Why Australia can win the Ashes 5-0 -- Part 7

My wife once asked me whether there was a need for batsmen to move their feet when playing a ‘stop’. A little questioning yielded that ‘stop’ meant ‘forward defensive stroke’. Is there a need? There most certainly is, said I. The conversation blossomed with mention of the insurance of adjacent bat and pad, the induced downward angle of the bat to deny any close fielders, and above all, the balance of having one’s head over the ball. Well, at least one side of the conversation blossomed. Seeking an example to prove my point, I pointed to the computer screen, which showed the Australian openers in the first morning of the Mohali Test. Balance, my dear ... , oh, well, that is Simon Katich, he is a little different. A propitious single brought Watto on strike. Now, watch his balance as he gets in behind this ball. To my chagrin Watson played ‘on the walk’, and not on a Matthew-Hayden-walk-down-and-front-foot-pull-the-bowler-for-four, thanks very much guv’nor. No, he played as if the ball was the last of the day’s play: no sooner had it struck his bat than his right foot emerged from its (rightful) side-on position and his sideways movement took him a few paces towards point. I let out a small shout of fury at being denied proof of my pontificating, while my wife smiled and resumed her knitting, thinking that I should best stick to my sines and cosines.

It was a curious observance, and, like all trifles, was one which I started to notice almost constantly during Watson’s innings. To pace and to spin alike, he would produce a lengthy stride, defend the ball, and almost topple over to his right to face the camera almost front on, French-cricket style. Forget aesthetics, a lean towards the right, or even a shifting in momentum to cause such a lean, leaves one open to a ball nipping back in, and UDRS or no, a Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth special. How can he manage this? The simplest resolution is of course, he has an average of over fifty opening the batting for Australia: in my one and only game for the Oxford Blues I batted at No. 11 and was involved in a fifty-run stand of which my contribution amounted to zero runs from zero balls — thanks for playing.

There have been articles written about the personality of Watson being different from that of the ‘standard’ Australian batsman, whatever that may mean. To me, there is something ‘not quite right’ about his batting. But who cares? He is the perfect pugnacious Yang to Katich’s prudent Yin. He may have had trouble converting fifties to hundreds, but that is one of the lighter burdens one can be forced to bear. He is not a one-gear-wonder: his 93 and 120 against Pakistan in the last Boxing Day Test came at a comfortable, but not cavalier, clip.

That he has been spared a lot of bowling duties is one of the best moves for his career. Moreover, even when he does bowl these days, it is with noticeably less pace, and hence, less stress on the body. Australia finally gave up the request to shoe-horn Watson in as the next Keith Miller, and were content with his fulfilling a role as a (most useful) reserve seam-bowler. That he and Katich can change gears (with one virtually changing down while the other changes up) gives Australia a clear advantage in the opening to their innings. It would be foolhardy to predict anything less than one century opening stand, and one ton for the Watt himself.