Skippers Morgan, McCullum showed the way with positive intent
When the one-day limited overs game began to take root, there were many who felt that it would be the ruin, if not the end of Test cricket as it was played then. Mind you, the limited overs games then, especially in the World Cups and in England were of the 60 overs-a-side variety with a lunch time and teat time to boot.
It was possible because of the long summer days in England that 120 overs could be bowled in a day. It was only when the World Cup first came to the subcontinent that it became a 50 overs-a-team game.
As a newer generation of cricketers took over, the positive effect of the limited overs format could be seen in Test cricket too. There were more boundaries being hit. There were certainly more aerial shots and sixes being struck than ever before, and teams scoring in excess of 250 and nearly 300 runs in a Test match day started to become quite common.
There were not too many drawn Test matches either, unless they were weather-shortened or played on an incredibly flat batting pitch with both teams getting more than 450 runs and batting for 12 out of the 15 sessions of the Test match while doing so.
This happened because the more the limited overs games were played, the more practice the batsmen in particular got in playing bold strokes and scoring rapidly. There were more risks taken with the confidence of them coming off in limited overs cricket, and so more entertainment for the spectators at the ground and those viewing on TV. There were one-day specialists who went on to become Test match superstars too and brought a whole new audience to the game.
When the limited overs first started, a total of 200 in 50 overs was considered a good score to defend. As more and more limited overs started to be played and batsmen became proficient in improvising, that score rose to 250, and as was seen in the recently concluded World Cup in Australia, even a 300 plus score was not safe.
If the 50 overs game brought a new life to cricket’s oldest format, the newest version — the T20, has galvanised it and brought a dash to it that it did not have before. Some shots that were just part of the imagination are now being executed in T20 and even in 50 overs games much to the delight of the spectators, and the game has become even more entertaining as a result.
The recent one-day series between England and New Zealand has consistently seen more than 300 runs being scored in each game by both teams. Both skippers, Brendon McCullum of New Zealand and Eoin Morgan of England, have led from the front in showing the way and encouraging their teammates to be positive and aggressive.
Orthodox way
While some extraordinary shots have been seen, what has been heart-warming is to see that batsmen like Kane Williamson are playing in the orthodox way and still scoring at more than a run a ball. So, it is not just wild slogging but also bold but sensible stroke play that is clattering the ball into the boundaries and over it.
Yes, the bowlers have suffered in this but they too have developed different deliveries to try and deceive the batsmen. Most of the batting at the latter stages of the innings is more about outguessing the bowler and it is here that the thinking bowler gets his man.
What the bowlers need, however, is more protection with boundaries being the regular length than the shortened version that is seen. With so much space between the fence and the boundaries, there is ample scope for the boundaries to be stretched further.
What can be done is to have the lower half of the fencing padded and foamed up so that even if a fielder slides into it, there will not be any serious injury to him. Longer boundaries will also mean that the batsman will have to really connect and time the ball to hit it for a six. Allowing two bowlers to bowl a maximum of 12 overs instead of 10 overs, as at present, could also help tilt the scales a bit.
Cricket is considered a batsman’s game but there would be no game if there were no bowlers to bowl at the batsmen. Unless the game changes some of its current rules and protects the bowlers, there won’t be too many youngsters keen on taking up bowling.