Squash ball in glove is secret behind Gilchrist's ton

[koksmayu]

FRIENDS, WE MIGHT STILL IN TRAUMA THAT WHEN GILCHRIST MADE CENTURY IN FINAL, WHAT HE WAS SHOWING IN HIS GLOVES TOWARDS DRESSING ROOM, SO HERE IS THE ANSWER.................. If Adam Gilchrist is to be believed, the secret behind his blistering 149-run knock in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka is an innocuous squash ball in his batting glove. Gilchrist's breathtaking knock powered Australia to a 53-run win against the islanders and the 104-ball knock was studded with 13 fours and eight sixes. Every time Gilchrist hit a six, he gestured towards a point on his gloves the reason for which he was prepared to share with the media at the end of the day. "Before the World Cup, I actually practised indoors and tried to improve my grip with half of the squash ball inside my gloves. It was a friend of mine, Bob Mueleman (former Western Australia player), who said that if I felt okay with it, I should gesture that I had got it right which is what I actually did in the middle." The ploy clearly paid off with the 35-year-old stumper-batsman hitting the highest knock in a World Cup final, bettering his captain Ricky Ponting's 140 not out against India four years ago. The dashing left-hander confessed that he had been pretty "frustrated" by his performance in the World Cup in the run-up to the final. "It was frustrating for me. I had made a few low scores and couple of 40s without quite nailing a big one. So high are the standards set by guys in the dressing room that if you don't do that well, you actually start putting pressure on yourself and wondering if you really belong there. So in that sense it was a relief," remarked Gilchrist. continued..Subsequently, tributes flowed for Gilchrist from all quarters and not just from his own dressing room. "It was a brilliant, stunning innings. He did the same to us in the VB series finals in Brisbane. It was some very solid hitting and when Gilly is in that mood, it becomes difficult to chase down a target," complimented Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene. "I don't think he has played any better knock than this one. He hardly missed anything and everything came off the middle of his bat. It could be the best innings we would ever see. "He made Matthew Hayden, who has done some serious hitting himself in this competition, look shaky in comparison," Jayawardene said. Gilchrist now has been part of three successive World Cup wins but termed the present one really successful for his team's ability was questioned before the 2007 World Cup. "I hope the title-wins a never-ending one...But it has been really satisfying for it was a long campaign and there were question marks over the way we finished our summer at home." Gilchrist termed the achievement of the present Australian team as unbelievable one. "We have played now 29 World Cup games undefeated and won 24 in a row. It's a phenomenal achievement."