As discussed in the Guardian today...
WORKING LUNGE
This week the Spin has found itself struggling to concentrate, quietly bothered, its thoughts drawn back towards an image that is both strangely thrilling and in the words of the Guardian's own David Hopps - reminiscent of a man "about to squat on a cold toilet seat". The Spin is, of course, talking about Eoin Morgan . Specifically talking about the Eoin Morgan Forward Lunge, that exaggerated "trigger movement" England's best one-day player employs while batting. It is from this self-revving dip of the knees, executed in the bowler's delivery stride, that Morgan now launches his range of murderously precise carves, clumps and glides.
The Morgan Lunge can be a little startling the first time you see it: an extreme interpretation of the "forward press" advocated by Duncan Fletcher, re-booted into a sinuous knee-flex reminiscent of a weightlifter's clean and jerk. Oddly, another Irish batsman Ed Joyce has developed a similarly coiled and low-slung stance, leading a friend to suggest that this might perhaps be a hangover from formative years, when a batsman will find himself literally sinking into the wicket while batting, at times knee deep in peat and marsh water, and that the Morgan Lunge is an attempt to recreate this effect on the harder, non-bog surfaces of international cricket.
This is no doubt entirely misguided. The Morgan Lunge is simply a technical refinement. Like a cat startled by a late night sneeze legs splayed, frozen to the floor Morgan has devised a way of readying himself to spring at every ball he faces. His brain may be liquid nitrogen cool, but as the bowler delivers Morgan's body is jolted into startled-cat mode. The Lunge suits him. He is, after all, a man decisively on the move.
Perhaps the first unusual thing about the Lunge is that it should be seen as unusual at all. It is a mark of how carefully styled batting techniques have become in the age of top-down micro-analysis that this bending of the knees should seem so striking. In the pre-modern era the range of different "set-ups" was far more varied. Notable stand-outs included: the swaying, wafting bat waggle of David Gower; the hunched, fidgeting broad-shouldered ballerina elegance of Mohammed Azharuddin; the extraordinary Kim Barnett, who used to come Riverdancing in from short leg; Derek Randall who appeared to have been caught sneaking off towards point; and Peter Willey who simply stood there, front on, like a caveman playing French cricket.
The second thing to say about the Morgan Lunge is: get used to it. This is how things are going to be now. With Kevin Pietersen absent, Morgan is by an absolute mile England's most fascinating short-form batsman. It is an accelerating progression too. Morgan will be 25 this week but he is already a player who, just two years after first becoming English, now sets the mood for any England batting performance. The first half of the summer, the Test match half, may be dominated in years to come by the image of the Alastair Cook punch drive, a shot that brings to mind a tortoise's head defiantly butting out from its impenetrable shell, but the Morgan Lunge is all set in turn to define the pyjama half.
The most successful assimilated players have all tended to develop at some point a defining exoticism at the crease. Pietersen had and perhaps has again his range of invented strokes. Jonathan Trott has his trench-digging. Morgan has The Lunge and it is a welcome oddity, too, as the man himself remains opaque in many ways. We have a sense of genius at work, of a kind of invulnerability being unfurled before us. But in terms of actual figures this is only half right.
So far it is Morgan's international Twenty20 career that is jaw-droppingly fine. He averages over 47 (yes: 47!) with a strike rate of 138.78. England have only lost six times in his 18 matches, and when they win he averages over 70. This week Michael Vaughan observed that the best one-day batsmen are already playing an innings, already on 15 not out, when they come to the crease. In Twenty20 Morgan walks out looking like he's on about 120, he's seeing it like a football and his team need 24 to win off 18 balls.
In 50-over cricket he can also be irresistible, but for a man of his talent this is still a work in progress. For England Morgan has 1,497 runs at an average of 40.45 and a strike rate 83.24, a fine record of match-winning highs interspersed with periods of quiet. His last 15 matches have brought an average of 33.46 with a best score of 63.
In Tests Morgan's record is only moderate and, in fact, very similar to that of Ravi Bopara, whom he has now decisively ousted. Morgan has 618 runs from 18 innings at 36. Bopara has 553 from 17 innings at 34. But then, of course, beyond the figures judgement must be exercised, and here Morgan appears to be on a fast-track to another level.
Where Bopara seems puppyish and cowed, Morgan looks to be a man with no baggage or history, a brutally hard-edged talent still stretching for its upper limits. He is also entirely self-possessed. Two days after returning from his mildly controversial stint at the IPL in late spring Morgan could be seen having a net during Middlesex's match against Sri Lanka at Uxbridge. Kitted out defiantly in gold C-3PO Kolkata Knight Riders helmet, he swatted a few drives into the deckchairs and then marched off into the pavilion, head held high, ignoring the quivering autograph books. His next innings was that argument-ending 193 for England Lions.
Morgan is exactly the kind of frictionless aggressor this successful England team needs. In Tests he is unlikely to be able to bat for a day to get you a draw, but frankly England don't really people to do that any more. Just as Adam Gilchrist thrived in a team that was dominant, so Morgan is another perfect middle order knockout artist.
In 50-over cricket he must simply be allowed to follow his lunge. There are two weeks and four ODIs remaining this English summer and Morgan is certain to be the dominant home presence. Ben Stokes, Samit Patel, Ravi: the Spin commands you. Stand near him. Breathe deeply. Ingest his flintiness. Don't quaver or apologise. Just watch Morgan and only go forwards.
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Topic: Morgan's Lunge technique (Read 2367 times)