Sussex batsman Laurie Evans made everyone by playing a shot similar to that of Lagaan movie’s Baba Guran who entertained everyone with his unorthodox and ball-hitting skills. Evans was desperately looking for boundaries to take Sussex to a good total against Essex. He welcomed the final over bowler Paul Walter with a surprise that he had hidden up his sleeve. Evans went for a shot which was described the commentator as a reverse paddle but did not look like it. He was able to clear the short third man fielder quite comfortably as the ball raced towards the boundary.
Though Evans shot looked close to Baba Guran’s shot from Lagaan as if he was inspired by a similar stance, playing the ball behind the wicket. Unorthodox hitting has become quite a trend from the past few years, especially with the advent of T20 cricket. Players tend to take more of a 360 approach and look for shots all around the park. Even if their pre-meditated shots fail, they find a way to find a boundary by improvising, similar to what Evans did.
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This isn’t in the coaching manual @SussexCCC reach / as they hunt down a #Blast17 quarter-final spot! pic.twitter.com/zRdE7MN5gL
— NatWest T20 Blast (@NatWestT20Blast) August 18, 2017
Evans scored an unbeaten knock of 47 off 34 balls which featured 3 fours and 2 sixes. His heroics took Sussex to a total of 172 for 4. It was a perfect platform for Evans as Sussex openers Luke Wright and Chris Nash had got the team off to a flier. Wright departed after scoring 37 whereas Nash went on to score 73, the latter got out in the penultimate over of the innings.
Sussex won the match by a margin of 55 runs as Essex batsmen succumbed to the pressure and bundled out for 117 with 25 balls to spare. With this win, Sussex earned a place in the quarter-finals of the NatWest T20 Blast whereas Essex missed by a narrow margin.
