Sport

Way to go Yuvi!

Yuvraj is back! And what a way to announce it! With Yuvraj in the middle you never know what to expect, irrespective of whether you are the opposition or a member of the same team. Like a hurricane, he comes into the middle, and unleashes his fury on the hapless bowlers who can but watch in stunned silence. But then like the hurricane, he is difficult to predict.

On Thursday, he was a man with a point to prove. The earlier series against Australia and Sri Lanka were not the most memorable ones for him. He needed to get runs, at least to prove a point to himself. He came in to bat when it was a perfectly set field. Sehwag and Gambhir were off to a superb start and all Yuvraj needed to do was consolidate.

Everyone watched with bated breath. Will he... Won’t he ...? And he did, with style. He might have just missed making the fastest ODI hundred by an Indian, but the way he played never gave anybody time to think about it. There was a sharp intake of breath from the spectators when he tweaked his back; but Yuvraj stood on gamely. He later said he was worried that he might worsen his injury by running between the wickets. He need not have worried. Most of his runs came in boundaries.

Yuvi maintained a steady head and he showed very good body balance. He picked the line and the length of the ball very early on in the innings. To England’s credit, the bowlers did not bowl too badly. It is just that the way Yuvraj played. He made the bowling look ordinary. Both captains agreed that they would have elected to field first. England, however, did not account for Yuvraj. He never let the bowlers settle down. He forced the bowlers to reduce their length by hitting their good length balls for a six. The short ones were then dispatched with equal élan.

He showed that he had a shot for every ball that England bowled. Yuvraj did not play the innings of a slogger. Instead, what was visible was good batting technique. When Flintoff bowled him a yorker, Yuvraj opened the face of his bat and played it through the third man for a boundary. A similar delivery, towards the end of the innings was punished with a different stroke. Using the depth of the crease, he took a step back, directed the ball and hit it over the head of the bowler for a one-bounce four. It was an identical delivery but played very differently. Something only a well-set batsman is likely to do.

Yuvraj was able to do this and more simply by watching the bowlers really close. A ball released early will mean a fuller length, while a ball released a little later would result in a shorter length. By merely watching the release of the ball, Yuvraj could plan his shots. He was obviously seeing the cricket ball like a football. His innings was inspired and chanceless leaving the English team bewildered and the spectators awestruck. Way to go Yuvi!

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