5 most undervalued things in cricket

#3 The night-watchman

Jason Gillespie frustrated bowlers as a night-watchman

The night-watchman’s role is to play out the end overs of a day’s play in a Test match. It’s a strategy to protect the new batsman either from hostile bowling or from the fading light in the evening. At times, the recognised batsman turns the strike over to protect himself and expose the night-watchman to the bowling.

Bowlers try and get past the defence of the night-watchman, but it is the duty of the night-watchman to add to the agony to the bowlers by defending everything with a dead bat. If they go on to score a few runs, then it piles the agony on the fielding unit besides adding bonus runs to the glee of the batting side.

Jason Gillespie’s double ton at Chittagong in 2006 is one of the greatest knocks by a nightwatchman, coming in at number three and registering his highest individual score. In the process, he also became the first double-centurion as a night-watchman in the history of Test cricket. It’s an important aspect which rightfully deserves attention.