T20 cricket’s giant leap

It’s been six days since Carlos Brathwaite’s 6, 6, 6, 6 at Eden Gardens. But those hits still play on a loop in your minds.

They prompt you to consider if what you saw that night was simply extraordinary hitting under immense pressure, or something rarer: an evolutionary leap for T20.

Brathwaite’s effort, in its explosive beauty, and in its urgency-coming as it did at the most critical juncture on the biggest stage of the game-reminded you of another incident in sport that appeared to defy gradualism: Usain Bolt’s 9.69s to win the 100 at Beijing 2008.

Bolt had achieved it with some gas in the tank. And by the end of it, Brathwaite too left little doubt he would have launched 19.5 and 19.6 into space had he not run out of runs.
Now, as then, the question is: just how fast can we go?

On the eve of the ninth edition of the IPL, Ravichandran Ashwin predicted more misery for his kind — the bowlers.

“In general, I think T20 cricket has probably gone a notch up, in the last year or two. The game has definitely evolved, and it’s important to keep an eye on how much the game has evolved.

When you saw the final, Carlos Brathwaite just came in and smashed it. It’s getting into this zone where it’s getting into a power game. People are not holding back.They is going through from the first ball to the 20th over. Maybe the par scores will shift suddenly, and by the time we realize it will be couple of years,” the off-spinner said, ahead of the opening match between Mumbai Indians and Pune Supergiants.

He said the need of the hour for the teams was to catch the new breed of cricket that’s being played.

How easy would it be for other teams to replicate what the West Indies have done? Which prompts another question: What, indeed, have West Indies done?

Among the pictures of post-victory celebrations in Kolkata, there was one frame that neatly captured the story of the West Indian campaign at the 2016 World T20: 11 sculpted sets of bare six packs, big biceps and broad shoulders taking a lap of honour around Eden.

It was the sheer physical breadth of their batting, and its depth-and the belief borne out of it- that eviscerated England, and India in the game before that.

It was telling that the West Indies did it largely without the help of Chris Gayle, the epitome of modern-day power-hitting, but one who made only nine runs in four games after his 47-ball ton against England in the opening Group 1 match at Wankhede. The reason of the West Indian success was, and which is perfectly captured in that shirtless picture, their dressing room that was bursting the seams with muscle — probably the most brawn you would see under one roof outside of a WWE Royal Rumble ring.

Their smart strategy was that they didn’t have one Chris Gayle, they had seven to eight Gayles in the eleven. In doing so, they nullified that wretched probability, ‘what if Chris Gayle doesn’t fire?’

That explains the self-belief the West Indian dugout had in the final when they were 11/3 in the third over, or when they were 107/6in the 16th over and the asking run rate was hovering around 12, or When 19 were needed off the last over and the main man Marlon Samuels was at the non-striker’s end. When the need for the big hits arose, there was always an Andre Russell, an Andre Fletcher, or a Carlos Brathwaite ready to do the job.

Tall, big batsmen
Fast bowling legend and West Indies bowling coach Curtly Ambrose revealed after the match: “We believe we can chase any target. If it’s 40 off the last over, we’d question it. But if it’s 30, we’d believe.”

You bet he would have thought differently 20 years ago on March 14, 1996, in Mohali — as we all did — when he was run out and Courtney Walsh emerged from the dressing room to face Damien Fleming with six needed off the last four balls to send the team through to the finals.

A bit of indulgent digression here. Ambrose and Walsh are an exinct species today: the tall, quintessential West Indian fast bowler who was so bloody good. The bouncer rule of the 80s, batting friendly wickets, broad bats, Twenty20, basketball, athletics and what not conspired to push him over the edge.

He is consigned to blurry, non HD footages on YouTube today. Or, brought out once in awhile in evocative documentaries such as Fire in Babylon.

Or is it? Look around. Hasn’t he come back quietly, as a hard-hitting medium-pace all-rounder, when we were all looking expectantly for the next Garner, Holding or Ambrose?

Were he born on July 18, 1968 instead of July 18, 1988, Brathwaite, it can be safely assumed, would perhaps have his cricketing destiny pretty much laid out in front of him: you are six-foot-seven, here, take this ball and hurl it at the batsman as fast as you can.

Philosophically, he is doing the same stuff: only, in these changed times and format, he is smashing the ball as hard as he can. And the West Indies have adapted too, and evolved. So, instead of four-five intimidating fast bowlers in the XI, the West Indies now have four-five (or more) fearsome power-hitters. Now, as then, the net effect on the opposition appears to the same: the dread that you can’t escape.

Is this, then, the way for other countries and clubs in T20s?
The West Indies have had a tradition of free-spirited big-hitting. Gary Sobers hit six sixes in an over in 1968, with a decidedly inferior bat. Vivian Richards was arguably the first modern-day batsman. In some way, that tradition has been synthesised into the making of this current T20 winning team.

Have RCB cracked it?
For many other national teams, doing what the West Indies did might not be easy. In India, for instance, where consistency is valued, a power-hitter — and there aren’t too many to begin with — will always have a sword dangling above his head.

Then again, the likes of Russell, Bravo, Sammy and Brathwaite (even the man who he replaced in the squad, Pollard) are also pretty handy medium-pace bowlers. Bravo and Brathwaite, apart from scoring those crucial runs, also took three wickets each to restrict England to a below-par 155. And MS Dhoni’s constant lament has been the lack of a credible all-round option, especially a medium-pace all-rounder.

Moreover, in India the Virat Kohli method of low-risk, high-dividend has gained significant currency, especially in the aftermath of the win over Australia in the Group 2 virtual quarterfinal. In the semifinal too, he nearly took the hosts to the brink of victory with a 47-ball 89*.

One hallmark of his batting in those two knocks was to minimise the number of dot balls. He converted zeros into singles and singles into twos, which prompted Shoaib Akhtar to call those runs “behtareen” (very good) ahead of the semifinal.

To this Virender Sehwag, almost prophetically, retorted: “Shoaib, singles aur doubles behtareen nahi hote, chauke aur chhakke behtareen hote hain.” (Singles and doubles are never very good, fours and sixes are very good). Something that Russell would prove right later that night.

The West Indian formula, in theory, is be easier to replicate in franchise cricket, where you have to assemble and now produce a team. In 2014, Kings XI Punjab followed a somewhat similar strategy, and it nearly paid off.

This year, Royal Challengers Bangalore have added Shane Watson to the muscle they already have in the form of Gayle and AB de Villiers. And they have the silk and surefootedness of Virat Kohli. On paper, it seems as irresistible as putting Kohli in the West Indies team. Theoretically, an ultimate batting combination.