Australia v Sri Lanka: If Usman Khawaja is Marty McFly, why is Australia so bad at spin
Australia v Sri Lanka: If Usman Khawaja is Marty McFly, why is Australia so bad at spin
Picture this. It is two and a half overs after the start of a day of Test cricket. Usman Khawaja is resuming from the previous evening. A left-handed Australian number three batsman.
He faces his first ball. Then another, another, four, five. He is facing Dilruwan Perera, an off-spinner, bowling from around the wicket and very wide on the crease.
Perera slants a ball in at the stumps. A bit of loop, a bit of hang time, not too much. A straight path. Khawaja, with a vertical bat, defends down the line that the ball will take when it spins. Except it does not spin. It carries cheerfully past his inside edge and hits his stumps.
Now another picture. This time, it is two and half overs before the end of a day of Test cricket. It is the same day. The same batsman. The same bowler. The same delivery. The first ball of Khawaja's new innings, identical to the last of his last.
He watches it come down. Moves onto the front foot, leaves his bat raised in its backlift, and watches the same ball pass him, into the same set of stumps.
One day, seven balls, no runs, twice dismissed, by the same bowler, with the same delivery, and the second time around, you did less to stop it than the first.
Watch for the straight ball'
Let us add another frame to the Kodachrome View-Master.
Australian cricket captain Steven Smith looks disappointed as he walks, holding a cricket bat by his side.
This one is identical to the Khawaja dismissals, except reversed into a mirror image.
The batsman is right-handed, the finger-spinner delivers with the left, but he has the same line from around the wicket, the same width on the crease, the same way of angling the ball in.
It pitches. The batsman plays for turn. The sole difference in this case is that he tries to cut rather than defend what he thinks will spin wide of his stumps. It does not. It hits middle.
This is Steven Smith, from the first ball of a Rangana Herath over. Australia's first innings. One ball after Khawaja's first dismissal.
Smith has watched from the other end of the pitch, seen the straight ball, seen the shot, seen the one miss and the other hit. Then he has taken guard and done exactly the same thing.
Before this second Test at Galle, Smith spoke maturely and sensibly about the need to adapt to Sri Lanka's bowling, with a special focus on Herath.
"Particularly against someone like Rangana," he said, "it's playing for that ball that is going to skid on
He faces his first ball. Then another, another, four, five. He is facing Dilruwan Perera, an off-spinner, bowling from around the wicket and very wide on the crease.
Perera slants a ball in at the stumps. A bit of loop, a bit of hang time, not too much. A straight path. Khawaja, with a vertical bat, defends down the line that the ball will take when it spins. Except it does not spin. It carries cheerfully past his inside edge and hits his stumps.
Now another picture. This time, it is two and half overs before the end of a day of Test cricket. It is the same day. The same batsman. The same bowler. The same delivery. The first ball of Khawaja's new innings, identical to the last of his last.
He watches it come down. Moves onto the front foot, leaves his bat raised in its backlift, and watches the same ball pass him, into the same set of stumps.
One day, seven balls, no runs, twice dismissed, by the same bowler, with the same delivery, and the second time around, you did less to stop it than the first.
Watch for the straight ball'
This one is identical to the Khawaja dismissals, except reversed into a mirror image.
The batsman is right-handed, the finger-spinner delivers with the left, but he has the same line from around the wicket, the same width on the crease, the same way of angling the ball in.
It pitches. The batsman plays for turn. The sole difference in this case is that he tries to cut rather than defend what he thinks will spin wide of his stumps. It does not. It hits middle.
This is Steven Smith, from the first ball of a Rangana Herath over. Australia's first innings. One ball after Khawaja's first dismissal.
Smith has watched from the other end of the pitch, seen the straight ball, seen the shot, seen the one miss and the other hit. Then he has taken guard and done exactly the same thing.
Before this second Test at Galle, Smith spoke maturely and sensibly about the need to adapt to Sri Lanka's bowling, with a special focus on Herath.
"Particularly against someone like Rangana," he said, "it's playing for that ball that is going to skid on
No comments: