Adam Parore: Switch-hitting likely to have limited appeal

Tag : switch

Kevin Pietersen has turned switch-hitting into cricket's hot topicbut I don't expect the tactic to become all the rage.
He made headlines by hitting two sixes off Scott Styris, afterchanging from a right- to left-handed stance.
In reality though, it is not a great six-hitting option. The degreeof difficulty is extreme.
And since the main aim of such strokes is to take fielders out ofplay, there's not much point in adopting an unfamiliar and weakertechnique.
The aim of the more common reverse sweep is to encourage thefielding side to take a man out of the leg side and put an extrafielder behind point. That opens up more options for scoringsingles.
And that's how I suspect the switch hit will come to be used andeven then only sparingly.
There is certainly no need to legislate against it but law makersneed to consider how umpires will adjudicate lbw decisions. Theleft- and right-handed stances are pivotal to the rules, so whathappens if a player is hit on the pads when it isn't overly clearif he was in the left- or right-handed position. Glad I don't haveto sort out that one.
On the subject of laws, fans should accept that situations such asthe bizarre ending to the rain shortened one dayer at Edgbastonwill happen.
England did what they had to do to get the no result. Despiteclaims they engineered a disgraceful go-slow, bowling 19 overs in83 minutes isn't all that bad. I actually believe these kinds ofthings add to the drama and romance in the game.
The Black Caps will be keen to get Jacob Oram back into the lineup.His absence leaves a hole. Despite the lack of victories, it hasn'tbeen a disastrous tour.
One positive has been the contribution of Oram's replacement GrantElliott, and I suspect he will hold his place when Oram returns.
The team has not performed to the level they would have liked to,but they haven't really underperformed either. The senior guys _Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum and Oram _ have done pretty welland the team just needs to build its strength across the board.
Whilst on paper the results don't look flash, you need to assessthese in the context of the ability of this side. The reality isthey are very inexperienced. To beat England in England in thetests was not a realistic goal when you consider that only the 1999side _ which most regard as NZ's best ever test side _ managed toachieve that.
It would be fair to say that the current team is below the level ofits more experienced predecessors and it needs to set its sightsaccordingly.