Cricket’s shortest format, T20, encourages players to be creative. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a great example of this.
Unusual shots and deliveries have been part of cricket for a long time. But T20 cricket, especially the IPL, has made them more common.
Here are five examples.
Wide Yorker There was a time when the yorker alone was enough to rattle batsmen. But with the profusion of matches and video analysis, batsmen got better at facing yorkers, often changing their crease position to nullify the ball.
Bowlers then started aiming the yorker away from the batsmen. All hail the wide yorker. The ball is no longer in the wheelhouse of the batsman and can end up being a dot or inducing an edge. The wide yorker is now a must in any T20 attack and not a sign of bad aim.
Slow Bouncer As many as 23.2 per cent of all the deliveries at the 2021 T20 World Cup were slow deliveries. Off-pace deliveries are so integral to T20 cricket that there are multiple variations to them. And one of the effective ones is the slow bouncer. It often produces a false stroke from the batsman, resulting in a wicket.
Like the wide yorker, the slow bouncer has no margin for error. A bit here and there and it could mean embarrassment and leaked runs. But if done well it is an asset.
Natmeg shot At the 2017 Women’s World Cup, England’s Natalie Sciver showed a novel way of tackling yorker length deliveries. She tapped them between her legs to the on side. The term ‘Natmeg’ comes from ‘Natalie’ and ‘Nutmeg’, the football expression for poking the ball between a defender’s legs.
Switch Hit It is a twin of the reverse sweep. Both turn the definition of the conventional sweep on its head. Just that in the switch hit the position of the hands on the bat handle is changed.
Some believe the shot should be banned, because it is unfair to the bowler if a right-hander suddenly plays like a left-hander or vice-versa. Recently Kevin Pietersen, a Mr Miyagi of the switch hit, and Harsha Bhogle debated the legitimacy of the shot. But for now, switchcraft is kosher.
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