I found Kohli's second guessing skill quite fascinating in the 29th over of the IND vs PAK match.
It's about how he brings his bat-tap into his game and abandons it within this over.
Might delete the thread later as it might create copyright issues. So here it is:
1/
So, Shaheen has got mid-on and mid-off up in the ring. And he is bowling from around the wicket. I was going through this recent piece by Danyal Rasool on Shaheen for Cricinfo and it does talk about Shaheen bowling from this angle once the swing dissipates.
2/
See, how it talks about bringing stumps into play more ?So with mid-off and mid-on up here's a chance to take a calculated risk and chip it straight down the ground ? It's as if Kohli could read the length even before it's bowled and he dances down the track with a bat-tap.
3/
Shaheen tries one more time on the 2nd ball from around the wicket. Again it's predictably full. But another dancing down the track might be one shot too many for Kohli. But observe how he doesn't abandon the bat-tap for this length. It's still there.
4/
Now, Shaheen has to react to this situation. Because this isn't working. So he shifted to over the wicket. Now Kohli's realizes no way this is gonna be full. He could read what's coming. Now you see the bat-tap is abandoned for 3rd ball. He doesn't need it for that length.
5/
5th ball, Shaheen is back to around the wicket. Steyn doing commentary could guess it's going to be short. Kohli sticks with his bat-tap theory for this one too. It's banged in but Kohli doesn't need to not rush for this because even though it's short, it's actually pace-off.
6/
Here's the cutter's grip. The speed also dropped to mid 120's
7/
Now that pace-off shorter length didn't work either may be it's time for fuller length and pace-on again? Kohli reads it. A charge is a safe and aggressive option. Kohli charges. And so remains the bat-tap for this around the wicket ball.
END/
PS: I often write threads on cricket (mostly based on my observations). All the threads that I have written on this platform are under my pinned tweet. If you have loved reading 'em, may be you can share my posts/follow me and help this account on cricket twitter to grow. Thanks.
correction on 6th post: Kohli doesn't need to rush for this*
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
I've grown up listening to Richie Benaud's cricket commentary. Adored the way he respect the value of pause, never trying to steal a moment, always being subtle, dignified and measured.
But this thread is about his amazing ability to read the game and tell us.
1/
Magical flipper to Cullinan from Warne.
But follow what Benaud said when Warne pulled one straight down to bowl a long hop to Cullinan and Cullinan easily pulled it for a four. Benaud knew that’s the faux flipper that Warne shows only to be followed by the real one.
2/
The wisdom not to bowl short when batter charges towards you because the field opens up. Here Aravinda charges, Alderman drags one down and gets hit. Benaud says to spear one in into the shoes. Alderman bowls full and at the base of the stumps and immediately gets rewarded
[THREAD]
Few days ago, a six hit by Bavuma was widely talked about on social media. Both feet up – absolute spectacle. While watching the highlights of his inning I realized that he has brought a technical change in his batting.
This is a thread about that technical change.
1/
So, before facing every ball Bavuma was making a conscious effort to place his head over his front shoulder with his open stance. The reason he was doing this - was to make sure his head didn’t fall over while batting.
2/
Your head falling over while batting can make you a potential LBW candidate. Here Akash Chopra explains in one of his batting masterclass for FIRSTPOST.
It’s one of my favorite overs bowled in ODI cricket. This is Shoaib vs Ponting duel at Gabba from 2002. This was the first over Shoaib bowled in that match and got Ponting clean bowled with an inswinger on the 6th ball of that over.
A thread on that.
1/
Shoaib comes into bowl on 11th over. And he is quietly counting the number of steps he has to run in to finally scratch a mark of that point - from where he would pick up his run-in speed. Someone from mid-on interrupts. Shoaib gestures to stay quiet for a minute.
2/
Now Waqar, the skipper, joins in. I am not the greatest lip reader; but if I am not wrong Waqar probably asks Shoaib to make Ponting play through mid-wicket and says - "Udaa de".
Cricket world is going gaga over the peach bowled by Jayden Seales to De Zorzi in the Guyana test. Bowled from around the wicket, it swung in late and sneaked through Zorzi's defense - knocking out the off pole.
A thread on that
1/
Seam positioning, the wrist behind the ball, the way the ball holds its shape are absolutely amazing.
But the most important part is that Seales is not trying to go with the angle. In fact, he pushes it straight and relies on the canting of the seam to come in with the angle
2/
This is the not first time he has done this by the way. He has done this for Surrey as well – that is to come from around the wicket and produce that big swing into the left hander and then messing up the stumps
Kohli’s miraculous turnaround on 18.5 and 18.6 at MCG in 2022 T20 WC have already been analyzed to death. I always wanted to write something about those 2 balls ever since they happened and tick off from the list.
Warning: this might be a boring read for you
1/
We'll start with 18.4. Rauf to Pandya. Pace-on ball, banged into the pitch. And there's this Monica Seles like grunt from Rauf - as if an auditory warning for the batter – hear how hard I'm coming at you. But can that grunt also be used as a distraction when it's not pace-on?
2/
We will come to that a bit later. Now, what were the factors that could've gone against Kohli on those 2 balls.
First, those colossal square boundaries at MCG. You couldn't blame Rauf for change of pace. Two pace-on balls to Pandya. He was getting predictable. So, pace-off.
3/
[THREAD]
As James Anderson is about to end his international career I wanted to write this thread.
It’s about this inswinger to Marlon Samuels that trapped Marlon plumb in front in the Bridgetown test in 2015.
It’s one of my favorite spells of fast bowling in Test cricket .
1/
So, the reason this ball is so special to me is because it’s an inswinger and the wind is blowing from right to left – that is exactly opposite of the direction the ball in question swung. Listen to Botham when Anderson bowled the 4th ball of the over.
2/
Just to highlight the specialty of that inswinger, I am referring to this interview of Anderson with Derek Pringle in 2016, where James Anderson mentioned how difficult it is to make an inswinger go when it’s against the crosswind’s direction – that is right to left.