One of them, schooled in all that is classical about batting, wields his bat like a wand, sending wristy charms in directions he turns his glance to. The other, a precocious talent born in the televised one-day era, lands his bat on balls like a sledgehammer.Together, VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh held the SCG in a spell today, demonstrating all that is good about their respective schools of art. Laxman the unhurried, old-fashioned perfectionist who wouldn’t dream of playing a slog-sweep. Yuvraj, who can’t dream of allowing ‘balls faced’ to exceed ‘runs scored’. When 29-year-old Laxman bats in ODIs, he scores at a strike rate of 62.24. Yuvraj (22) scores at 87.07.After the match today, though he won, Aussie captain Ricky Ponting said, ‘‘Laxman is becoming a thorn in our flesh. If somebody can tell us (how to curb him), he can join our coaching side. He is playing to his strengths extremely well. If someone does that with the form one is in, he is pretty difficult to get out.’’Stats back up the fact: all four of Laxman’s ODI centuries have come against the Australians and, while Laxman’s career average is 31.30, it shoots up to 54.53 against the Aussies. That’s a phenomenal ODI average.Laxman’s partner, the mercurial Yuvraj, also cut his international teeth against the Australians, Nairobi 2001. Remember that stroke-filled 84? Today, he notched up his highest one-day score — 139 — and drove Ponting to say, ‘‘Yuvraj is a great striker of the ball. He hits the ball well and as cleanly as anyone going around. If he keeps batting like this, he will score many more hundreds.’’If Ponting’s prophecy were to come true, more often than not, the victims might well be the Baggy Greens.The twosome today stitched together 213 beautiful runs. Beautiful because the 242 runs they scored between them were all off ‘proper cricketing shots’. Yuvraj walked in with Laxman on 35, reached his 100 before Laxman as Laxman was happier taking the singles and allowing Yuvraj to do the hitting. And hit Yuvraj did. Off all bowlers, to all parts of the field, as the wagon wheel on TV showed. Ditto for Laxman but, unlike the long red lines accompanying Yuvraj’s, his were whiter and didn’t hit the boundaries as often.And while Yuvraj is clearly one for the future, Laxman doesn’t appear the part. But that’s what they said about him five years back as well. There is clearly a place for someone like Laxman even in 21st century masala cricket, and that has to be a welcome sign. Surely, it shouldn’t all be Gilchrist-esque! As for Yuvraj, similarly, surely quick-scoring can be done in an aesthetic way rather than murdering everything.
