Batsmen calling the shots

Late on Sunday night, after the crowd — treated to 726 runs in 95.1 overs — had drained, Sachin Tendulkar, in a revealing moment of emphasis, said, “We can change the momentum like that,” and snapped his fingers, writes S Ram Mahesh in the Hindu.

Batsmen, over the last several years, have become accustomed to changing it like that. This is a fine point — little should be detracted from what batsmen have achieved in the last decade and a half in limited-overs cricket. They haven’t been undeserving Shylocks extracting their pounds of flesh. Why, just on Sunday, Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Jesse Ryder batted uncommonly well. Each shone with a gem-like flame; the variety and richness of the stroke-making was of the highest order. But there’s no doubt the bowlers have been compromised.