It was almost like a leg-cutter: Prasanna on SMG dismissal

Bengaluru: The thing with the non-telecast era is that documentation of events becomes vastly subjective and differs from person to person. It’s mostly how one sees a particular incident and it may not necessarily be how it was. But then it becomes part of folklore. You can endlessly argue a dismissal, a particular shot or a ball without coming to a conclusion but a video clip will settle the issue decisively and kill the debate just as review systems have taken the soul out of spontaneous celebrations.  

Not that we will trade off the DRS era with bygone days, but there’s a certain charm about that consistent inconsistency in details. It’s no different when it comes to EAS Prasanna’s dismissal of Sunil Gavaskar in the 1973-74 Ranji Trophy semifinal.

Some say it was a “floater” while a few others feel it was a “doosra” before it came to be known by that name. But the consensus is that it was one of the finest balls bowled in red-ball cricket.          

“Sunny and I have played cricket together and against each other so many times,” Prasanna, the architect of the ball, said before recalling how he plotted Gavaskar’s dismissal. “I mean I have bowled to him so much in first-class matches and in the (India) nets, I knew his strength and he knew mine, he knew my weakness and I knew his. I knew the only way to get him out was by tempting him into playing for a drive. And I bowled one that drifted in and then turned away on pitching.. It was almost like a leg-cutter, which he missed. That’s all.”

Recodrs say Gavaskar clapped in appreciation of Prasanna’s wizardry as he walked back to the change room. It takes one master to recognise the other!