Interesting looking at Botham's technique here and in the video of him facing Michael Holding. His first movement here is clearly back and across, but in the clip against Holding his movement is much less decisive. Pascoe was quite a quick bowler, although not as quick as Holding. I suppose his confidence was probably quite low by Barbados in 1981, which might explain the difference.
@jstreete I agree. It was more of a mental thing. By nature, Botham was a fantsatic strokeplayer against pace and swing. He was mentally cramped against the West Indies and the immense pressure that they exerted from both ends did not help either.
@Imrankniazi I'm sure you're right about the pressure. It's a shame that Botham was captain for his first two series against the West Indies - it makes his statistics against them difficult to assess. But the way they restricted a batsman's scoring rate probably affected a player like him especially badly.
Cheers once again Rob, totally appreciated :)
del71music 6 months ago
Interesting looking at Botham's technique here and in the video of him facing Michael Holding. His first movement here is clearly back and across, but in the clip against Holding his movement is much less decisive. Pascoe was quite a quick bowler, although not as quick as Holding. I suppose his confidence was probably quite low by Barbados in 1981, which might explain the difference.
jstreete 6 months ago
@jstreete I agree. It was more of a mental thing. By nature, Botham was a fantsatic strokeplayer against pace and swing. He was mentally cramped against the West Indies and the immense pressure that they exerted from both ends did not help either.
Imrankniazi 6 months ago
@Imrankniazi I'm sure you're right about the pressure. It's a shame that Botham was captain for his first two series against the West Indies - it makes his statistics against them difficult to assess. But the way they restricted a batsman's scoring rate probably affected a player like him especially badly.
jstreete 6 months ago
Legend!
kniphofia 6 months ago
Botham was a class batsman in his early days.
anandecy3035 6 months ago