Different strokes at 2011 World Cup

Gone are the days when in Test match, a team would score around 220 runs in a day. Later, with the advent of one-dayers, the scoring rate increased to around 250 runs in a day. However, with the latest T20 format, the teams are scoring in the vicinity of over 300 runs in the 90 overs of play.

That has really made the Test matches quite interesting. More longer-version ties are producing results as was seen in the recent Ashes series in Australia.

The quality of cricket, too, was top class and it was good to see Test cricket in healthy condition.

It’s up to every cricket board to ensure better quality of wickets and infrastructure to lure the crowds to five-day cricket simply because if Test format survives, cricket will survive.

However, the T20 format has really changed the face of the game. In the past, nobody could imagine that a batsman would score a double hundred in a 50-over game. Well, it requires tremendous fitness to not only bat for that long but score briskly as well.
Sachin played a glorious knock to achieve this improbable feat against the Proteas only recently. I guess it was possible only because cricketers are nowadays playing in the T20 format.

While on Sachin, he is the one who has always improvised in different situations and adapted to the conditions beautifully. He innovated and played the upper-cut with authority, slashed hard at anything short outside the off-stump that went over the third man and into the stands, played reverse sweep with elan and
executed paddle sweep with great delight.

Under the circumstances, it becomes difficult for a captain to place the field. The bowlers, too, become clueless as to what line or length they have to bowl. A captain can manage it in a T20 format, but if it happens in a 50-over game, he really has to think out of the box to stop the run flow.

I guess this World Cup, too, will be a litmus testfor the captains and the bowlers with batsmen adapting to different shots and tactics. They will have to have more options if that happens.

Only recently, I watched tennis ball cricket in Mumbai with great interest. The ball used, of course, is heavier and harder than the normal tennis ball but the strategies of the captains and the bowlers are really interesting to say the least.

They are absolutely unconventional and while batting they employ more reverse sweeps to perfection. They hit it hard and manage to clear the ground by a few yards. The bowlers, not to be outdone or outsmarted, vary their line, length and speed to be effective.

The man of the match even gets a car as a present and the matches are normally watched by as many as 10,000 people. I wonder when was the last time a Ranji game fetched so much crowd!