#4 A pressure-release stroke
In limited overs cricket, it’s good to respect disciplined bowling, provided they don’t turn detrimental to the batting team’s progress.
Pre-meditated strokes present a fascinating mind-games between the bowlers and batsmen. Batsmen attempt to throw the bowlers off their radar through such strokes. It’s a moral victory on the part of the bowler, but a few more of those can make the bowler think a little more.
At times, too much pressure can dismantle your thought process. It transpires in a do-or-die situation when batsmen can’t figure out the bowler’s strategy. That’s when they pre-meditate and bring their most trusted shot to the fore.
Two examples in the last nine years come to mind. The first one is of Misbah-ul-Haq’s attempted scoop in the final over of the 2007 World T20, which will haunt him till his last breath.
It was a shot that worked for Misbah during his tape-ball cricket days. He admitted it to be his go-to shot in order to get out of jail.
The second example goes back to August 2016, when M.S Dhoni mistimed a helicopter shot straight into the hands of short-third man. Dhoni admitted to the fact that the pre-meditation was correct, but again what went wrong is the execution.
