5 of the most innovative tactics that were employed as a stopgap solution

Cricket is a quirky sport in a way that it requires more input from the cerebrum in comparison to any other sports. A good cricketer needs to be as strong as a gymnast who excels in rings, as balanced as an exponent of water surfing, as focused as a table tennis stalwart, and as intelligent as a veteran grandmaster in chess.Over the history of the game of gentlemen, the cricketing fandom has witnessed many strategies, myriad of tactics and preponderance of ruses employed to take the oppositions aback and snitch the game away before they manage to emerge out of the shock.Martin Crowe opening the bowling with a spinner in the 1992 world cup, Duleep Mendis's ploy of opening the batting with a brace of pinch hitters in 1996, Ashley Giles bowling over the wicket into Sachin Tendulkar's pads in 2001 and the (in)famous bodyline tactic of Douglas Jardine are all perfect epitomes of game-changing strategies.But these were all carefully plotted machinations that were mostly sired in drawing rooms after months of researches and days of mulling and hours of debates. These have been well documented and scripted with their implications well etched in the annals of the game.But what about those snarky ploys that came out of a clear blue sky when confronted with the direst of situations? The acumen that begot them, the wanton descend of a bright idea, the sudden arrival of that aureole that precedes a clever plan- all need to be celebrated chiefly for the fascination they provide.Since they are mostly shoehorned, unplanned and executed promptly, more often than not they are outrageously funny and meticulously witty. Here are the best five tactics that were employed as a prompt solution to a problem.

#1 Sri Lanka sending in Sangakkara as the captain instead of Mahela in the 22nd match of WorldT20 2012.

Sanga didn’t lead the team on the field though

Mahela Jayawardene was Sri Lanka’s captain going into the WorldT20 2012 held in Sri Lanka. But during the 22nd match of the tournament between the home side and England, Kumar Sangakkara walked in as the team’s captain for the toss. For once, fans thought Mahela was injured. But the news came in that he was playing. Fans were perplexed, media awestruck.

Why would a team sack their best captain mid-way during a world tournament? Sanga was asked the obvious question during the toss. As per his answer, a Sri Lankan captain to sustain his position should not only perform well as a player, lead the team well, handle the media adroitly, scupper board politics but should also be able to execute another responsibility successfully. "Mahela has lost three tosses in a row" was his reply.

But as soon as Sri Lankans began their target defense, it was obvious that a malign ruse was afoot as Mahela Jayawardene was marshalling the troops. Later, it was found that it was a clever manipulation of the law to diddle the captain off a possible one match ban at the business end of the tournament.

Sri Lanka took on the West Indies before the match against England and were fined for maintaining a slower over rate, with the captain being docked 20% of the match fee and the rest of the team 10%. According to the law, another such offence would lead the captain Mahela Jayawardene to a one-match ban which would mean that Sri Lanka will have to go into the semi-finals without their premium T20 batsman.

One way to avoid the ban would have been to drop the captain for the game against England since Sri Lanka had already got through to the knockouts but the Sri Lankan management found a new route to cope up with the situation. The clever ruse was the mastermind of the then manager of the Sri Lankan team Charith Senanayake.

Kumar Sangakkara was named the captain for the match which meant that even if Sri Lanka is once again found guilty of maintaining a slower over rate, no one would be banned. It is worth mentioning that Sri Lanka didn’t appoint the team’s vice-captain Angelo Mathews as the captain as he was also fined for a slower over rate during his last match as a captain against Pakistan in the same year.

It was an ostensible violation of the rationale behind handing over a ban to captains who are found guilty of slow over rate twice within 12 months. Sri Lanka easily defeated the purpose of consigning a ban as a deterrent. But, it wasn’t unlawful. The management of the team confirmed it with ICC code of conduct before proceeding with the machination.

This was an embarrassment for ICC as they were thoroughly checkmated. All what they could do was to plead the Lankan team not to repeat the same thing, in return for a promise that their star player would not be banned if he doesn’t wilfully maintain a slower over rate.

#2 Sir Donald Bradman reversing the batting order

The Don surprised many with his move

Way back during cricket’s teen days when captains were adventurous and audacious and were ready to lose a game rather than seeing it end up in a draw, Test cricket was a clash of tactics and tacticians. Test cricket wasn’t about brutality or enthrallment but was more about who drops his guard first much like the battle between two marksmen.

Donald Bradman embarked on his odyssey as Australia’s Test captain in the 1936/37 Ashes Test Series in Australia. Often colluded by rain that made the wicket wet, Australia lost both of the first two Test matches. Moves were being made against Bradman and people believed that captaincy was taking a toll on his batting. England besotted with victories in the first two games, were seething with aplomb.

