Vijay: - first time in my life, I was supporting the Australian cricket team. Really, they just thrashed Pakistan in the semi final of ICC T-20 World cup tournament. Waqar Younis was just stunned to see that defeat.
Kamala: - Australian women cricket team has defeated our Indian women team in the semi final. That’s so sad.
Arindam: - I watched the women’s’ semi-final. There is hardly any difference between an Australian male cricketer and a women cricketer. Those Australian women cricketers were just flying and diving like Jonty Rhodes. After seeing them, I was asking question to myself, ‘Are they women or men?’ The fitness level of Indian women cricketers should improve if they really want to compete with the Australian and New Zealand women cricketers. Our Indian women cricketers are not so bad. Some of them play better cricket than Indian male cricketers. Mitali Raj and Anita Sharma can play any shots at anytime. Hamanpreet Kaur is not bad either, but she lacks power in her shots. Jhulan Goswami, as usual is good at bowling but needs to increase her pace a little.
Vijay: - Chee…you are a man and you watched the cricket match of women. They play like school children only.
Arindam: - I was also under that impression. But, after seeing the Australian women cricket team, I can bet that those women can even challenge the Australian men cricket team led by Michael Clarke.
Kamala: - Anyway, that team has won the ICC T-20 tournament, which was never expected to do so. The England cricket team under the cool headed Paul Collingwood won the tournament. Thank god, at least Pakistan has not reached the final, because, England have poor track record against Pakistan.
Vijay: - but, against Australia, England team always gives out the best performance, as they are the competitors of historical and traditional Ashes Series.
Arindam: - You people are giving some credit to the Australian cricket team, because they defeated our arch-rivals in the semi final. But, you people are not talking about a particular player, who batted consistently well in this tournament. Unfortunately, he failed in the final, but his brother played a decent innings, which was not enough to beat England.
Kamala: - You are talking about whom?
Arindam: - It is none other than Michael Hussey. Australia could have never reached the final of this tournament, unless Michael Hussey played a superb innings against Pakistan. When he came in to bat, the required run-rate for Australia was 12.48. He kept himself cool and didn’t panic. He was not playing any rash shots also. He was just milking the ball here and there to steal singles and was getting himself adjusted to the pitch. I don’t know whether you people remember or not. At one time, there were some players, who used to come at No.6 or No.7 slot and always proved to be the match winners. The players were Michael Bevan, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Lance Klusener, Robin Singh, Ajay Jadeja and many others. Recently, in IPL-3, it was Robin Uthappa.
Vijay: - Yeah, you are right. They used to steal away the match from the opponents at the slog overs. But, in my opinion, Michael Bevan is still the best in this category. He never used to throw away his wicket very easily. He used to stick to the basics and kept on improvising.
Kamala: - How do you define the word ‘improvising’ in cricket, as a batsman?
Arindam: - Well, let me give you an example. Say, you are a batsman, who is very strong in off-side. Your opponent captain will keep 5 fielders in the off-side ring. The bowlers will attack you in the off-stump area, as they know that there are 5 fielders to defend his bowling. Now, your sixth sense revealed that the distance of leg side boundary is lesser than that of off-side boundary. So, you will now intentionally take the risk to steer the off-stump ball to the leg-side boundary. That is improvisation. Do the hard work in initial period. Once your eyes are set in accordance to the pitch; just start playing smart cricket. Bevan used to play like that and Mike Hussey did exactly the same thing with Pakistan. Really, “MIKE HUSSEY IS THE SECOND MICHAEL BEVAN OF AUSTRALIA.”
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