When in doubt, swing the bat

12 May 2009, Kings XI Punjab Vs Mumbai Indians, IPL-2

By Vikram A

Is it really "Wow, Sohal," or "Heck , Sohal!" The Punjab opener Sunny Sohal sent a few balls into the galleries and had the commentators in raptures like "How do you do that," with his 20-odd ball 43, the top score. However, is he really convincing? The finger grips the bat in an innocent thumb and forefinger grip unlike the modern 'well round the handle.' Sunny somehow seems immobilized when the bowler delivers the ball as if unable to read all those bowling . Does he sniff the ball? Probably not. Aw, c'mon this is the 20-20 game. Not time for those Bradsmaneque traditions, a pyjama cricketer would say!

Fine, but my point is that unlike most batsman whose body language shows some indication of computing the ball's flight and tragectory, right or wrong, here's one who makes no calculations. He'd therefore rather just decide on a shuffle and a stroke with no background information. Using of course a somewhat two-dimensional view of the ball.

Hence, we saw him mostly shuffle away to off and glide away balls or when given width, dispatch sixes over the cover and extra cover area. It's a foregone conclusion that any batsman, given width will hit a six these days. So, the point here is, are all those backward-of-square glides, most pre-meditated, the sign of a batsman not sizing up to the ball, sniff or not? In other words guesswork.

The reason poor young Sunny is being made the villain of the piece here is, his getting Irfan Pathan run out and then himself too in a manner not deserving of professional cricketers. It points to a lack of cricketing sense. And that is perhaps just as absent in his strokemaking.

If your position is the opening batsman's, you'll find two advantages that simple spur the ball to the boundary or over it - the ball is hard and the field, even if not in powerplay is relatively attacking. So, it should come as no surprise that a batsman, even if he's nervous or unable to read the bowler's hand, will try to create width or play shots with positive results. Which is what Sunny did yesterday.

Not to discourage the youngster but maybe the lens with which we view a shot-maker is a little too wide. Maybe we label him as good without looking close enough and taking into account some factors.