Obviously if the ball is straight a shot is required (and, anyway, you can't score runs by leaving the ball). You'll soon hear commentators rabbiting on about 'footwork' - the basis of all good batting. 'If you don't get your feet in the right position,' someone will be proclaiming, 'then you can't play the correct shot.' There's a bit more scope than that, but the basic principles generally hold true. If the ball is full, it's best to move forward; if the ball is short, it's better to step back.
Jack Hobbs c.1930
This position looks extraordinary to us now but it was designed for a different style of bowling. But don't knock it, he made 197 first-class centuries.
Michael Atherton 2000
Against pace, the furthest forward you can hope to get is a half-stride. This confident block is classic MCC coaching manual.
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Nasser Hussain 2000
Hussain's body is in a good position (far left), with his weight forward. He has moved confidently towards the ball. But (right) now he's rattled, having just taken a blow on the fingers, and is not far enough forward.
Uncertain footwork
The mental battle of cricket is at its most intense during the opening overs of an innings. The batsman needs to exude confidence in the face of the bowler's hostility.
The pose of Nasser Hussain in the two pictures above seems little altered, but the small loss of faith they reveal is the difference beween being in and out. The picture on the left shows Hussain solidly blocking a well pitched up ball from Courtney Walsh - he steps forward with a confident stride, getting well out of the crease.
Annoyed by this kind of block, Walsh bowled a brute of a delivery to follow, which lifted and rapped Hussain on the hand. After a pause for treatment (Hussain is known in the Essex dressing room as 'popadom fingers' because of their susceptiblity to breaking), he once again had to face the pace of Walsh.
Walsh pitched the ball up again but Hussain wasn't quite so confident this time and didn't get himself or his weight as far forward as before. It doesn't look much, but it made all the difference. The ball moved a little, he was struck on the pad and given out LBW.
This is a classic example of a batsman's confidence, and consequently his footwork, being eroded by aggressive and cunning fast bowling.
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Having found his radar, a quick bowler is soon likely to test an opening batsman with some shorter-pitched bowling. Not necessarily bouncers at his head, just deliveries that rise up a bit and explore his technique, reactions and courage.
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The cut is probably the most commonly-used shot in the game. It is particularly favoured by small, compact players who haven"t got much "reach" for drives and other forward shots. However, to a ball that is widish and shortish, they can jump back on their stumps in a jiffy and bring the bat down like an axe.
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There is a lot of confusion between the pull and the hook. Although they look quite similar, the basic difference is that the pull is played to a ball around waist height, the hook to a higher one at shoulder or head height, usually a bouncer.
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There is a lot of confusion between the pull and the hook. Although they look quite similar, the basic difference is that the pull is played to a ball around waist height, the hook to a higher one at shoulder or head height, usually a bouncer. The hook is a harder shot to keep down (and safe) than the pull.
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One of England"s greatest post-war batsmen, the late Denis Compton, was once asked if he"d have gone down the pitch to the leg spin of Shane Warne. "I don"t think so," he replied, "he"s got so many different tricks and he"d have seen me coming. I"d see how I got on sweeping him."
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If the orthodox sweep is partially premeditated, the much-maligned reverse sweep is wholly so. Because you have to adjust your grip somewhat, once you"ve decided to play it, it"s virtually impossible to change your mind.
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