Bevan profits from limited aggression (7 May 1999)

7 May 1999

Bevan profits from limited aggression

Ian Chappell

How can Michael Bevan be ranked No 1 on the computer as a one-day batsman and be excluded from the Australian Test side? The cynical answer would be that they are allowed to bowl bouncers in Test matches.

The real reason is more complicated. It is true that Bevan does have trouble with the short-pitched ball, and this has affected him mentally. It also acts as a spur to opposing captains and fast bowlers the moment he walks through the gate.

When Bevan walks in to bat in a Test match he is apprehensive and the bowlers are expectant. When he strides to the wicket in a one-day game, he is expectant and it is the bowlers who are apprehensive. Bevan's remarkable success in the one-day arena stems from a profound knowledge of his own game, faith in his ability, wonderful hand-eye co-ordination and the athleticism of a high-grade sprinter. Remarkably, he complements all those assets with a well-controlled temperament, and yet in the Test arena he has a tendency to panic when facing fast bowling. There must have been some budding psychologists among his early team-mates who nicknamed him Schizo Bev.

There are two Michael Bevans. The one who for most of his Test career looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights when he batted against pace and who, by the time he lost his place in the side, was even dismissed by mediocre spin bowling. Then there is 'the finisher' - the batsman who is in total command from the moment he walks to the wicket in a one-day game.

He is the player who finished a game against the West Indies with a cool-headed boundary off the last ball, and who continues to guide his partners successfully through the minefield that is the last few overs of a one-day innings. Bevan has a couple of spots picked out where he aims his boundaries - through wide mid-on is a favourite - and if the delivery is not in his zone he settles for something less, but rarely a dot ball.

He has an uncanny knack of hitting a boundary just when it is needed and heaven help a fielder who is not quick to the ball, because he's the best player at picking up extra runs since the Pakistani pair of Asif Iqbal and Javed Miandad regularly ran fieldsmen ragged. It is this pace which allows him to control the strike late in the game.

And I've never seen Bevan yorked. Never mind actually being dismissed by a ball in the block-hole, he often manages to whack attempted yorkers to the boundary. This he is able to do because of quick footwork, but he doesn't move around much before the bowler actually delivers the ball; once he sees the line and length he is decisive and moves so quickly.

All this from a guy whose feet betray him when he is wearing white; from a player whose career as a Test batsman was prolonged by his ability to take wickets as a left-arm Chinaman bowler; a batsman whose one-day average is more than double his Test equivalent in a game where the trend among top players is in the opposite direction. Here's a player who regularly wins one-day games off his own bat, and yet the one Test where he had a big hand in the result included a 10-wicket haul for him. In that match against the West Indies he had an opportunity to post his first Test century, but his timing was so astray that he was unable to control the strike and was eventually stranded on 85 not out.

He has amassed an amazing number of not-outs in one-day cricket, many of them by virtue of guiding his team to victory. I can recall only one occasion where he has misjudged the chase and been caught a few runs short with wickets in hand. 'The finisher' has won many a one-day match and Australia will be relying on him for repeat performances during this World Cup. Incredible, when you think all this responsibility falls on a batsman whose Test career may be over.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)