The Fraser-McGurk method to batting madness: absence of footwork, focus on knee-flex and uninhibited bat swing

He slammed Hardik Pandya and Nuwan Thushara in his 27-ball 84, but even Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t spared.

Two batsmen have captured the post-modern T20 batting perfectly this IPL: Fraser-McGurk and Heinrich Klassen. The commonality is the absence of footwork and the focus on knee-flex, solid base, supreme body positioning with balance, and the wondrous uninhibited swing of the bat.

Jake Fraser-McGurk’s childhood coach Shanon Young has described his ward’s high backlift as his love for golf, a sport he almost decided to pursue, two years ago. “He is so good at it that once he decided to switch sport,” Shanon has told The Indian Express.

Although Jake holds his bat like a golf club when he hits the ball it certainly wields it like a hammer.

Bumrah felt the blow in the second over of the game. He started with a slower ball, usually a sensible ploy against hitters with furious bat-swings, but Fraser-McGurk doesn’t move at all until very very late. And all he tells himself, by his own admission, while waiting for the bowler to release the ball is ‘watch the ball, watch the ball’. And so he watched the slower ball come towards him, just shifted his weight on to the front foot with a knee-flex and let that golf-inspired bat-swing come down and go over his shoulder. Bumrah craned to see the ball disappear over long-on. Next ball, the yorker just about missed its slot, and also encouraged to miss by the batsman standing deeper inside the crease, and the bat flashed down to smear it past the startled non-striker. One more Bumrah hit was to come. This time a typical near 140-kmph length delivery that moves in with the angle from back of length and it moved even more quickly to midwicket boundary as Fraser-McGurk, again with minimal foot movement but excellent body positioning, unfurled a ferocious pull.

If Bumrah was treated like that, Pandya, who leaked 20 runs in the fifth over, and Thushara, who bled 18 in the 3rd, had no chance. Pandya came back to bowl his second over after the powerplay and conceded 23 runs. Fraser-McGurk needed 16 runs in four balls to break Chris Gayle’s decade-old record to hit the fastest IPL century but Piyush Chawla got Fraser-McGurk to hole out to deep midwicket with a back-of-length googly and sent him off with an air-kiss.

Mumbai falter at start

Chasing a target of 257, Mumbai needed Rohit Sharma and Ishan Sharma to give their side the kind start Prabhisimran Singh and Jonny Bairstow gave Punjab Kings against Kolkata Knight Riders. Instead, they were reeling at 65 for 3 at the end of the powerplay with Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav back in the hut.

Delhi Capitals bowler Mukesh who took three wickets during the IPL match between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA 27 04 2024.

The lone positive for Mumbai was Hardik Pandya (46 off 24b) getting to his batting form. After having an awful afternoon with the ball, he saved his best against Delhi’s best bowler Kuldeep Yadav, smashing him for three fours and one six. Capitals Impact Player Rasikh Salam ended the dangerous-looking 71-run stand between Pandya and Tilak Varma.

Tilak Varma (63 runs off 32b) and Tim David (37 off 12b) kept Mumbai in the hunt but it proved too much to achieve for them after the poor start given by their top order. Mumbai fell short by 10 runs and remained at ninth place in the points table. With another loss, they are all but out of the playoff contention. The win has put Delhi in the hunt after a horrible start to their season.

For Delhi Capitals, the spell from 24-year-old Rasikh Salam was the game changer. The medium pacer bowled an excellent spell of 4-0-34-3. In back-to-back high-scoring games, the youngster has kept his nerves intact in the death overs.