{"id":4202,"date":"2009-05-23T16:39:01","date_gmt":"2009-05-23T11:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indiauncut.com\/?p=3399"},"modified":"2009-05-23T16:39:01","modified_gmt":"2009-05-23T11:09:01","slug":"a-special-kind-of-man-beast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/a-special-kind-of-man-beast\/","title":{"rendered":"A Special Kind Of Man-Beast"},"content":{"rendered":"
At an IPL-and-beer party a few weeks ago at my friend Prem Panicker<\/a>‘s house, the wise Anand Ramachandran<\/a> described Yusuf Pathan as “a man-beast”. The reference, obviously, was to his batting—for Anand is not intimately acquainted with Pathan’s personal life—and it fit like a glove. We then got to talking about other man-beasts in the game, and came up with the usual suspects like Matthew Hayden, Chris Gayle, Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi. Oh, and one Adam Gilchrist.<\/p>\n But Gilchrist is subtly different from the others in one way—he is not just brutal, but also beautiful. I like watching Pathan and Hayden and Gayle smash the ball around for visceral reasons—but with Gilchrist, it’s also a matter of aesthetics. He can do hammer and scalpel at the same time, and I can’t think of too many other players in world cricket who can combine the two so perfectly. Oh, and did you watch his innings yesterday? <\/p>\n That said, immense nostalgia is already coming that his next innings might be his last on this stage. (He is 37; who knows if he will return next year?) I hope it doesn’t end in an anti-climax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At an IPL-and-beer party a few weeks ago at my friend Prem Panicker<\/a>‘s house, the wise Anand Ramachandran<\/a> described Yusuf Pathan as “a man-beast”. The reference, obviously, was to his batting—for Anand is not intimately acquainted with Pathan’s personal life—and it fit like a glove. We then got to talking about other man-beasts in the game, and came up with the usual suspects like Matthew Hayden, Chris Gayle, Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi. Oh, and one Adam Gilchrist.<\/p>\n But Gilchrist is subtly different from the others in one way—he is not just brutal, but also beautiful. I like watching Pathan and Hayden and Gayle smash the ball around for visceral reasons—but with Gilchrist, it’s also a matter of aesthetics. He can do hammer and scalpel at the same time, and I can’t think of too many other players in world cricket who can combine the two so perfectly. Oh, and did you watch his innings yesterday? <\/p>\n That said, immense nostalgia is already coming that his next innings might be his last on this stage. (He is 37; who knows if he will return next year?) I hope it doesn’t end in an anti-climax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n