More than pinch-hitting

Amit Varma

INDIA v WEST INDIES, 1ST ODI, JAMSHEDPUR

Ajit Agarkar may have been sent in as a pinch-hitter, but he batted like a specialist batsman. His 95 off 101 balls was a knock any of India’s top-order batsmen would have been proud of. It featured no unorthodox slogging, and plenty of clean hitting. His in-control percentage was 85, an excellent figure in a one-day game.

His strike rate of 93 came more from shot-selection than indiscriminate hitting. He punished the 20 full-length deliveries he got for 29 runs and took 40 off the 36 short balls he got. But he didn’t let the good-length balls bog him down – he hit 26 off 44 such deliveries.

Most of his boundaries came from proper cricketing strokes, and 31 of his 95 runs – almost one third – came in the V between long-on and long-off. His wristwork was magnificent, as evident from the fact that 57 of his runs – 60% – came on the on side, despite 76 of the balls bowled to him – 75% – pitching on off or outside off.

There was a time when Agarkar was considered a batting allrounder – in this game, he showed us just why.

Amit Varma is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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