7 sights in cricket everyone just loves to watch

There is a strong point that cricket lovers can put forward in the game’s defence – it has a number of pleasing sights to offer than any other sport. All other games have a couple of aspects at best that are pleasing to the eye – football impresses you with skills on the ball, tennis can intrigue you with a classic backhand or a trademark serve, basketball has hefty 7-feet tall people pulling off mighty dunks that are good to watch, and the like.Motorsports offer just the one-dimensional thrill of speed, which is also the case with most athletic sports. No other sport has such a varied skill-set on display as cricket does.Now that we have established that cricket is the most aesthetically beautiful sport to watch, here goes a compilation of some of the sights that everyone just loves to see on a cricket field, which makes it a beautiful game.

#7 Words exchanged in the middle

Okay, this is seldom pretty. But nevertheless, it is very interesting to watch what triggered it and what will follow it. The initiator is the bowling side more often than not, when they want to test a batsman’s patience and want to get him out. How a batsman responds to the banter is a treat to watch. Some cool heads continue playing the way they were; others lose their composure and subsequently their wicket.

It is also interesting to note the dynamics of both teams since the batting side is heavily outnumbered, whereas the fielding side has players from slip, gully and other close fielding positions backing the bowler in case a chat is initiated. Sometimes it is not evident to the crowd present in the stadium, but makes the day for the ones watching it on TV.

One would say it was part of the game plan for some teams. It certainly looked that way for the Australians. Everyone remembers Monkeygate and how spicy everything was for the players involved in it.

Some of the notable instances are when Andrew Flintoff tempted Tino Best to mind the balcony windows, and he ended up throwing his wicket away the next ball, dancing down the track and missing the ball completely. Freddie’s sledging had a negative impact, as well, when his sledge whet Yuvraj into hitting six sixes off Stuart Broad in the 2007 T20 World Cup.

Here is another hilarious account of sledging – Ian Healy urging Shane Warne to put a Mars bar on good length, which would be enough to get Arjuna Ranatunga coming down the wicket. Another instance is when Javed Miandad called Merv Hughes a fat bus conductor and demanded a ticket from him when he was dismissed by the swarthy bowler a few balls later.

#6 Close saves at the boundary

This is a real treat for the eyes, especially if it is a catch near the boundary line. It does irk batsmen to a large extent when the ball does not reach the boundary but is saved just inches from it. What’s more? Such an effort increases the morale of the fielding side by leaps and bounds.

Chris Lynn’s near impossible effort at the boundary in last year’s IPL to dismiss AB de Villiers was the highlight of the season. We have seen similar stuff from Kieron Pollard, who uses every inch of his height to convert sixes into wickets, or at least less runs. Such efforts have turned out to be match-changing ones too, such is the effect.

Even when we see a good energetic sprint that ends in a dive to stop the ball just before the boundary line, it does leave us in awe and increases our love for the sport.

Another superb feat to watch is when a fielder catches the ball but has to cross the boundary on account of his momentum, so throws the ball into the air and catches it back again after coming back inside the boundary. Sometimes a second player is also present, who completes the catch, which is equally theatrical to watch.

#5 The straight drive

Life is good when Sachin Tendulkar hits a straight drive. He has played it against every bowler who has put it in the zone for him.

The straight drive is one such shot that symbolises the complete dominance of a batsman over a bowler. What’s more? It has components that make it look very attractive – the high backlift, the perfect footwork and balance, the bat coming down in one fluid motion, the sound of the willow striking the ball, the ball racing past the bowler faster than it came, and the batsman standing tall and elegant after his follow-through, posing for the cameras.

It comes off most effectively against a fast bowler, because the ball already has a lot of pace on it and all that a batsman has to do is middle it and the rest follows. An overpitched delivery is the perfect recipe for such a drive, while a full toss or a yorker can also be dealt with in a similar fashion.

Tendulkar has pulled off the straight drive against the best bowlers of his generation – he has done it against Shoaib Akhtar, he has done it against Brett Lee, he has done it against Dale Steyn, you name it.

#4 Direct hits

In the 2nd ODI of Australia’s tour to New Zealand in 2005, the Kiwis needed 4 to win from 4 with 2 wickets remaining and Brendon McCullum on strike. He tried to sneak a single on the ball that followed, but Michael Clarke fouled his plans with a brilliant direct hit from point that shattered the stumps just seconds before McCullum could make it.

That was what gave Australia the match, which they eventually won by 2 runs. Clarke’s compatriot Ricky Ponting was an expert in effecting run-outs, as well.

