by R. S. Krishnaswamy
Manish Pandey is probably one of the fearless, carefree, swashbuckling batsman in Indian cricket. These qualities are the basics of any T-20 player, but Manish plays in the same fashion in all forms of the game.
The lucky aspect is that Manish Pandey plays for Karnataka and lives in Bangalore. He can literally go wild with hitting as the game progresses. I still vaguely remember that a few years ago, in a game against Punjab in a quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy, with Karnataka 28 runs short, Manish suddenly went haywire to get the first innings lead for Karnataka. But this sort of approach has been seen from Manish right from the beginning keeping the captain in tenter-hooks.
Because of an illness in 2011 this guy missed his cricket. But when he returned he was as adventurous as ever. This devil-may-care batting is criticised by the older generation but they silently applaud him because he scores centuries after centuries.
Manish came to Bangalore as an army brat when he was only seven-years-old and even at that age he loved to bat and bat wildly. His father was transferred out of Bangalore but this lad continued to stay in Bangalore with his mother and continued to play. He made a name for himself in Under-15 cricket. The seniors were angry at him for his wildness and also loved him at the same time, because of his consistent scores. He played for India Under-19 with Virat Kohli but from then, it has been an up and down route for him.
However this year he was picked very intelligently by Gautham Gambhir for KKR who placed him at No. 3 while the innings was opened by another Karnataka hitter, Robin Uttappa.
Manish can never be controlled in cricket. He has a collection of cars which includes an Audi and a two-seater Mercedes. His team- mates shudder to sit with him when he drives because he drives as he bats, aggressive and taking chances all the time. I am fairly certain that at this point of time, this “wild one” will fit into the Indian team particularly the shorter forms of the game. In this process the good news is that he has also become a fantastic fielder. Good luck Manish.
MANKADING!!??
This Mankading is something which is named after a great Indian all-rounder Vinu Mankad who dismissed the Australian batsman Brown in 1948 by running him out from the bowler’s end because the batsman
Initially it became a controversy and even today it remains a controversy as to the method of dismissal of a batsman. However if you analyse it carefully it is absolutely non controversial and is a convenient method for an intelligent spin-bowler to dismiss a batsman who wants to backup for a run too early. I don’t see any reason why as mentioned in few instances a runner should be initially warned by the umpire not to leave his crease before the ball is bowled.
Lately another left arm spinner has repeated Mankading and that is Murali Karthik. According to ICC Law 42.15, “The bowler is permitted before releasing the ball to attempt to run-out the non striker.” As such it is meaningless to make it a controversy. It is a bowler’s weapon especially an intelligent left-arm spinner who can be watching the runner’s feet more easily. Long live Mankading!!!
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / June 14th, 2014