THE SWEEP SHOT
Sweep is a weapon used to distract the length of a spinner. Lara used it to get the ball between square leg and fine leg region. With the hard-hitting nature, Lara’s sweep shots, too, had been unconventional.
Line of the ball
- Lara chose the line of the ball to execute the sweep.
- When the ball was bowled on or outside off stump, he prepared to go in front of the square leg.
- While the ball was bowled in the middle or down the leg, his blade will guide the ball towards the fine leg or square leg region.
Adjusting the length of the ball
- The length of the spinners never disturbed him while executing a sweep.
- He used his wrists to smash it through the ground if the ball was pitched in fuller length.
- Whereas when the ball was pitched in good length, he had tried guiding the ball to fine leg. His natural ability to middle the ball made these shots look easy.
Scoring attitude
- Once again, his run-scoring nature had been the reason for this shot.
- The varying bounces never troubled him while he swept because of his accuracy in the shot.
Conclusion
Brian Lara entered International cricket in the decade where hard-hitting was the only element done by the batsmen.
Even Lara’s combatant Sachin Tendulkar played the hard-hitting shots during his early days of cricket, and later, he changed it according to the game’s demands.
But Lara stuck with his method till the end. Of course, he had lots of struggles with his unorthodox batting techniques. Brian Lara overcame it with massive run-scoring innings every time.
If the current English team is known for range hitting, it was hard-hitting for the West Indies team.
Notably, the bloke from Trinidad is the one with the combinations of power and self-awareness.
Lara’s shot-making ability had been the primary reason for his historical quadruple century and his famous triple century.
“Did I entertain? ” asked Lara to the spectators during his retirement speech.
Well, I feel cricket wouldn’t have been so close to the country which he represented. He has given them incredible moments to cherish. So it is far ahead of entertainment.
