Some balls are worthy of being hit for four. This was
not at all a ball like that. It was Adam Zampa’s second ball on Sunday at
Chepauk, and it was the kind of ball he would have been content to bowl to
start the day in any ODI, anywhere. It was flat, fast—just under 90 kph—and the
stock-standard white-ball legbreak, meant to spin very little and deny the
right-handed batter width as its main goal.
The length of this ball was such that there was no
chance that it would have bounced over the bails, but it pitched just outside
off stump and straightened so slightly that it was still angling at the batter
when it reached him. If the hitter had missed it, there was a chance that it
could have clipped off stump.
Most batters would have attempted to punch down the
ball and pick up a quiet single on this kind of pitch. For the batter, that
would have been the ideal result with India 57 for 3 in the 200-run chase.
KL Rahul had no interest in the one-on-one quiet
punch. Instead, he deftly shifted his weight to his back foot to provide space
so that he could bring his bat scything down, wrists rotating over the bounce.
Between slip and backward point, a sizable, unpopulated expanse, the ball
escaped.
The classic late cut is one of cricket’s most
beautiful sights, but it’s a rare and delicate thing, a shot that rarely, if
ever, enters the social media virality realms because it lacks the
main-character energy of the cover drive and the straight drive, the overt
machismo of the pull and the hook, and the holy smokes how did he do that
trendiness of the switch hit and the reverse ramp.
Rahul comes from Karnataka, which is also the home of
Rahul Dravid, another outstanding spinner, and Viswanath. Rahul’s late cut off
Zampa was reminiscent of an even better cut he had made against a rampaging
Dunith Wellalage last month in Colombo against Sri Lanka, when he had figures
of 3 for 16 in 5.1 overs. This time, there was no question that if Rahul had
missed, the ball, which was skidding on with the angle from the left arm
around, would have slammed into the stumps.
Rahul has scored 102 runs off 69 balls when cutting,
late-cutting, and steering spinners since the 2019 World Cup ended without ever
being dismissed. He has the fourth-best strike rate among all ODI batsmen who
have played these shots and scored at least 50 runs during this time period.
Another excellent spinner who is at the top of the list is Shreyas Iyer. One of
the numerous reasons why India’s middle order is so strong under Indian
conditions is this.
What followed was one of those things that, coming
from a top-tier international bowler, seemed both expected and amazing.
Over-compensation. Rahul finished it off in the cleanest way possible, recalling
more shades of Viswanath and Dravid with a quick inside-out drive that
beautifully divided short extra-cover and deep cover point after Zampa
attempted to go fuller but ended up floating up a full-toss. Rahul neutralised
Australia’s main spin threat with a forced error that was handled with grace.
The match had been set up by India’s spinners’ inability to be hit on a quickly
shifting surface.