Entertainment in store for cricket fans
By DAVID LEGGAT of NZPA in Hyderabad New Zealand fans are in for an entertaining summer when the Indian cricket team tours in the 1989-90 season.
Not only does it have high quality spinners in Narendra Hirwani, Arshad Ayub, Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri, and one of the world’s finest all-rounders in Kapil Dev, but it has batsmen of elegance and brilliance.
The captain, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Navjot Sidhu are batsmen who enjoy playing their shots with panache and flair.
However, the batsman who could most capture the imagination of the New Zealand cricketing public is the opener, Krishnamachari Srikkanth.
He was the spearhead on Saturday as India pushed itself to a solid position of 211 for four in reply to New Zealand’s moderate 254 in the third test.
Srikkanth scored 69, including three sixes and six boundaries, his third half century in five innings in the series.
His style might not be out of a coaching textbook, but with a quick eye and an instinctive ability to play innovative shots he is highly effective.
His batting stance is unorthodox. He stands at a 90deg. angle, with his bat sloped at 45deg. to the pitch and between balls he wanders several metres towards square leg in what could pass for a drunken lurching gait.
When he crashes a six — as he has done many
times in this series — he goes walkabout as far as the square leg umpire. Srikkanth has a particular liking for spinners.
When the New Zealand offspinner, John Bracewell, came on for his first over on Saturday the crowd of about 20,000 began roaring.
They knew what was coming and Srikkanth obliged, hitting the first ball he faced from the spinner over long-off then clubbing two more sixes down the ground off consecutive balls in the next over.
His impetuosity is his weakness, and on Saturday he paid the price for trying to pull a ball of full a length from Martin Snedden to midwicket and it shot straight up in the air.
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Press, 5 December 1988, Page 34
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344Entertainment in store for cricket fans Press, 5 December 1988, Page 34
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