21.10.08

Beaten For Pace

During the summer I heard Devon Malcolm talking on the radio about the time he ran through South Africa at The Oval. If there's one dismissal from that spell which lingers in the memory, it's the way in which Cronje shaped up with what could easily have been mistaken for a perfect forward defensive, the only problem being that the ball had already gone past him and laid waste to his stumps before he could get his bat anywhere near it. If you ever want to see something that embodies the old chestnut about a batsman being 'beaten for pace', that is it.

It came to mind again yesterday when I watched Ishant Sharma - lower in pace than Malcolm but infintely more promising - do something very similar to Ricky Ponting.

For Ishant the future looks impossibly bright; for Australia, and perhaps even for Ponting himself, the clouds are gathering.

6 comments:

Tarun said...

Did u see Zaheer getting a couple of beauties to Haddin and Lee, I m sure both would have to be in the same category

Brian Carpenter said...

Cheers, Tarun. Because of not being up early enough and having to work all day I haven't seen those yet. They'll be on TV here in the UK a bit later - and I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Zaheer's a tremedous bowler these days.

Jhangora said...

Ishant reminds me of Glen McGrath.

Rob said...

To be fair to Ponting it was a heck of a delivery. Sharma seems to have developed the knack of getting out quality batsman... and he is only 20.

http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/image/353599.html

Brian Carpenter said...

Too right, Rob. I don't really think there's a problem with Ponting, although, at nearly 34, he's not going to get a lot better now. There's going to be more pressure on him as his team continues to change - I wonder how much longer Hayden's got.

Sharma just looks excellent and should be leading the Indian attack for a very long time as long as his body holds up.

Rob said...

There seems to be a lot of pressure to get rid of Hayden. I am not sure I would be so quick, a top order without him looks much weaker to me.

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