We have a new Double Century podcast series on the great Aubrey Faulkner.
I believe he is one of the greatest players that cricket ever forgot. This story covers alcoholism, two wars, the birth of the googly, South Africa’s early rise, comebacks, cricket's first academy and suicide. It is an incredible story, I hope you enjoy it.
Jimmy Anderson bowled 15 overs out of 35 overs, and you could assume it was a thought that we might not see him bowl again for a while. But as the partnership grew, Leach was harder to deploy. Potts does appear to need the assistance. Broad wasn't special either. And Stokes barely bowls himself now as a way of hardening up his bowlers.
So Anderson had to come back, and when he did, Rishabh Pant attacked.
It started with him trying to score, running down the wicket to steal a single and hurting probably his hamstring. On the next ball he gets a ripper, so he decides for the third time in his life to reverse scoop Jimmy Anderson. He only got two, but as far as intent goes, he was pretty clear. But just to make sure, next ball he went at it again and this time tried to sweep Anderson.
It would look a bit bizarre to someone who just parachuted into cricket from the 90s. It's not that attacking cricket was invented last month by England and McCullum. And obviously before there was Bazball, Pant was doing his Pantasia. But it would still have thought to be reckless.
It wasn't, though. It was game theory. He was going up against the best bowler in the opposition, but someone he likes to face, and he played a series of shots designed to try get him out of the attack. Or just score from him. It may not have looked like Test cricket as many of us grew up on. But while the execution was different, the actual thinking behind it was clever.
You follow the history of cricket and most of the great attacking batters played a similar kind of game. There is real thinking to how and when they attack. You can see it in the game of Victor Trumper, Viv Richards or Kevin Pietersen. To regular folk and non-attacking players it looks bizarre, to them the guys themselves, it makes perfect sense. Vic and Viv didn't play reverse scoops, but had they existed in their era, they certainly would have.
The shots have changed, the scoring rates have upped, but the thinking has always been there.
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