Eight deadliest trademarks of modern-day cricket

Cricket is the beautiful game. It is because each player brings to the table something unique to make it richer. Here are some trademarks that have become analogous to the players who use them as prime weapons of their repertoire.

#8. Dale Steyn’s Outswinger

The foremost ingredient that goes into Dale Steyn’s recipe of success is pure and unbridled aggression. He intends to attack with every delivery and makes no bones about it. In this age of medium pace trundlers who ostensibly get crowned as “T-20 specialists’’, Steyn is perhaps the flag bearer of the dying breed of genuine fast bowlers. Steyn can conjure nasty bouncers and yorkers at will and he swings the ball both ways; yet his deadliest delivery has to be his outswinger.

He does not telegraph his intention to the batsman through a change in either his grip or his action. The ball seems to skid on the pitch and for a few milliseconds continues on its trajectory. Then suddenly, like a vicious cobra, it darts to the left and it requires considerable skill from the batsman in preventing the ball from kissing the outside edge of the bat. Also remember that he does this at speeds often exceeding 145 kmph. It is not difficult to sympathize with a fine batsman who nicks one of Steyn’s outswinging beauties to the slips. The ball simply does what it has been ordered to do.

#7. Chris Gayle’s slog over midwicket

Quite simply put, Chris Gayle is a mercenary who travels around the globe and charges a hefty fee for wielding his willow like a sledgehammer. Yet, there is a huge difference between him and others of the same ilk. Gayle manufactures devastating innings with a consistency that seems freakish. When he is having one of his numerous good days, it looks as though the only thing that can stop him is his own boredom.

Possessing enormous muscular strength, Gayle understandably prefers heaves and slogs over delicate cuts. The shot which has come to be his bread and butter is the barbaric slog over mid-wicket. The shot is unlike an optimistic gamble like the one favoured by Shahid Afridi; rather, it is a statement of confidence and makes a good delivery look like a loose one. Organizers certainly need to start providing helmets to the crowds whenever this destroyer comes to the crease.

#6. Ricky Ponting’s Pull shot

Ricky Ponting, like Sourav Ganguly, has the knack of polarising opinions. You can either be his ardent fan or else a staunch critic. However, one point over which every person who watches cricket will always agree is that he plays the most magnificent pull shot that you will ever see. The fact that the pull shot is one of the best methods to deflate a bowler’s morale, Ponting plays it with utter disdain. Rather than stepping back and across, Ponting rocks his weight back and leans in when hitting the ball. The result is the ball piercing the field like a “tracer bullet”, as Ravi Shastri likes to put it. Apart from being majestic, the pull shot is also a major source of runs for him. Just ask Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra to recall memories of the 2003 WC final and you will know.

#5. Waqar Younis’ inswinging Yorker

When Waqar Younis was at the peak of his powers, the batsman was merely a petty obstacle between him and the stumps. More often than not, Waqar used to find a way to hit the stumps or crush the batsman’s toes with a guided missile called the inswinging yorker. Perhaps no one, who has played cricket, has used this delivery to more devastating effect than Waqar Younis. Starting from way beyond off stump, the ball would wickedly dart in very late and make life extremely difficult for the hapless batsman. Forget scoring runs, the best a batsman could do was to swiftly bring down the bat to try and dig out the delivery. I am quite certain that most batsmen would have preferred to watch from the non-strikers’ end than to face up to Waqar’s scorching Yorkers when he was in his pomp.

#4. Jonty Rhodes’ dive

If there was one cricketer who could walk into any side purely on the merit of his fielding, it has to be Jonty Rhodes. Before he made his debut, fielding was not taken as seriously as it is today and it was perfectly acceptable if a player did not dive while fielding. Then arrived Jonty and all of a sudden, the opposition batsmen found that their perfect cover drives were not yielding runs as before. Fielding in the key position of backward point, Jonty was worth his weight in gold to South Africa as he dived like a salmon and plucked impossible catches out of thin air. The dive also saved dozens of runs for his team and the made the batsman more likely to play rash shots. Jonty may have long retired but his legacy is shaping the art of fielding even toady.

#3. Brian Lara’s cover drive

The backlift used to go high, extravagantly high. When the ball had travelled midway through the pitch, there was that crouch to get into an attacking position and then the bat used to come down with the force of thunder and the ball used to fly to the boundary before any of the fielders could even flinch.

The Brian Lara cover drive was not something straight out of a coaching manual. Yet it was so effective that it deserves a coaching manual of its own. Cricinfo states that Lara’s batting average for the cover drive alone is 652 in Tests! This figure stems from the fact that he was out playing the cover drive only once. This tiny statistic and Lara’s sheer elegance makes the Prince of Trinidad the king of cover drives.

#2. V.V.S Laxman’s wrist flick

Whenever V.V.S Laxman plays away from India, he evokes a strange feeling from the crowds. They want their team to win, but they also want Laxman to stay on the crease for as long as possible. Perfectly understandable. When you pay for entertainment and there is a magician on the stage, you do not really want the show to end.

Laxman , somewhat like Roger Federer, can make every move look exquisite. Still, the one shot that draws the maximum gasps from spectators is his wrist flick that pierces the region stretching from mid-on to mid-wicket. He never seems to apply any effort at all, rather it looks like the ball has been coaxed and caressed to do his bidding. If I were allowed one last Youtube video before I died, I would choose to watch Laxman making poetry with his wrists.

#1. Kevin Pietersen’s switch hit

Yes, it is controversial. And yes, its legality is still debated by cricket aficionados across the globe. Yet, I feel that the switch hit is one of the most entertaining shots ever invented. As KP himself suggests, it requires a high level of skill and risk-taking ability on the part of the batsman to even attempt that shot.

The switch hit is more complicated than the conventional reverse sweep. KP does not merely change the direction of his backlift, he reverses his grip and his stance to become a mirror image of himself. Then somehow, he finds the time to give the ball a good thwack. Other shots may have quite a few specialists but when it comes to the switch hit, KP alone has his unique imprint on it.

Honorable mentions : Sachin’s upper cut and straight drive (he was not included because he plays each shot with equal expertise), Shane Warne’s flipper, Dilshan’s Dilscoop, Saeed Ajmal’s doosra and Dhoni’s helicopter shot (not included because he hardly uses it anymore).