Published: Jun 05, 2015, 12:30 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 05, 2015, 12:30 PM (IST)
Albert Einstein once said, “The only source of knowledge is experienceâ€. For 35-year old Adam Voges, a veteran of 10,000 First-Class runs, the sources have been overflowing for the last 15 years of his cricketing career waiting for an opportunity he could showcase that wealth of knowledge he had gained.
Playing in 160 First-Class matches would undoubtedly have taught Voges many aspects in his batting, but what he put to greatest affect on Thursday to become the oldest debutant centurion in Test cricket was adaptability.
Having played most of his cricket on the bouncy tracks of Perth, Voges technique is built upon short backlift, minimal movement of the feet, high grip with a strong bottom hand and waiting for the ball to arrive to him as he parks himself on the back foot to whip or pull balls through the leg side.
On his Test debut innings in Dominica, Voges batted on a pitch where the bounce could not be trusted, there was variation in spin, cross-batted shots were difficult to execute and driving through the offside was frisking with danger. Despite such contrasting conditions Voges applied himself with pure dedication and his mastery of understating what shots to play in these conditions proved pivotal in his neat unbeaten innings of 130.
From the moment he arrived at the crease, he had to confront with biggest threat in the leg-spinner, Devendra Bishoo. He only scored of the Bishoo when the leg-spinner gifted him a rank short tracker or a full toss rarely did he decide to impose himself of the leg spinner. Countless he prodded his front foot forward, kept his bat in front of his pad and smothered the spin. It was classic example of trusting your defence and capitalising only on the short ball or the full toss.
Voges scored only 30 runs in 80 balls from Bishoo, out of which 26 had come on the leg side, nearly all of them via log hops or full tosses. In the morning session, Voges saw Steve Smith and Shane Watson perish trying to go hard at the ball spinning away from their bodies, so never left his crease and played with soft hands.
Against the quick men, he resisted the temptation of bringing his strong bottom hand into the bat flow to flick the constant in-swinging balls towards midwicket. Instead he played very straight, rarely flicking a ball. It was perfect illustration of curbing your natural instincts.
Along the way there were scoring opportunities missed as Voges repeatedly picked out the point fieldsmen while cut ran hops from Bishoo. But he never allowed the frustration to get the better of him.
His rotation of the strike against part time spinner, Marlon Samuels was exemplary. Every time Samuels erred onto his middle stump he turned the ball with ease through square leg amassing 35 runs from the off-spinner without taking a risk.
The cautiousness in this innings also evident in his running between wickets, as he often turned down the third run while batting with Smith and Mitchell Johnson, knowing the fact that the pace of the outfield could not be trusted all times. He might have failed chance to gain few extra runs but it was a situation that demanded patience and Voges excelled at it.
Along the way he also showed his ability to bat with the tail and his ability to play accordingly to match situation was indication of man that had abundance of knowledge which as Einstien said only comes with experience.
(Gaurav Joshi is an Indian-born Australian who played with Michael Clarke in his junior days. He coaches and reports for a Sydney radio station. Over the years he has freelanced for Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and is a regular on ABC cricket show Cow Corner. He is the author of the book “Teen Thunder Down Under†– The inside story of India’s 2012 U19 World Cup Triumph)
