Rediscovering oneself

Shahid Afridi

The fastest hundred in one-day internationals in 37 balls, a fifty in ODIs in 18 balls, a fifty in Test cricket in 26 balls, and a strike rate of 111.28 in ODIs - these numbers should have surely influenced the Deccan Chargers' decision to buy the dashing Shahid Afridi at a whopping USD 675,000.

'Boom Boom' Afridi is known to bat only in one gear - strike all the way. And crowds in India and the world over love him for his energy, his arrogance, and his crude methods of batting.

However, the Afridi one got to see in the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) was a totally different shade of the striking batsman the world had known. Afridi only managed a total of 81 runs from nine innings. In all, he faced 46 deliveries in the tournament, with 14 off those - his longest vigil at the crease - coming when he notched up his IPL best of 33 against the Daredevils.

While his batting disappointed, Afridi seldom disappointed with the cherry in his hand. He picked up 9 wickets in the tournament, and his wickets were generally the biggest names in the opposition's ranks.

Just sample this: Graeme Smith, Sanath Jayasuriya, Robin Uthappa, Misbah-ul-Haq and Sachin Tendulkar have all been dismissed at the hands of Afridi in this tournament. Further, runs haven't come easily against the Pakistan cricketer who can bowl an assortment of deliveries - he is among the top three most economical bowlers for the Deccan Chargers.

Is the bowler in Afridi slowly taking prominence over the batsman who gave bowlers sleepless nights?

Y Venugopal Rao

There was a time, between 2005 and 2006, when Venugopal Rao was called up to do duty for India. The call-up came primarily because of his consistent performances in domestic cricket.

However, there's the saying that 'international cricket is a different cup of tea', and Rao soon realised this. His frailties and poor technique were soon exposed by Shane Bond and Co. That Venugopal Rao, with a strike rate of 60.05, who managed only one score of fifty or more in his 16 ODI appearances, was duly sent back to the domestic cricket scene and was in the wilderness until the IPL happened.

However, at the IPL, it was a different Venugopal Rao altogether. The little batsman from Vishakapatnam, dominated almost all bowling attacks, and finished third highest run-scorer for the Deccan Chargers with a tally of 288 runs. Creditable, considering he wasn't being spoken about in the same class as either Rohit Sharma or Adam Gilchrist, and even more so, considering he only batted ten times.

Further, Rao, who had a batting strike rate of 60 in ODIs, scored his runs at the rate of 137 runs per hundred balls in the IPL, which makes his deeds absolutely incredible.