During the last couple of weeks, I have been watching 1st division matches during Saturdays and Sundays. I got to see 2 double hundreds of contrasting styles, one was extremely violent and included a record 20 sixes by an upcoming youngster, the other was a pursit's delight oozing with elegance the ball being cajoled rather than butchered into submission. The first knock was played by Devendran for India pistons at the CPT-IP ground, the second came from a forgotten and much maligned circketer. Sadagopan Ramesh's double hundred oozed class, lefthander's elegance, nonchalant flicks through midwicket, delicate late cuts, it had them all. I have always been a great fan of Ramesh, there is a sense of lazy elegance about him, which people mistake for aloofness. He has been crucified for his lack of footwork but that is just the way he plays, he has made all those runs playing the same way. David Gower made 8000 runs most of them in England against the swinging ball with a non existent foot work. Players like him are born with the gift of timing, I guess we need to savour and enjoy his stroke play rather than lament the fact that he doesn't possess an impregnable defence. He's made a lot of runs for Kerala(last season he played for them)last season and hopefully this double hundred should get him back into the TN team.
The double century by Devendran was a completely different ball game. It was played on a raging turner where there was no sense in playing defensively because one would just not survive. In the previous match at the same ground Ashish Kapoor( with a big belly) wreaked havoc. The ball turned square, hissed and spat venom(he in fact bowled a couple of bouncers !!!!!!!). Deva walked in with his team in trouble, decided attack was the best form of defense and gave it a big "humpty"(this is what Botham remarked to Graham Dillee during Headingley 1981). He just put his front foot forward and the ball seemed to disappear out of sight. This was probably the cleanest hitting I have seen for some time, wickets kept falling at the other end but Deva carried on. He made 215 out of a team total of 400 or slightly more.
P.S: Will keep coming back with more throughout the rest of the season. Sharath has scored 3 centuries so far, but Vijay haven't played @ Viveka so far..so watch out this space for more...
