Cricket Special Report: Top 10 Wicket-keepers in the limited over game (Part 1)
The modern era of international cricket has changed the playing role of a wicket-keeper, from a person who’s primarily job was of a specialist, to stand behind the wickets or stumps in a characteristic position, ready to face a delivery. Now due to the fast
nature of the global sport of cricket, especially in the 50 and 20 over formats of the game, a wicket-keeper, also known as a keeper is expected to be more of an all-rounder, which means a wicket-keeper/batsman.
A wicket-keeper is the only player from the fielding side, who is allowed to wear gloves and external leg guards. The gloves help the keeper to protect his or her hands, when a fast pace man is operating. Meanwhile, the leg guards help the keeper to protect
his legs, when a slow orthodox or spin bowler is operating.
Nowadays, one can also see wicket-keepers wearing helmets, as the modern era of the game provides good bouncy wickets or pitches. And the mere fact that keepers have been struck on the head due to the extra bounce extracted by the bowlers from the pitch,
the helmet is an increasingly used and important weapon in their armoury.
Purposes of a keeper
By far, a wicket-keeper of any team has the most opportunities to take catches, making his collection of catches taken among the other fielder to be the most. Keeping is a proper cricketing discipline, which requires consistent and regular practice or training
hours in the nets, and just like any other cricketing discipline, there is always room for a wicket-keeper to improve his/her skills behind the stumps or wicket.
Among the many functions or purposes of a keeper, his/her major playing role is to stop any delivery which is missed by the batsman, as he/she might be able to save a certain amount of runs.
Stump and edge are the two usual way for a keeper to help dismiss any batsman. A wicket-keeper can stump a batsman, when he/she misses the delivery completely and more importantly is out of the batting crease, as the keeper is supposed to remove the bails
before the batsman can respond to the situation.
Edge is another way by which a keeper can dismiss a batsman, as all it requires is that the batsman nicks or edges the cricket ball, and the keeper is able to secure the cricket ball into the gloves, before the ball bounces. Besides, the conventional edges
or nicks collected by the keeper, he/she can also make the most of the fail attempts by the batsman, as executing certain cricketing shots such as pull, hook or sweep, the batsman can attain a top edge, giving yet another way for the keeper to add a catch
to his collection of dismissals.
Run outs are another crucial attribute of a wicket-keeper, as when the batsman strikes the cricket ball in the outfield, the keeper is expected to place him/her-self next to the stumps and on the return throw from the fielder take of the bails before the
batsman makes it to his/her respective batting crease.
Reflexes
A wicket-keeper can surely improve the standard of his/her game, by spending long hard training hours in the nets, but cricket experts also view that certain keepers in the international arena are successful based on their quick reflex actions.
Especially, when a fast pace man is able to achieve a nick or edge from the batsman, and the keeper is looking to take that high speed flying catch. On the other hand, even keeping for a spinner, requires quick reflexes so that the bails can be taken off
before the batsman’s foot is back in his crease.
It is very important for a wicket-keeper to have good, strong and most importantly quick reflexes, so that he/she can make most of the half-chances given by any batsman.
(To be continued...Part 2)
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