Last men standing

From Vipul Gupta, India
Tailenders' batting - A delight to watch. I am sure batsmen like Lara, Sachin, Mark Waugh, Aravinda De Silva, would top most peoples list of batsmen who they enjoy watching bat. And one can understand why. They are a purists delight. The artistry , the range of shots, the panache, the ease with which they were executed were a thrill for the connoisseur. But believe me even watching some of the tailenders around the world bat over the years has been equally thrilling. With them even misses evoked gasps of wonder followed by delight.

Take the most recent case of Harmison's innings of 49 at the Oval against SA. In a low scoring game he was able to stitch a crucial partnership with Anderson which in the ultimate analysis would prove to be a telling factor. Forget about the technique whether the left elbow or the head were in ideal position or not. Even the mis-hits were cheered lustily by the crowd present in the ground and I am sure by viewers all over the world watching it on the TV. And the fact that each run was worth its weight in gold made it all the more enjoyable.

My all time favourite was Walsh followed closely by Muralitharan. I still cannot forget the epic match at Barbados in 1999 between Australia and WI when Lara scored a sublime 153 in the 4th innings. The Windies needed 64 runs to win when Ambrose walked in to bat with 2 wickets in hand. They added 60 when he departed. In came Walsh with 4 deliveries still remaining in the over. It would remain a mystery forever that how the ball managed to miss the stumps, the edge, the pads etc. But it was theatre at its best and somehow he managed to survive that over which gave Lara the opportunity to score the winning runs in the next.

Cricket would be so much poorer without the batting of these so called 'lesser batsmen'.