So, the curtain for the third Test in Melbourne was raised with such a prelude- 350,534 people in the stadium earnestly groveling Bradman to alter the fortunes. Bradman won the toss and elected to bat first on “an island of green”.

Bradman entered the crease when the score was 7-1 and perished after adding 13 to his team’s score. Australia’s sorry story continued as they once again found themselves in a familiar territory- Bradman failing and the rest of the batting deficient of virility.

Rains came roaring down when the score was 181 for six, douching the pitch. Play was closed for the day and when the next day began Bradman decided to declare his team’s innings at 200 for nine, forcing England to bat in a wicket that played worse than a gravel filled rail track.

"I could scarcely believe my eyesight as I saw the ball's preposterous behaviour. It described all manner of angles and curves; it was here, there, everywhere, spitting, darting, fizzing. One good length ball would rear to the batsman's chin; another exactly the same length, would flash into the blockhole like a stone skimming over ice", wrote Neville Cardus.

England soon found themselves seven down for 76 and Bradman decided to banish his close catchers to avoid a collateral damage. He wanted to keep England batting until the conditions improved for batting. England’s seniors, on the other hand, goaded captain Gubby Allen to declare their innings when the score was 68 for four, so that they could get Australia to bat again in the grave yard.

But Allen worried that should he do that Bradman might declare Australia’s innings immediately and make England chase on the same pitch. The next day was a rest day and when play resumed on the following day, conditions may have improved for batting and hence, Allen feared that he might end up being a fool at the end of the Test.

It was now a battle of tactics. It was a contest between two marksman and one will have to pull his trigger at one point, compromising his position to the enemy. The English captain finally threw in the dice with the score 76 for nine and 45 minutes still left for play. But the Don was not done yet.

He went up to the umpires George Borwick and John Scottand asked them whether they knew what Allen was doing. "We take it he has declared," came the answer. "Well he didn't actually say so," denied Bradman. "I see what you mean," Borwick replied, "I'll go and confirm it." The umpire went to the English dressing room to confirm the declaration and the English captain responded saying "That little blighter! Of course I have declared." 45 minutes now became 40 minutes.

But the Don wasn’t happy yet. Hence, he devised another ploy. Conditions with sunshine were bound to improve and he didn’t want bowlers to dabble with the bat in good batting conditions. So, he decided to send his bowlers as sacrificial lambs on a track that was spitting barbs, hoping that they would hold ground until the clouds of predicament cleared.

To stadium wide chuckles walked in Fleetwood-Smith and O’Reilly, Australia’s recognized specialist tail-enders. O’Reilly perished off his first ball. Out walked Australia’s number ten at number three- a position that the world’s best batsman held in that line up. (Oh dear Time! How funny your scripts can be at times?) The pair successfully appealed for bad light as England could only muster 18 balls.

The day after the following day, when play resumed, the pitch was a redeemed character. Batting became easy and Bradman walked in at number seven and bashed 270 runs as England lost the match by 365 runs.

Shackles were broken and Australia came from behind to win the Ashes Series 3-2, the only time a team won a series after trailing by two in 5 a five match series.

#3 Sunil Gavaskar batting left handed against a left arm spinner

With many batsmen adding reverse swats and switch hits, I always thought a batsman could bat with his ‘other’ hand to nullify the threat of a bowler taking the ball away from him. A batsman to counter leg break could bat left handed and a left hand batsman could bat right handed against an off break bowler.

But the modern game of cricket is more about damage control than winning matches. Hence, taking risks has become the last thing in most batsmen’s mind. However, there was a batsman who employed this nifty method to counter left arm orthodox spin in a first class match in the 80s. It was Sunil Gavaskar of all batsmen.

In the semi-final of the 1981/82 Ranji Trophy played between Bombay and Karnataka, Bombay were all out for 271 batting first after winning the toss. Raghuram Bhat, a left arm spinner picked up 8 for 123 runs. Karnataka in response amassed 470.

Batting on the fourth day on a deteriorating surface, Bombay found themselves six down for 160 runs. Sunil Gavaskar bizarrely walked out to bat at number eight. Not only did he bat at number eight but he also batted left handed to counter the belligerent left armer Raghuram Bhat.

“The ball was turning square and Raghuram Bhat was pretty much unplayable on that surface. Since he was a left-hand orthodox spinner getting the ball to turn and bounce sharply away from the right-handers, I thought that the way to counter that was by playing left handed where the ball would turn and bounce but hit the body harmlessly (without the risk of getting out leg before wicket)”, Gavaskar told later in an interview.

