Players in whites and the red ball makes a huge difference, so they say and I feel it is more in the mind and less about solid technique especially in the opening overs. Openers walking out into the middle, butterflies in the stomach after the captain has done the honours with the toss, crowd backing the home team, nerves everywhere, bowlers and batsmen alike , fielders feeling their palms and making sure everything sticks. The conditions are tailormade for you to fail as an opener. Test matches are the real test and compared to the instant quick formats they make for a delightful concoction if the curator has left a bit of grass and the weather is kind to the faster bowlers. The first ball which you face up to after the umpires and the crowd have settled down adds that extra dimension to viewing both in the ground and on the television.
Was watching the first ball of a test match , Zak running up to Smith , a left arm bowler bowling to a left hand batsman , how many times has it happened before ,was tempted to check the statsguru on cricinfo for more details. Thought it would be better to feel the experience and remember the past which transported me in the time machine back several years to the Dyanora T481 black and white television, the cricket addiction and the inner feeling on whether it would be a wicket first up.
Many first balls dismissals immediately came to mind , Kapil Dev to Mohsin Khan in a match where a wicket was as rare as rain in Pilani and Mohsin was out lbw. Sunil Gavaskar, the master technician nicking Malcolm Marshal to Dujon in Calcutta, the first ball of the test match again. Two great bowlers who used to be bang on from the first delivery, Marshal with his pace and bounce and Kapil Dev with his accuracy and swing. Kapil had to make use of the new ball as much as possible, would probably be bowling with a spinner at the other end , and would get only 5 to 6 overs to get all that he could in terms of wickets. Marshal in contrast used to be warmed up and raring to get at the batsman with his brutal bouncers and swing at a pace above 140s. Contrast this to Shoaib Akhtar who runs up full tilt and bowls the first ball well wide outside the off stump and Sehwag lets it go or upper cuts it for 4.
The modern day test cricket has no express bowlers , no uncovered pitches, Kookaburra balls are used where swing lasts only for 10 odd overs and wickets in Australia are as barren as Faisalabad in Pakistan. The pitches have become batsman friendly some would say, still the first use of conditions from a bowlers point of view makes a huge difference to the outcome of the match especially with early moisture and cloud cover.
All said and done watching the first ball in a test match is a feeling unmatched by any other.
PS : Just watched Anderson bowling to Shane Watson in Sydney as well !!
7 comments:
Never knew that there was so much to the first ball of a match. Pretty interesting! Can only remember what u normally say...odi is like instant coffee and test cricket is like dichoction coffee!
Though the style of narration has changed a bit( better!), the analysis and personalized original views are intact!
Keep writing !
the article is nice and true. On the lighter side all the charm goes away when starhub charges a bomb to subscribe cricket and that too not broadcasting the Ashes
That is why we dont send you opening and give you bowling in the middle :) What if you get out or dont take a wicket :) Yes Test cricket is more interesting than one day/ Twenty Twenty for sure!!
Wow!An article on state of mind of an opening batsman/bowler coming from a .. well ... err .. allrounder:). Talking about first ball, I always wonder what will be the state of mind of Sehwag, the free stroking genius who sees only the ball coming out of the bowler's hand at any given point of time in the match. Has he ever got out first ball in a test match? He might have hit a six the first ball! I think the nerves will be more for the opening bowler in this case:)
I can remember one more - Shastri in '85 at the Rothman's Cup at Sharjah. He had just won the Champion of Champions crown at Melbourne and fell firt ball to Imran !
Good one...
they should have a first ball wicket also named in a special way... like golden duck, maybe a golden goose ;) then it will become more famous in cricket with the commentators and headlines making them popular.....
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