Direct hits can have a tremendous impact on a game. They are not easy to pull off. They require great amounts of aiming skill, presence of mind and tremendous agility on the part of the fielder. But once they come off right, it is the most joyous feeling for a fielder.

AB de Villiers, a gem of a fielder, produced a stunner of a run-out to dismiss Simon Katich from cover. He dived to stop the shot and got rid of the ball even before the dive was complete, which resulted in a run-out. It was no fault of Katich who would have assumed that AB would do what normal fielders did – dive, stop, get up and then release the ball.

Direct hits don’t happen all the time, but when they do, they give the fielding side and the crowd something to cheer about.

#3 Yorkers

Shoaib Akhtar dismissed Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar with consecutive in-swinging yorkers in the 1st Test of the Asian Test Championship (1999) in Kolkata. That was nothing less than an extraordinary achievement, to get two players of such stature out on consecutive balls; unsurprisingly, it silenced the loud Kolkata crowd. Pakistani supporters back home would have loved it, obviously.

Wasim Akram, one of the best fast bowlers of all time, used yorkers pretty effectively as well, so did Waqar Younis. Slinga Malinga has made yorkers such commonplace thing in cricket today. He has his own style of bowling with a flat arm, and when he decides to put it in the block hole, there is pretty much nothing a batsman can do about it.

There’s never a bad time to bowl a yorker. Even the most settled and in-form batsman can get out to it, such is its beauty.

One good way to bowl a yorker is to rough up a batsman with short stuff and then, when he least expects it, go for the full pitch at the base of the stumps. This is exactly how Brett Lee got the wicket of Jacques Kallis at Melbourne in a Test match in 2005. Lee also got Marvan Attapattu out with a brilliant straight yorker in the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup, which was again a treat to watch.

#2 Diving Catches

Cricket may be a batsman’s game, but this is one way in which fielders enhance the beauty of the game and make it what it is. It has become a practice only in recent times; in the earlier days, all that fielders did was run around and fetch the ball and take the occasional catch, in stark contrast to those today who aren’t hesitant to dive to just save a single run.

Jonty Rhodes was the pioneer of diving catches. What he did fielding at point was something never seen before. He was not the tallest, but he made up for it by flying after the ball. Others who entered the cricketing world after Rhodes have tried to emulate him. Some have also got close.

One such name that comes to mind is Yuvraj Singh. Another player who can pull off similar stunning catches is AB de Villiers. Paul Collingwood of England, who was also a point fielder, pulled off a few stunners during his time.

Dinesh Karthik grabbed a screamer at 2nd slip to get Graeme Smith out in one of India’s crucial encounters, against South Africa, in the 2007 T20 World Cup. James Kirtley, standing at long-on, took one of the most sensational catches in cricket history to dismiss Sourav Ganguly off the bowling of Ashley Giles at Lord’s, 2002.

Tillakaratne Dilshan, again a point fielder, has produced some stuff worth watching. He even has spectacular catches off his own bowling – the diving catch off his own bowling to get rid of last man Clint McKay in the quarter-final of the Champion’s Trophy in 2013 was responsible for sending the Lankans to the semi-finals of the tournament as the Australians fell 20 runs short.

#1 Inside-out shots

This is a really admired sight in cricket. It is only played by batsmen who are well-settled and can go for complete dominance of the bowling attack. Moreover, not every batsman uses it as part of his arsenal – there are only a counted few who can use it frequently.

Basically what a batsman does when he plays this shot is that he shuffles a bit towards the leg-stump, comes down the wicket, and hits the ball that was originally headed for his pads over extra cover for six – or a four if not hit hard enough. It is not an easy shot to play because you can mistime the ball, you can miss the ball altogether and be stumped – there are a lot of things to be taken into account. But if executed properly, it makes for a perfect eye-treat.

Sir Viv Richards used to play this shot with ease during his times. Out of the more recent players, Mahela Jayawardene is one who can execute the shot well. Similarly, Hashim Amla, Suresh Raina, AB de Villiers and Gautam Gambhir have used the shot on quite a few occasions.

Out of the new talent emerging in cricket, hard-hitter Glenn Maxwell of Australia, who has his whole range of conventional and unconventional shots, has shown some real capability with this shot.

The fielding captain cannot set a field for this kind of a shot. It can be played both against fast as well as spin bowling, and there is pretty much no amount of manual reading or coaching that can train you for this; it has to be incorporated in your playing style once you establish yourself.