Читать книгу Cricket My Way - Ian Botham, Ian Botham - Страница 13

A guard should enable a batsman to play to his strengths, and just how well this works for me can best be seen by looking at a few run charts of my big and best innings.

‘The one that reveals all is of my 118 at Old Trafford against the Australians in 1981. That innings was immeasurably a better knock than the earlier 149 at Headingley, because that was a death or glory slog in an apparently lost cause, but the Manchester innings was one I built so carefully that I only managed five singles in my first 33 deliveries.

‘I then cut loose against the second new ball with 47 out of 52 off 26 deliveries, and did not take much longer to get to three figures.

‘It seemed, even to me, that I had smacked the Aussies all over Old Trafford, but in fact only 18 out of my 118 came in front of the wicket on the leg side. There were two sixes, a four and two singles in that one 90-degree area.

Run charts can be valuable, but never let them affect your natural style.’