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Younis' Achilles


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Look at these dismissals. Do you notice a common thread? 2nd Test, 1st innings: Thushara to Younis Khan, OUT, big blow for Pakistan, Younis Khan chops it on to his stumps, it was a short ball and the angle was taking it across the batsman, who tries to cut it but gets a bottom edge, one bounce and it rattles the stumps, a duck for Younis 3rd Test, 1st innings: Thushara to Younis Khan, OUT, He's dragged it on! Short outside off, good bounce, gets into good position to chop that through point, got the inside edge and it clipped the off stump 1st ODI: Thushara to Younis Khan, OUT, Younis Khan joins the procession, Sri Lanka are well on top here, a short and wide delivery gets the wicket again, Younis cuts it straight to third man Three times in seven innings, Younis has fallen to the weakness that the Sri Lankan left hander has sensed and exploited to the hilt. Indian fans have watched him long enough to know that his default stance is to lunge on the front foot, trying to get to the pitch of the ball. His weight is on the front foot. From this position, he is vulnerable as he tries to play the cut shot, as by the time his horizontally descending bat meets the ball, the cherry is often behind him. The cut shot is horrendously difficult to play safely off the front foot . Here, I would like to point out the distinction from Ponting, who is another champion lunger. But Ponting differs in two ways. Firstly, during the lunge, his weight is evenly distributed on both feet, with the back foot used as an anchor in case the bowler pitches short. He can turn that to his advantage by shifting his weight to the trailing foot in a milli-second and pulling, virtually off the front foot. There's one shot though the immensely successful Ponting almost never plays- the cut. Master technician that he is, he has figured out the folly of playing that shot off a forward lunge.

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That's well spotted. He does have a weakness with that shot and if he is wise, he will cut that shot out for sometime till he has time to work on it in the nets. As far as Ponting is concerned, he also plays the pull shot well which is not possible if one entirely commits himself on the front foot.

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Look at these dismissals. Do you notice a common thread? 2nd Test, 1st innings: Thushara to Younis Khan, OUT, big blow for Pakistan, Younis Khan chops it on to his stumps, it was a short ball and the angle was taking it across the batsman, who tries to cut it but gets a bottom edge, one bounce and it rattles the stumps, a duck for Younis 3rd Test, 1st innings: Thushara to Younis Khan, OUT, He's dragged it on! Short outside off, good bounce, gets into good position to chop that through point, got the inside edge and it clipped the off stump 1st ODI: Thushara to Younis Khan, OUT, Younis Khan joins the procession, Sri Lanka are well on top here, a short and wide delivery gets the wicket again, Younis cuts it straight to third man Three times in seven innings, Younis has fallen to the weakness that the Sri Lankan left hander has sensed and exploited to the hilt. Indian fans have watched him long enough to know that his default stance is to lunge on the front foot, trying to get to the pitch of the ball. His weight is on the front foot. From this position, he is vulnerable as he tries to play the cut shot, as by the time his horizontally descending bat meets the ball, the cherry is often behind him. The cut shot is horrendously difficult to play safely off the front foot . Here, I would like to point out the distinction from Ponting, who is another champion lunger. But Ponting differs in two ways. Firstly, during the lunge, his weight is evenly distributed on both feet, with the back foot used as an anchor in case the bowler pitches short. He can turn that to his advantage by shifting his weight to the trailing foot in a milli-second and pulling, virtually off the front foot. There's one shot though the immensely successful Ponting almost never plays- the cut. Master technician that he is, he has figured out the folly of playing that shot off a forward lunge.
good eye. He also has a big problem early in his innings against the left hander bringing the ball back into him...the forward lunge makes him topple over a little and he can't get his pad out of the way when the bat comes to flick the ball to the legside. Ponting also has this issue.
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Good observations' date=' Dhondy. What about Rahul Dravid though - he also has an expansive front foot lunge against fast bowlers but plays the cut shot really well? Quicker to judge the length of the ball?[/quote'] i think Rahul doesnt have that long a lunge.also he doesnt plant his foot like Younis does,he goes back n across which enables him to play the cut shot
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Here, I would like to point out the distinction from Ponting, who is another champion lunger. But Ponting differs in two ways. Firstly, during the lunge, his weight is evenly distributed on both feet, with the back foot used as an anchor in case the bowler pitches short. He can turn that to his advantage by shifting his weight to the trailing foot in a milli-second and pulling, virtually off the front foot. There's one shot though the immensely successful Ponting almost never plays- the cut. Master technician that he is, he has figured out the folly of playing that shot off a forward lunge.
hmm...i counted atleast 5 or 6 crunching cut shots, 3 that went to the boundary in this innings. Also in watching the highlights the other day of Ponting's hundred against India in Adelaide, a good range of positive cut shots. Don't think Ponting's cut that shot out of his armory or ever has. He's always had the capability to play it.
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