Wily Rampaul having a ball
West Indian asks batsmen to show more application
Ravi Rampaul is not the typical flamboyant West Indian cricketer. He’s a workhorse willing to tread more common ways, and his methods have fetched him considerable success on this tour of India.
After depriving Sachin Tendulkar the much-awaited hundredth hundred in Mumbai, Rampaul nearly broke the Indian hearts once again during the second one-dayer at Visakhapatnam with an astonishing cameo (86 n.o. off 66 balls). But the proud competitor in him was hurt to see a hardnosed effort count for nothing.
“At the end, the performance that I had with the bat really didn’t matter because we didn’t quite finish the game the way that we wanted to. But we are learning as a team, and hopefully we will get across the line soon,” Rampaul said.
The Trinidadian has always been a handy lower-order batsman, but has he surprised himself with such a bruising knock?
“No, I didn’t surprise myself. I know I am a capable batsman, and after being seven down, eight down it was up to me to try and put up a score on the board. So, I just played my natural game and it came through,” he said.
So, is he planning to give more attention to batting in future? “I have always cared for batting, and more often my duty has been to hang in there and support a frontline batsman. But on that day, my duty was to give the West Indies a good total.
“It was also one of those days when everything went my way when I was batting. So, I reaped the rewards for my confidence.”
The salient feature of Rampaul’s innings was the way he nullified R Ashwin, who so far has troubled the West Indians with his variations.
“Basically, I just tried to look at the different ball that he is bowling, and the ball didn’t do much when I was batting there. I just play each ball on its merit,” he said.
Perhaps, boosted by that knock, Rampaul also has a word of advice for his colleagues upfront. “Some of the shots they played were not on for the particular ball. Credit has to be given for Indian bowlers for bowling a good spell, but our batsmen, I guess, need to show some more application,” he offered. Anybody listening!
