The whole 22 yards

I wonder if the term Catch 22 was coined for the 22 yards of the cricket pitch. You can never truly decipher its code completely. Perhaps the greatest catch in cricket is sussing a pitch out, fine-tuning play and thus finding your feet.

Ever wondered how batsmen read a pitch and decide what kind of game will be best suited to it? Or how bowlers decide how to operate on different surfaces? While reading a wicket is an art that only a few have mastered, players who know their game well tend to smarten up their play to exploit the pitch. The endeavour is always to give yourself the best chance to succeed under the circumstances. While changing your game overnight isn't possible, you try to curb certain instincts and modify your game to succeed. Apart from the track, one also needs to deal with the opposition, but there's only so much you can do with that. You can identify threats and opportunities, but it's the track that demands a bigger adjustment.

Bouncy wickets
Once you know as a batsman that the track has more bounce than most others - like at, say, Perth - you set your game plan accordingly.

Strokes off the back foot are considered to be the best bet, but you need to be precise with your shot selection while playing them. On a track with extra bounce, the drive off the back foot isn't exactly a paying shot, unless you pick the right length and line. On such tracks it's rather difficult to get on top of the bounce - which you need to do to play an effective back-foot drive - and hence the chances of nicking it to the keeper are pretty high.

Playing a square cut is a safer option, but once again, only if you execute it well. Keeping the square cut down is a challenge on such surfaces and you shouldn't shy away from taking the aerial route. Remember Sachin Tendulkar playing all those shots over the slip cordon in Perth?

Another thing to keep in mind is that all edges will easily carry to the slips and the wicketkeeper, so you need to be extra careful when you play shots around the off stump. At the same time, you can trust the bounce while leaving the ball. The ideal game plan on such surfaces is to score most of your runs on the back foot, wait for a half-volley to score off the front foot and avoid playing defensive strokes to balls that can be left alone.

As a bowler you try not to get carried away with the bounce and bowl slightly fuller than you otherwise would. The endeavour should be to bring the batsman forward as much as possible.

Wickets with sideways movement
Batsmen don't really look forward to tracks that offer a lot of sideways movement - like Headingley or Brisbane - because you need to have watertight technique and a lot of discipline to succeed on them. Surviving on these pitches also requires a lot of guesswork, patience, and clarity in terms of game plan.

For starters, you can be sure bowlers will bowl full, and so you must prepare yourself to play a lot of deliveries on the front foot. You also need a sound knowledge of where your off stump is, because you'll be required to leave lots of deliveries alone. Most players draw an imaginary line outside off stump, which works as an indicator: anything pitched outside that line is to be left alone.

Playing in the second line, close to the body and as late as possible, are a few points you need to remember through your innings. All of this could bog you down, and that's why it is imperative to have a positive mindset. It not only helps you score runs off loose balls, it doesn't allow the bowler to work on a plan.

For bowlers, it's important to pitch the ball as full as possible to add swing to the already existing seam movement. Like the batsman, the bowler needs to be equally patient in sticking to the right lines if he doesn't get edges right away. There's always the temptation to try swinging the ball from leg stump, which often results in a boundary. The mantra to success is to be persistent with a probing line.

Dust bowls
Playing on dust bowls is as challenging as playing on seaming tracks, for there's enough sideways movement available off the surface to trouble the batsman. You need to be decisive with your foot movement, to either get to the pitch of the ball or go deep inside the crease to get on the top of the spin. Indecisiveness will almost definitely get you into trouble.

Another important trait needed to succeed on rank turners is to remain positive and take calculated risks. Attacking field positions combined with vicious turn don't allow you to manoeuvre the ball for singles, so punishing the occasional loose balls and going over the top are imperative. Playing against the spin is a no-no.

As a batsman you know that scoring runs off the spinners won't be easy, so you try to score as many as possible against the quick bowlers.

As for the fast bowlers, they know that most batsmen will be dismissed in front of the stumps, and that's why they resort to taking the pace off the ball and bowling cutters instead of swing. Spinners, on the other hand, thrive in these conditions; but they also need to be patient and not get ahead of themselves. They need to bowl a little quicker in the air while imparting more rotations on the ball. This not only give less time to the batsman to adjust but also gives the bowler more off the surface.

Unusual tracks
Then there are certain wickets that need special attention, like the one at Lord's. That particular track has a slope and you need to be extra careful to succeed. You must take the slope into the account while playing because the ball deviates off the surface both ways, depending on which way the slope is. The same goes for the bowlers, for their straight-down-the-track delivery often ends up either on leg stump or slightly outside off.

The ideal batting surface
The ideal pitch for batsmen would have true bounce and very little sideways movement. While it's extremely easy to bat on such surfaces, and they require very little imagination or planning, you still need to keep a few things in mind. To begin with, you must keep reminding yourself to not get carried away. Since batting seems so easy, there's always the temptation to up the ante by pulling off adventurous shots, which often lead to your downfall. Playing percentage cricket and negotiating each ball on its merit is enough to seal the deal.

While such surfaces are paradise for batsmen, they're a nightmare for bowlers. All they can do is try and avoid doing anything that would add to their agony - i.e. stick to the basics and maintain a good line and length. Yes, they need to use variety to fox the batsman, but it's imperative to have patience and keep these variations to a minimum - every boundary conceded will deflate the bowler and give the batsman more confidence.

Every player draws up a mental list of do's and don'ts for different surfaces. Even Virender Sehwag, who's only game plan seems to be to see and hit the ball, has a plan every time he goes out. On a dodgy wicket in a first-class match once, he kept walking down the track and swinging wildly. I was at the other end tried to reason with him. You'd be surprised to learn that he was intentionally missing the ball. His plan was to force the bowler to bowl the next ball shorter, and it worked. Famously, Sachin didn't play a single cover-drive during his unbeaten double-hundred in Sydney in 2004. On docile tracks, Zaheer Khan bowls at only about 65-70% capacity in the afternoon session of a Test match, for he knows that the only chance of taking wickets on such surfaces is when the ball is new or when it starts reversing. Rahul Dravid and Sanjay Bangar executed a perfect plan at Headingley in 2002, which set up that historic Indian victory. There are plenty of such examples.

While a competitive team always looks the most potent threat, it is the wicket that can supercede all game plans. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call the pitch the 12th man.