by Chaitnaya Halgekar
Domnick Fernandes of Sairaj Yuvraj Warriors scored 33 in his first 21 balls. The next 9 balls were belted for 37 runs including 4 sixes and 3 fours. His total score- 70 runs of 30 balls. Strike rate of 210.
It is often believed that T20 is a format where a batsman has to just go and hit the ball. ‘See the ball, hit the ball’ is supposed to be mantra for batsmen in T20. But this is not the case every time.
Some of the best T20 innings in the world have started slowly and then gained momentum. In T20 World Cup final of 2012, Marlon Samuels scored 26 runs in 37 balls. He then stepped on the gas and smashed 52 runs of the next 21 balls. His final score was 78 runs of 56 balls.
In the semi-final against South Africa at the World T20 2014, Virat Kohli scored a match winning 72 of 44 balls and even he managed to get only 17 runs of the first 16 balls he faced.
Not just in T20 even in 50 overs game, many a times batsmen believe in creating a strong platform and then taking the charge. Ricky Ponting who played one of the best ODI innings at World Cup final in 2003 changed his gears only after scoring half century. He consumed 74 balls to reach 50 and then began the run feast by hitting Harbhajan for two sixes. His final score was 140 of 121 balls which means he scored 90 runs of remaining 47 balls.
However, there are still a lot who believe in smashing the ball from the word go. On many occasions such small but effective cameos change the course of the match. But even then every team wants a batter who could anchor the innings at the beginning and take charge at the end.
Well, Dominick’s knock today reminded that even in T20, batsmen still do have a lot of time to ‘construct’ an innings.