Gzira [Malta], April 29: Do you ever imagine how a player manages to hit a perfect six? Or why whenever you try to hit those sixes you fail? Do you also feel like learning about those skills?
We have got the solution as all cricket legends, including Kevin Pietersen, Darren Lehmann, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, and Reeza Hendricks, explain how cricketers in the new millennium hit so many sixes in a single inning.
“Hitting sixes is about confidence and knowing your tools, in the 2010 world cup which we won in the Caribbean, that was the first time we went out and practiced range hitting. If a ball is in the area where I am clouting,” Kevin Pietersen said that on the subject of how modern players are hitting the ball higher than ever before.
Not just practice but physique also matters when it comes to playing, commenting on the same David Miller said. “You can always get the power through the gym and get strong but if you look at Nicholas Pooran at the moment, even AB De Villiers, they are not as big and strong. It is something that you are constantly grooving and constantly working on. I am not necessarily big on the weight of a bat, but it makes a massive difference in the mental side of things. Gone are the days of getting yourself in. Players are realising that they can score 13 or 14 overs."
While Dwaine Pretorius emphasised the importance of knowing which ball to strike and which one is your power. Reeza Hendricks added that the basics of the game haven't changed, but everything else has.
Missing the old days, Darren Lehman, Former cricketer and Australian coach said, “The feeling when you have hit a six, it just comes out from the great sound of the bat, that is what I do miss as a batsman".
Pietersen, talking about AB de Villiers and Hardik Pandya on how talent triumphs over strength, says, “You can look at Hardik Pandya from India, he is really muscly but he's not a Kieron Pollard or Chris Gayle, hitting sixes regularly, it's timing-based. Your bat must be something that when you look down and think, I am gonna take this bowler on, you stand a good chance. Fielders don't matter anymore, you can get caught on mid-on, there is no batsman in the world who goes out now and thinks that they can't hit a six, gone are the days of getting yourself in. That's what they do, that's how they play now, it's the entertainment that they bring to the game.”
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