5 reasons why batsmen play pre-meditated strokes

#5 Sledging/Provocation

One of Yuvraj’s sixes against Stuart Broad’s bowling

Sledging may turn out to be useful if done to some batsman. It may turn out to be worth regretting, if the fielding team has to pay for it. It switches on the pre-meditation mode of the batsman. For fielding teams, it’s either fruitful or self-destructive.

Yuvraj Singh, in 2007, pre-meditated to go all guns blazing after an ugly spat with Andrew Flintoff. Stuart Broad was the man to take the beating, when Yuvraj carted him for six sixes in an over.

Yuvraj got fired up by the comments hurled at him by Flintoff and took Broad to the cleaners

The second example is a tale of an Indian batsman crawling into the circle of cricket and a Pakistani seasoned leg-spinner. The batsman is none other than Sachin Tendulkar with Abdul Qadir being the bowler.

The 16-year-old Tendulkar was sledged by Qadir, only to go for 22 runs in one over (6,0,4,6,6,6). It was Qadir’s strategy to get under the skin of Sachin that backfired on him viciously.

Both are prime illustrations of how provocation turns out to be the spark that a batsman needs to activate the pre-meditation mode.