14.11.08

Extraordinary

While I was getting ready for work this morning, I was aware that, in the background, Yuvraj was doing what Yuvraj does best: destroying an England bowling attack with the headiest mixture of elegance and power you will ever see. I saw a few of the best shots but couldn't really follow the innings as I had other things to do.

At the same time I was aware that the TMS team - Agnew, Simon Mann, Gus Fraser and Steve James - were raving about the innings, although Agnew did spend a long time banging on about the fact that Yuvraj had a runner (which did seem ridiculous).

The strokes I saw were sumptuous but such displays by him seem so commonplace now, especially against England (Durban, his sublime century in the ODI at Goa in 2006) that I almost wondered what all the fuss was about.

Yuvraj is a batsman who makes the extraordinary look ordinary. That is what he does.

As I've mentioned before I regard him as one of the very best attacking batsmen I have ever seen, and, unlike the England bowlers, I'll be happy to see as much more as he can produce in the rest of the series.

Bring it on.
Posted by at 5:32 PM
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4 comments:

Som said...

Whatever he does, Yuvi is destined to go down in the history as the under-achiever par excellence. You want to pat and kick him at the same time. As I keep saying everywhere, whenh the guy upstair made him, He stuffed it with so much of talent that discilpine had to be left out. What a shame!

7:34 AM
Rob said...

It is odd how he can play the most extraordinary innings in one day cricket and look so ordinary in test matches.

8:51 PM
Brian Carpenter said...

Thanks, guys. I, too, have wondered about his lack of runs at Test level but since I've seen very few of his Test innings it's difficult to comment. I did see him play a bit when he was with Yorkshire in 2003 and he looked very vulnerable around off-stump and he's also supposed to struggle against the short ball. Maybe if he replaces Ganguly in the England Tests he can make a better go of things, especially as he's in such great form at the moment. Perhaps there's a bit of a parallel with Michael Bevan, who was an even more prolific ODI player but never really cut the mustard in Tests, largely beacuse he couldn't play short stuff.

1:38 PM
Rob said...

I think the comparison with Bevan is a good one -- maybe Nick Knight too.

2:51 PM

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