da wazamba： To watch him bat in Mumbai was to understand what aggressive intent on turning tracks looks like at the highest level

da blaze casino： Himanshu Agrawal13-Nov-2024It’s the 18th over of New Zealand’s second innings in Mumbai. R Ashwin is about to deliver the fourth ball, but stops in his delivery stride. He has spotted Daryl Mitchell shaping for the reverse sweep, and denies him the chance.When Ashwin finally bowls, Mitchell steps out. He is unmoved until Ashwin completes his action, and it’s only when he is about to release the ball that Mitchell leaves the crease. Mitchell gets to the pitch of the ball and launches it back over Ashwin’s head for a massive six.In the lead-up to the Test series in India, New Zealand captain Tom Latham had spoken about how his batters were looking to approach their task. “It’s an exciting challenge going over to India and once we can go over there hopefully [we can] play with a bit of freedom, bit of no fear and try and take it to them. If we do that, hopefully gives ourselves a good chance.Related

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“Think in India we’ve seen teams that have done well out there in the past have been quite aggressive towards them. Especially with the bat they’ve looked to play a few shots, but also put them under pressure, which is really important over there rather than sitting and waiting for something to happen.”That two-part ball from Ashwin to Mitchell illustrated exactly what Latham meant. Recall what happened just before that: Ashwin had got the two previous deliveries to turn sharply and kick up at Mitchell, producing back-to-back lbw appeals.This was a treacherous third-innings surface where any ball could turn sharply or jump at the batter, or occasionally even keep low. On this pitch, against a bowler of Ashwin’s class, Mitchell, doing exactly what his captain had wanted, tried and put the pressure back on the opposition rather than sit back and hope.There was a method to this, of course. It wasn’t about hitting out recklessly. In Mitchell’s case, it was about knowing his strengths and maximising them, and showing the discipline to keep backing those strengths and not turn to unfamiliar shots.

Mitchell’s methods suggest that it’s about being selective about what risks to take, and backing those risks fully

Let’s examine the options he turned to: the reverse sweep and the step-out loft down the ground. These are two shots Mitchell has played expertly in Test cricket. Since his debut in November 2019, he has employed the reverse sweep 73 times against spin in Asia. Only Joe Root has played it more often.Those 73 reverse sweeps have fetched Mitchell 73 runs, including ten boundaries, and cost him his wicket on two occasions. Like any shot, the reverse sweep can get batters out, but it can get you quick runs between those dismissals if you’re good at it. Mitchell has averaged 36.50 while playing the shot in Asia. It hasn’t worked out quite as well for another frequent reverse sweeper, Alex Carey, who has been out four times in 60 attempts in this period, while averaging 19.And like that six against Ashwin showed, Mitchell also excels at coming down the track to go over the top. Since his debut, he has stepped out 62 times against spin with aggressive intent, as per ESPNcricinfo’s data; those 62 attempts have brought him 246 runs, with 21 fours and 25 sixes, as well as seven dismissals. Only Rishabh Pant has stepped out with aggressive intent more often, smashing 350 runs off 77 such deliveries, with just three dismissals.The reverse sweep is a shot Daryl Mitchell has played expertly in Test cricket•Associated PressDigging deeper shows how selective Mitchell is about the areas he targets. Of those 62 balls he has stepped out to with aggressive intent, he has hit 51 in the ‘V’. He has accumulated 215 runs off those balls, at a strike rate of 421.57, and hit 16 fours and 24 sixes.Again, as good as Mitchell is at this dancing straight hit, he knows he can get out to it. He has been out six times while doing it, and the last instance cut short his second innings in Mumbai, with Ashwin, deliberately placed two-thirds of the way back to the long-on boundary, taking an outstanding running catch off Ravindra Jadeja.Turning pitches magnify both the risk and the reward of aggressive shots. Batters who adopt high-risk methods successfully tend to work out ways to better their odds. Mitchell’s methods suggest that it’s about being selective about what risks to take, and backing those risks fully. There were many examples of this in the first innings of the Mumbai Test, when he made 82. He was hit on the pad by Jadeja while attempting his second reverse sweep, and on the glove on the fourth occasion when he missed one off Ashwin, which can happen on pitches with bounce for the spinner. But Mitchell played the shot three more times after that.Eventually, New Zealand swept India 3-0, pulling off one of Test cricket’s greatest upsets. Mitchell’s reverse sweeps and forays down the pitch were two small pieces in the jigsaw of planning and execution that made up that seismic result.