My Grandma's home used to be my second home since childhood as almost every weekend, every holidays was spend there, my two cousins both my age was one reason & delicious food my grandma used to make being the other. I was quite familiar to my cousin's friends as they were used to seeing me since childhood, The quality of cricket they played was a bit low compared to what my friends back home played.. This was a huge advantage for me as here I was somewhat like a top player to them, considering the way I played. There were some new faces among the usual gang, one of them became my worry particularly the way he bowled, his bowling brought me unpleasant memories, I used to get out to this guy in almost every match I played against him & unfortunately he would always end up in the opposite team, as that team would use him as their trump card against me. One day on a calm afternoon while I was watching tv switching channels too often, something caught my attention.. It was the Cable & Wireless test series with West Indies playing Australia being aired, Ponting was batting against Mervyn Dillon.. nothing unusual one would say. I hooked onto this match as the other programs seemed boring to me.. As I was watching Ponting play I began to observe his batting closely, the way he took stance, the way he got ready to face the ball & the shot selection, Dillon was not some 130k bowler, as I saw the scorecard bar his speeds read above 145k+ & I saw & observed how ponting faced those deliveries. He had a clam relaxed stance on Dillon's run-up, & as he approached the bowling wickets, Ponting had a high bat-lift. He seemed like ready to face the ball & when the ball was released, he judged its pace & placed a shot. So no matter what pace the bowl was bowled at, Ponting was there ready even before that bowl was bowled. Some technique this I thought & as some math kid who just cracked a complex problem, decided to test it out that evening.
The match was about to start & unfortunately the speedster did'nt show up. I badly wanted to try my new batting technique against him but he just was not there. Anyways I continued with the match, the blokes were quite surprised with my new batting stance, I faced some bowls & discovered that this technique actually gave me a lot of time to play the shot, I had few troubles judging the slower ones & the spinners, but very quickly adapted to this change. I felt quite happy that night knowing that solution to my batting weakness may have been found & I was right. The next day saw me bashing the speedster's bowling to all parts of the ground with some simple sensible strokes. That day I cut short my vacation at grandma's home & returned to my place. And what followed after that could be figured out. I finally had learned to play the speedies & after that there was no looking back. I cemented my place in our Street XI & soon became one of the dependable player, I also went on & played for my school cricket team. All this because I followed the technique of one of the best players in cricket, second to Sachin. And so is the reason Ponting remains one of my favorite player.
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