The essence of Sanga, in one elegant stroke

That firm on-the-up punch to short-of-length deliveries. It isn’t the shot per se but its aftermath that we are interested in here… Tendulkar used to do it often before his tennis-elbow days; Sangakkara still does it.

It’s one of those lovely mysterious things that happen in sport. Two of the most successful batsmen from the subcontinent in the last two decades are the most un-subcontinental. Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara aren’t the regular wristy batsmen known for their sublime artistry. Unlike most batsmen from their part of the world, these two didn’t emerge from a previous mould.

This piece isn’t about Tendulkar but there is a similarity that is worth pondering about before we move exclusively to Sangakkara. That firm on-the-up punch to short-of-length deliveries. It isn’t the shot per se but its aftermath that we are interested in here. There is recoil after the contact with the ball. The front arm jars back, a shake that is an astounding movement. Tendulkar used to do it often before his tennis-elbow days; Sangakkara still does it and often, with a more exaggerated recoil than Tendulkar.

Just imagine the time and mechanics involved here. The ball is hurtling at Sangakara at 150 kmph and is kicking up from a back of length.
He is on the front foot, a tad bit forward for the length demands that he can’t stretch out as he might for a drive, the ball is climbing even as he tries to align his body the best he can and the ball is now almost at his stomach. Sangakkara has to do a few things right here: The head has to be almost still for balance, and the forearm should provide that extra thrust at impact for there is no time for fancy high back lifts and the subcontinental wrist can almost be a burden in these times. The power has to come from those arms for this on-the-up shot.

Sangakkara does it ever so beautifully. It should be an ugly shot if you think about it, all arms and no wrists, it could be a soulless punch, a run-making shot devoid of character, but somehow this man from a tiny island has managed to create an elegant visual imagery around it.
Sometimes we compress a career into a single shot. The essence of a batsman into a solitary shot. Sangakkara’s on-the-up punch is one such stroke. It’s not as orgasmic as Brian Lara’s whiplash square-drive but that splendorous shot is still Caribbean in its core essence. For Sangakkara to go beyond the history of cricket from his tiny island and be able to conjure up this shot, this shot that is utterly modern and alien to subcontinent, is a far greater accomplishment in batsmanship. It’s a shot that can be understandable if it had come from an Australian.

Those bouncy pitches, those balls leaping off at you when you were just a kid at the park, and as the years roll by and you grow into a teenager, and a man, the ability to play the short-of-length ball so violently, so productively, shouldn’t be a surprising phenomenon.

A truly modern batsman
But for Sangakkara to defy his slow flat-tracks and come up with this shot is a testament to his batting. A truly modern batsman. The genuine article.

And so, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that he has gone on to have such a remarkable career. Sometimes, a single shot can tell a story of a career. And Sangakarra knows it. Just watch his face on completion of the punch. The bat is still recoiling and there is this look on his face – it isn’t the mischievous joy of a Javed Miandad but something abstract, an almost vacant stare into distance, blanking out his face into impassiveness but the bat is still recoiling. That imagery is what I will take from Sangakkara the batsman.

Waking up on Wednesday is going to be strange. For all you know, it might be his last international game. Hopefully, there will be two more games but if there isn’t can he give us one last peek and can the slow motion-cameras please zoom into that incredible recoil for one final time?

Source:: Indian Express