Published: Jun 05, 2016, 07:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Jun 05, 2017, 02:06 AM (IST)
June 5, 2015. The NatWest T20 Blast match between Northamptonshire and Worcestershire was approaching a high-intensity climax. Then, with 5 overs to go, Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell came up with a spectacular move, astonishing Northampton County Ground at Wantage Road. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at a strategy that hovered on the thin line between brilliant and eccentric.
August 20, 1972. Middlesex needed a steep 183 from 40 overs against Warwickshire in a John Player League match at Lord’s. Mike Smith (MK, not MJK) gave Middlesex a solid start while Mike Brearley held fort, but things did not look too encouraging at 150 for 5 with the asking rate mounting.
But Brearley and Keith Jones made sure Middlesex were in the hunt. They needed 3 off the last ball. Then Warwickshire’s Mike Smith (this was MJK) sent wicketkeeper David Bairstow back, next to the ropes, the position the long-stop used to man at one point.
In other words, Warwickshire had a long-stop but no wicketkeeper. Middlesex managed a single, but the incident remained etched in Brearley’s mind. Seven years later, in an ODI against West Indies at SCG, he did the same, sending everyone to the fence.
The target? 3. The wicketkeeper? Bairstow. Colin Croft went for a big heave off Ian Botham, only to be bowled.
Brearley’s strategy received flak (more from the British than the West Indians), and resulted in fielder restrictions.
There was also the curious case of Dorset captain Rev. Andrew Wingfield Digby: when he realised Cheshire were determined to dead-bat the match, he removed the wicketkeeper and instructed the bowler Graeme Calway to bowl wides. The over went for 60, but suddenly Cheshire became interested in the chase, and Dorset bowled them out to win by 18 runs.
There have been other instances of pushing the wicketkeeper back, mostly to stop runs. When South Africa needed 4 off the last ball in the Hero Cup match against India, Sachin Tendulkar famously sent wicketkeeper Vijay Yadav back to stop edges reaching the fence.
At Lord’s in 2014, India fielded with a leg-gully and a backward short-leg. Several catches flew wide of leg-gully. It was evident India needed another fielder, but the laws prevented them from placing more than two fielders behind square on the leg-side.
So MS Dhoni stood back whenever Ravindra Jadeja bowled to left-handed batsmen, making up for the leg-slip, allowing Virat Kohli at leg-gully to move wider.
Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell later admitted that it was Dhoni’s strategy that made him think hard on the topic — and actually implement it.
Worcestershire are currently fielding without a keeper off Ali. Ben Cox on the edge of the the circle. 58 off 24. pic.twitter.com/X4OKNs0mSy
— Ciaran Thomas (@ciaranthomas91) June 5, 2015
The match
It could well have been another T20 encounter on a featherbed, especially after Rory Kleinveldt dropped Moeen Ali off David Willey at first slip off the first ball of the match.
Thus reprieved, Moeen (90 in 50 balls) went berserk, with Mitchell (43 in 31) for company. The pair added 131 in a mere 77 balls. Some lusty blows from Colin Munro, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, and Ross Whiteley took them to 211 for 3.
Alex Wakely sent Willey to open with Richard Levi. Willey went for everything, and fell for a 7-ball 12. Levi fell too, to Saeed Ajmal, but Joshua Cobb played a blinder with captain Wakely for company. The Ajmal barrier was crossed: the Pakistani genius, despite taking a crucial wicket, went for 44 in his first 3 overs with his remodelled action.
After 15 overs the score read 145 for 2. Northamptonshire needed 67 from 30 balls with 8 wickets in hand. Waiting in the pavilion were the belligerent Simon Crook, and, of course, Shahid Afridi. It was certainly gettable, provided the batsmen went all out.
However, batsmen giving it the full throttle also meant fewer edges and fewer balls being missed. And hence, as Moeen stood at the top of his mark and Cobb got ready…
Cox pushed back
… Mitchell pushed his wicketkeeper Ben Cox back to the edge of the circle. There was nothing new that — barring the fact that Cox did away with his gloves and pads to enhance his speed, if needed.
As expected, this resulted in a hold-up. Umpires Nick Cook and Graham Lloyd, both former international cricketers, conferred for a long time. The wicketkeeper was allowed to stand back inside the circle, but was he allowed to do away with his gloves and pads?
Law 40 begins with “The wicketkeeper is the only fielder permitted to wear gloves and external leg guards.” However, it does not mention whether gloves and pads are mandatory.
Of course, Law 40.1 deals with what the gloves should be like, the shape, the dimensions… but not about their compulsory presence.
So, after a reasonably long conversation, Cook and Lloyd allowed Worcestershire to go ahead. Cobb did well to get over his initial confusion. He told the press: “I saw Daryl Mitchell tell Ben Cox to go back and I thought he was going to keep from the edge of the ring. Then I turned around and saw him without pads or gloves on. It’s in the Laws and they’ve obviously looked into it and there’s no Law against it. You’ve just got to question whether it’s in the spirit of the game. But that’s probably because it’s never been done before. When they first come out, these things usually get questioned and left alone.”
Worcestershire Director of Cricket (and former international wicketkeeper) Steve Rhodes added: “In a game when you’re trying to stop the opposition scoring, it’s a legitimate tactic.”
What followed?
Cobb got a single; Wakely hit a boundary; and the first 5 balls yielded 9. They took advantage of Cox’s position and ran a bye off the last ball. They got 10, but still they needed 13.40 an over, that was not enough.
Joe Leach bowled Wakely. Afridi blasted out a 6-ball 15. Two balls later, Cobb followed, and the match was sealed. Jack Shantry got two more wickets in the 19th over, and the tourists triumphed by 14 runs.
But… did the ploy work?
The last 5 overs yielded 52 runs, but four of them came in sixes — where wicketkeepers seldom play a role. The remaining 24 balls yielded 28. Of course, that possibly had nothing to do with the fact that the man supposed to don the big gloves was standing at a cross between fly slip and third man.
On the other hand, it did not backfire. Whether it worked remained inconclusive, but Worcestershire’s win probably gave other captains courage to experiment.
Cricket gets too boring otherwise with superbats on featherbeds.
Brief scores:
Worcestershire 211 for 3 in 20 overs (Moeen Ali 90, Daryl Mitchell 43) beat Northamptonshire 197 for 7 in 20 overs (Richard Levi 42, Josh Cobb 80; Saeed Ajmal 3 for 53) by 14 runs.
Man of the Match: Moeen Ali.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
