Cricket - It's a funny old game

Cricket - It's a funny old game

Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Beige Archives: India develop plan to combat Gayle

This article first appeared on the BBC's 606 forum on the 12th of June 2009.

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has admitted that watching Angelo Matthew's superb fielding for Sri Lanka against the West Indies has inspired him to develop new field placements in an effort to negate the power of West Indian batsman Chris Gayle.

"When we saw Matthew's catch the ball beyond the boundary but with his feet off the ground we knew we could use this to combat Gayle's big hitting. We will have a fielder at Long Off, and then beyond him we will have a fielder stationed in the stands at a position we've called Long Way Off. So if Gayle smashes it into the stand, the fielder can catch it whilst jumping and relay it back to the fielder inside the boundary."

"We will also have a fielder patrolling Deep Backward Carpark to cover Gayle's hooks and pulls".

The ICC has announced that they have no problems with India's innovative field placements but have stated that they may introduce a restriction of having only one fielder outside the stadium during the Powerplays.

When asked whether he'd use such tactics when playing England, Dhoni said "Err, unlikely".

However, he did add that "field placements against England have their own challenges. Like whether you should put in that 4th slip".

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