprised that his rank-bad balls took a wicket.

So dismayed after throwing the long-hop that Obed McCoy lowered his head and began to retreat. (Twitter)

praise becomes pain

Ravi Ashwin is a self-confessed Shubman Gill fan. He once revealed how he became a fan of Gill. “In the Melbourne Test, Cameron Green was caught at square leg off a bridge and Shubman came running up to me and said, ‘Ash bhai, finish early man! If there is 40-50 runs, then I will make a mistake in five! (Please finish early. If 40-50 is to be chased, I will do it in five overs!),” Ashwin recalled in a conversation with India’s batting coach Vikram Rathor on his YouTube channel. “I was like , ‘Wow, this is unreal man’. We have a debutant who is going to say ‘finish it, finish it’ and I will finish in five overs and that too in a Test match,” said Ashwin. But at the Eden Gardens, the praise might be in agony. That changed as Gill smashed Ashwin for 15 off six balls. Brilliant six first. Gill came out, then paused, dragged his back-foot over to get in and out and hit the master spinner’s carrom ball. Bounced over extra cover. The stroke frustrated the usually shaky Ashwin, whose next delivery was quick, short and wide, duly cut by Gill. The next ball went past him and turned into a leg-side half-volley. Gill hit it through square-leg. Ashwin was so nervous that he got his run-up twice before the next ball.

Saha Eden falls for temptation

Vidhiman Saha has had an interesting few months. Strong tweets led to inquiries, strong statements made him raise some voices in his home association of Bengal Cricket Association, and a day before the playoffs, he made another eyebrow-raising remark. “Here, I am representing Gujarat so my home ground is Motera Stadium, I believe in it. Since I am no longer with KKR, Eden is not my home.” Not sure how the Eden loyalist took it, but he didn’t last long as a batsman to figure it out. Trent Boult Took the second ball out with an angler that Saha thought would come back, and tried to force it to the side. But it kept slanting to take the outer edge.

Fan Jumps Fence in Eden

There was a close shave in the bubble of the Gardens of Eden. As Shimron Hetmyer to destroy Mohammed Shami And praising himself, a fan jumped the fence from D Block and was about to enter the playground when he was stopped by the police. Kolkata responded with enthusiasm to an IPL match at Eden two years later. The attendance was 47 thousand at around eight o’clock in the night. After about an hour it crossed 60,000. The authorities had allowed 100 per cent voting for the IPL playoffs and this created a super-charged atmosphere. A fool has crossed the limit, completely disregarding the bio-secure environment. Thankfully, the law minister was on alert and the culprit was thrown out.

Rashid, master of disguise and deception

Jos Butler was stunned. He, like the world, got used to playing Rashid KhanYet, no one could claim that he had really mastered it. Rashid continues to create shock and awe. Like the leg-break that left Butler. The ball flew out of his soft palm, gave Butler a short whistle and began to fall downwards. Buttler decided it was wrong, Rashid’s T20 staple. Butler hung back so he could work the ball through the leg side. But the ball turned crookedly after landing. He was so stunned that he didn’t have time to change his stroke, as the ball spun around him and crossed the outside edge. The cheat is in the guise of Rashid. There is hardly any change in run-up, action, release point or wrist position. He throws both balls skyward with the back of the arm open up—for most leg-breakers, the back of the arm faces the bowler himself when the googly is turned. With the combination of his arm-rotation speed and how quickly he brings down his wrists, it’s hard to conclusively decode.

After some time, the batsmen started taking one or two clues after seeing his hold. Split-finger grip for leg-break and finger-together grip for googly. However, Rashid, cunning as he is, started changing his grip just before the load-up. So he can start with a split-finger grip and then suddenly, with the dexterity of a tabla player, flips his fingers and changes the grip. The unsuspecting batsman, being cheap early, waits for the leg-break, only to be faced ashes by spitting the ball. And on the other side too. He throws the leg break short, but when he does, stuns the batsmen.

Sublime Samson hits the “Ramani” shot!

It was the best six ever. The episode took it even higher. Sanju Samson would have seen young left-arm swinger Yash Dayal turn the ball both ways in his first over to consistently trouble Yash Jaiswal and get out. Samson will face his first ball in Dayal’s next over. It was a very good delivery too, swinging away from Samson but starting around the leg-stump line. The choice of the ball, if done intentionally, was good. Samson has a tendency to support himself and go for risky swipes at times. But this time, Samson tackles it so softly that it’s worth catching Ripley only to see his hands. It was raised only overhead, covered for movement, and aimed at mid-on. The white ball kept flying past long on. Even the (pretty) parochial Gujarati commentators on Hotstar grumbled: “Ramani shot”! It was definitely gorgeous, right?

No wonder Brian Lara has been a big fan of Samson over the years. Among the right-handed batsmen, Samson should be doing quite well at the top thanks to his silky touches. Usually we have seen such batsmen plying the space of fours, but Samson, like Lara himself, can to some extent let his hands go through the line of the ball to get maximum.
He bowled even more lovely shots before falling, crossing the line to left-arm spinner Sai Kishore, who has been impressively aggressive with his bowling in the few matches he has played, and was dismissed at long-on.

Road 1 to Butler

Jos Buttler left the first ball alone. Mohammed Shami was a catchy, good length delivery that pitched outside the off-stump and was shaping up a bit away. Often in the past, he’s farther and stabbed the ball than he has come through with the shot. But Butler is more cautious these days. Also, runs have come down in the last few matches (63 runs in five matches). Shami moves the next ball further so that he can draw more on that loose drive. This time, he fell for the lure, only that it caressed him instead of crashing through cover, a stroke that had none of Butler’s trademark power and panache. Contrary to how purists describe the stroke, front-elbow is low, when the elbow is turned higher it is less under control. Shami did not hesitate, he smiled and then gave him another full ball. Butler put his hand on his shoulder again. Shami gallops and bowls another full ball. Buttler just extended his front foot and got the ball caught near mid-off. Shami returns for another over, and the game of cat and mouse continues. Buttler defended the first ball, maneuvering him for a brace on the next ball, before Shami produced a Jaffa that beat him to the outside edge. Buttler backs it up with a crunching cover drive on the next ball. Shami pulls back his length, beats him on the next ball and takes a thin edge off the last ball. But the first bout, as it were, was that of a calculated butler rather than the probing Shami.