But the significant feature of his innings was that he kept switching from right hand to left hand to make the ball come into him rather than go away. He batted left handed against Bhat and batted right handed against the off spinner Vijaykrishna. As he planned, he successfully tackled the pernicious spinners on that spiteful wicket and ended up scoring 18 not out, battling for more than 60 minutes ensuring that the match ended in a draw.

“I could understand the adverse reactions,” Gavaskar says. “It was felt that it was done in pique, but it was nothing like that at all. I felt I had zero chance against Raghu batting right handed, and since the match was already decided in Karnataka’s favour, I tried the tactic. If the match was in the balance, I certainly would not have batted left handed. Also, please remember I batted left handed only against Raghuram Bhat. When a right hand spinner (B Vijayakrishna) came along, I switched to batting right handed again”, the Indian legend told in the same interview.

Many batsmen have been known for their ambidextry but to go out and employ that trait in a professional game as means of defying the spinning ball, it takes a lot of mental strength and psychological virility. Gavaskar was no doubt was the toughest batsman of his time.

#4 Mike Brearley placing a helmet at short mid-wicket

The best skipper ever

The author of the Bible of cricket captaincy- a book titled “The Art of Captaincy”, Mike Brearley was arguably the best captain the cricketing world ever produced. Gifted with an incisive brain and a predisposition to take the game forward under all circumstances, he was the most innovative captain of all times.

He always had a way to contend situations of warying degree and often flouted traditions to wangle out a win for his side.

In a first class match against Surrey at Lord’s in 1977, Brearley captaining Middlesex won the toss and elected to field first on a green surface. Surrey was bundled out for 49 and Middlesex instead of beginning their innings declared at 0-0 forcing Surrey into the minefield, yet again.

In the third innings Surrey could manage only 89 and Middlesex chasing 139 on an improved surface, romped home with 9 wickets to spare.

In a One Day International during the closing stages placed all of his fielders including the wicket keeper on the boundary line, literally allowing only a single to be scored at the most off each ball. This prompted fielding circles to be made mandatory for all One Day Internationals.

But the most startling of all tactics was to ensnare some lackadaisical Yorkshire batsmen in 1980. The oppositions were not looking to score runs and that made the game dawdle. Mike Breareley, who according to the slow left arm spinner Phil Edmonds, “Things happened when he was in charge, because he was always wanting to do something to ensure that they did”, came up with one of the most uncanny ruses.

He placed a helmet at short mid-wicket hoping that the batsmen would hit across the line, against the spin to collect easy five runs. Even though, the ploy didn’t work out as well as he would have like to, it prompted a change in regulations as ICC only allowed the spare helmet to be placed behind the wicket keeper after that.

#5 Sachin Tendulkar\'s way of reading the reverse swing

They are the most successful duo in Test history

In the first Test match between India and New Zealand in 1999, India found themselves reeling, having scored only 83 in the first innings, conceding New Zealand a lead of 132. Batting for the second time in the Test, the Indian batsmen were put into trouble by Chris Cairns’s reverse swing.

It was India’s ace batsmen Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar who were in the middle but Cairns’s reverse swing managed to beat their bat two-three times in an over. “The surface was such that it became difficult to figure out which side is the shiny side”, said Sachin Tendulkar in an interview.

Rahul Dravid at the striker’s end was struggling to make peace with the reverse swinging ball and Sachin at the non-striker’s end had a bulb lighting up above his head with a fresh idea. He walked up to Dravid and told him that he had an idea to tackle Chris Cairns.

Sachin would be standing closer to the bowler and hence, would be able to see where the shinier side is. The ploy was to place the bat on the right side, if the shinier side is in the right or place the bat in the left, if the shinier side is in the left. Thus, Rahul Dravid at the striker’s end would get a hint on which way the ball is likely to move.

This became an instant hit as Dravid started bashing Cairns through the covers. The sudden ability of Dravid to read the reverse swing, confounded Chris Cairns. Dravid’s gaze at Sachin when batting instead of focusing on the bowler, and Sachin shuttling the bat between his hands were conspicuous and prominent that the bowler took note of it.

The next ball, Cairns bowled a cross seamed ball and immediately turned to Sachin and beckoned as if he was asking “What have you got for this”.

The little master had told Dravid that if he was not sure about the position of the shinier side of the ball, the bat would be kept in the middle. Such was the ingenuity of the ploy that both Dravid and Sachin went onto score a century each as the visitors were set a target of 374. The game ended up in a draw, eventually.