Method behind big-score madness

The number of double tons in U-14 cricket have skyrocketed

A new wave is here, but those in the business of cricket are not sure what to make of it as yet.

As of Monday, which is two weeks days from the start of two divisions of the Under-14 BT Ramaiah Trophy in Bengaluru, there have been seven double-centuries, two triple-centuries and a quadruple-century.

Seven of these ten big scores have been unbeaten knocks, and surprisingly, only two of them have struck sixes (11 sixes in total) in their innings.

“It’s not unheard of to see such big scores in school cricket here, but it is strange to see so many of these big scores happen in such a span of time, and in one tournament,” says Shanker Vajravelu of the Karnataka State Cricket Association. “(Robin) Uthappa, (Deepak) Chougule, Karun (Nair) and these names would score such big runs from time to time, but seven different batsmen scoring so many runs at this strike rate…. it’s not normal,” adds Shanker, who has been a one-stop source for city cricket scribes on information about school and other age-group cricketers for close to a decade and a half.

The opening day (January 16) of the new inter-school season started with G Aravind and GK Saivarun putting up a world-record partnership for the opening wicket of 549 runs for Gopalan National School against Vidyaniketan School at the BEL Ground in Bengaluru.

This alliance witnessed Aravind score an unbeaten 277 runs from 159 balls and Saivarun scoring an unbeaten 247 from 147 balls.

That the previous record was held by P Dhanawade and Aakash Singh from KG Gandhi English School in Mumbai comes as no surprise because the city is known for its big-run feats courtesy pocket-sized grounds and interesting (read as dubious) scorers.

Still, Dhanawade’s 1009 not out and other such cricket-defying numbers - a la Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli’s epochal 664 alliance - cannot be discredited for it reflects a level of endurance, scoring hunger and focus one would find hard to associate with pubescent boys.

“These kids are seeing their heroes make the most of their innings and they have learnt the art of scoring big, mostly by understanding tempo,” says RX Murali, Mayank Agarwal’s coach. “There’s so much more to cricket these days so they are in the zone more often. The other thing you need to look at is the pace at which they are scoring these runs, it’s like T20 cricket.”

A day after the world-record partnership (January 17), Brahmanya Theertha R Kuber came up with an unbeaten 315 from 181 balls with 58 fours. On January 24, he returned to score an unbeaten 222 from 167 balls with 40 fours.

On January 26, Gagan Sai K of Giridhanva School blasted his way to 344 in just 150 balls with 59 fours and 10 sixes.

And then came Monday when Shivu M, from the same school as Gagan, put his school-mate in the shade with an astounding 416 not out from 197 balls, including - wait for it - 86 fours and a six.

The boundaries alone translate to 350 runs.

Irfan Sait, who has seen numerous cricketers graduate to State and Indian teams via the Karnataka Institute Of Cricket, was chuffed with the string of big scores but was acutely aware of the negatives too.

“I have seen that more kids these days focus on batting rather than bowling,” he said. “The ratio would be 80:20, meaning 80 percent of those who come to the camp train batting while only 20 percent focus on bowling. That has led to a generation of not-so-good bowlers, while batters have evolved. Frankly, a lot of these big scores are happening because of poor bowling, but we can’t dismiss them because it still speaks highly of their abilities.

"Also, we can’t ignore the influence of T20 cricket on this generation,” he added.

While that seems obvious, the difference is staggering because not one batter scored a double-ton during the KSCA Inter Zonal Under-14 two-day tournament weeks before the start of the limited-overs leg. Murali put forth a thought-provoking hypothesis to explain this phenomenon.

“There is more at stake at the Inter-Zonal level,” he says. “There is freedom to express yourself in BTR because you’re playing for a school and there’s little to lose, but when it gets serious, like at the Inter-Zonal level, they feel the pressure and they build their innings rather than go all out with it.”

When viewed objectively, this ability to switch between crafting an innings in red-ball cricket and bludgeoning bowling in white-ball cricket bodes well, but there are repercussions that both the coaches hope to address before it gets out of hand.

“When it comes to training methods, there’s more to help batters than bowlers,” noted Sait. “We, as coaches, need to device better methods to help bowlers. There’s an obvious disparity in training focus for batters and bowlers, and that could explain why even the State team has trouble finding good bowlers.”

Murali seconded Sait’s take before adding, in a positive light: "This is not a predicament, only an evolution.”