V.V.S. Laxman pulls to the boundary on his way to a record 281 during the Second Test match against Australia played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in March 2001
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Cricketers, like all athletes, have defining performances. The one that above all others reveals the essential style, the uniqueness, the essential person. These are often made in adverse conditions, against the run of play. Often they cause a captain to tell his dressing room, as Don Bradman did during an innings by Stan McCabe: “Come and watch this, you’ll never see the likes of it again.”

You can imagine skipper Sourav Ganguly saying something similar while V.V.S. Laxman was compiling 281 in Kolkata as India beat Australia after following on.

Not all defining innings led to victories. Sunil Gavaskar’s 221 at the Oval left the match drawn, while Sachin Tendulkar’s 136 in Chennai against Pakistan couldn’t prevent defeat. Was that Tendulkar’s best innings, or should that title go to his 143 against Australia in Sharjah, the so-called Desert storm in a One-Day International? Perhaps it was the 114 he made on a bouncy Perth track as a 19-year-old?

Not all such innings are centuries either. Gundappa Vishwanath’s unbeaten 97 in the Chennai Test against the West Indies was more Vishy-like than even his double century against England.

It is not always remembered that India won Laxman’s Test thanks as much to Harbhajan Singh’s 13 wickets including India’s first hat-trick. That must rate as the off-spinner’s defining performance — just as Anil Kumble’s 10 for 74 in Delhi in the second innings against Pakistan will remain his.

Defining performance

Although Kapil Dev once took nine wickets in a Test innings, his defining performance may be the unbeaten 175 he made against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup? My favourite, however, was his 129 in Port Elizabeth on India’s first tour of South Africa where he seemed to be playing at a different level from everybody else. The next highest score was 17.

The Kolkata Test also saw the quintessential Rahul Dravid — calm, supportive, classical — as he made 180 in a partnership with Laxman. Dependable, as a current commercial featuring him has it. There was a brief ‘Indiranagar ka goonda’ in one of his early Tests, at the Wanderers where he made 148 after showing fast bowler Allan Donald who was boss!

The statistician Anantha Narayanan wrote in a study recently that he calculates Ravichandran Ashwin will finish with 656 Test wickets, more than any other Indian. Ashwin reinvents himself regularly, and his defining performance will probably come closer to the end when he has mastered all his variations and worked out his tricks.

I once wrote — my only excuse being I was young and raw — that Sunil Gavaskar’s batting, like history, repeats itself. It was a silly thing to say, and I was taken to task by the sports editor. No two innings by any batter is exactly alike, and part of a reporter’s job is to train himself to notice the differences.

Variety and surprise are keys to mastery

If Gavaskar hit a straight drive off every ball that was pitched up to him, or Virat Kohli played that unique on-drive suggestive of a tennis player’s cross-court shot, cricket would be so much poorer. Variety and surprise are keys to mastery.

Every player is capable of one moment of greatness in a career, but the best players have many of them, and closer together.

After he had made 192 in Auckland where he dominated the New Zealand bowlers, Mohammad Azharuddin was asked which was his favourite stroke. “The one that goes exactly where I want it to,” he answered. Virender Sehwag would agree.

His 195 at Melbourne where he perished attempting the six that would get him to his double, was probably that batter’s defining innings. He shook the bowling by the scruff of the neck, hit 25 fours and five sixes and was out hitting a full toss to long on. He was a stranger to caution.

In his first Test as captain, Virat Kohli made two centuries, the second of which nearly took India to victory. In the end they fell short by 48 runs, but Kohli’s aggressive approach as batter and captain captured the cricket world’s imagination. Especially since it all began with a knock on the helmet from a Mitchell Johnson express.

Will someone else have the same list? Unlikely. And that’s part of the joy of sport.

File picture of Mumbai Indians bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who said he had to ensure he was not a ‘one-trick pony’
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

The IPL has made one thing clear over the years. There will be huge sixes, big scores, startling bowling figures, misreading of pitches, surprising results. But one thing won’t see as often is the memorable quote or the telling comment. Putting the ball in the right areas is the bowler’s favourite cliche while batters prefer to play it safe with: “I am taking it one game at a time — the idea is to go out there and enjoy yourself.”

But occasionally a line emerges that causes the kind of surprise a maiden over might. The essential honesty and self-awareness of a performer comes through, shining a light on himself while simultaneously making a comment on the format itself.

When the No. 1 batter in the world, Suryakumar Yadav says, “It has been two or three years, (I) have never batted against Jasprit Bumrah in the nets,” and explains why, “Either he breaks my bat or my foot,” honesty, self-deprecation and admiration for a teammate are rolled into one admission.

Dispenser of possibilities

With ball in hand, Bumrah is a dispenser of possibilities. After his ridiculously short run-up, will he deliver a ball over 145kmph, a yorker, one screaming past or staying its course, a slower delivery, any of which he can do without an easily discernible change in action? The viewer is as keen as the batter, but enjoys the comfort of distance.

Asked how he did it, Bumrah told an interviewer at the end of a match where he had taken five wickets that he worked hard, kept going back to watch himself bowl and ensured he was not a one-trick pony. He summed it up with, “There is no ego in this format.”

That’s an interesting concept. But in fact, there are two kinds of ego in competitive sport; one positive, and perhaps necessary, the other destructive.

“I know everything there is to know about my craft, no one can get the better of me,” is thinking that belongs to the negative kind of ego. “Batters might have worked out how to play me, I have to keep one step ahead of them with practice and experimentation,” is the positive kind. Bumrah, India’s pride, is talking about the negative kind that has no place in any format.

Importance of data

If you played (and watched) cricket in the first eight decades of the last century, chances are you look down upon computers and data analysis as unnecessary. “The only computer you need is between your ears,” the great Bishan Bedi said often. Recently, the equally great Erapalli Prasanna told a fan, “Data cannot help you bowl better. It adds nothing to your skill.”

This of course is correct. A leg spinner might know that a batter is weak against the googly based on the percentage of his dismissals to that delivery. But if he cannot bowl a googly himself, that data cannot help him.

Sport throws up so much data on a running basis that sometimes it can get too much even for the player. So when Sunil Narine, KKR’s opening batter says, “I have one role, and the less I know the better it is for me,” he is telling us how he clears his mind of irrelevancies. His strike rate after five matches is 183, and he is in the wonderful position of knowing that his batting is a bonus in a team where he is the leading spinner. Why clutter his mind, therefore? His role is clear: see ball, hit ball.

His 39-ball 85 against Delhi Capitals was the foundation of victory. He will fail on occasion, but even if he succeeds only forty percent of the time, he would have done his job at the top.

Few batters in the IPL have such clarity. A Rohit Sharma or a Virat Kohli might like to think their job too is ‘see ball, hit ball’, but they know that they have greater responsibilities. The state of the match matters, the job of blunting the opposition’s main bowler is theirs, their dismissal can demoraliSe those waiting to bat.

So there you have it. Three quotes, from a top batter, a great bowler and a leading all-rounder. There’s hope. We are not yet at the half-way stage.