He was like the character Circuit in the movie Munna Bhai MBBS saying “Bhai tension nahi lene ka” …Every delivery was met with roaring anticipation. Part-time bowling is cricket’s closest equivalent to the schoolteacher doing stand-up comedy. You don’t expect precision. You expect chaos…and occasionally genius.
Captains love to use the occasional-bowler gambit for three reasons: Break the monotony…batters switch from survival mode to greed. Sometimes it is about forcing a mistake before a break … tea brings tragedy. And other times it is about changing the crowd energy — nothing distracts better than a dibbly-dobblier. Stats back this up: 32% of wickets taken by part-timers in Tests since 2000 have occurred within five overs of a session break. That’s not coincidence…that’s psychology.
Great batters often believe they can bowl. And sometimes, cricket indulges their fantasy. Sunil Gavaskar bowled 380 balls in Tests. His only wicket? Zaheer Abbas, in 1978. He was on 96. The follow-through celebration still lives rent-free in highlight reels. He was like Soorma Bhopali in Sholay .. one cameo that lives forever. K. Srikkanth — run machine and chaos merchant — took 25 ODI wickets. This included two five-wicket hauls. He was like Jim Carrey in the the movie Mask… unpredictable to a fault and you never know whether you are getting a wicket or wides but what you are guaranteed is entertainment!
Virat Kohli like Sunny Deol in Gadar threatens to uproot the stumps with every ball. He taken five ODI and four T20I wickets and the expression on his face has been pure joy. The charm lies not in the skill but the unapologetic joy…arms whirling, appeals louder than a proper bowler’s career total, a grin wide enough to hide the wides.
Sometimes the joke… isn’t a joke. Michael Clarke like Neo from the Matrix took 6-9 in Mumbai (2004). India were cruising. Suddenly, they weren’t. Kevin Pietersen’s “pie-chuckers” once trapped Clarke twice in the same series. Tillakaratne Dilshan — off-spin, seam, leggies, carrom balls and basically a one-man bowling committee: 39 Test wickets.
And of course, Steve Smith was like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory before he became The Run Machine. He was a leg-spinner with 17 Test wickets, including Alastair Cook and Graeme Smith. Funny how careers twist. And commentators? They become kids again —Richie Benaud perfected the art of the deadpan “Well that was… something.”
Part-timer overs are the blooper reel folded into the director’s cut. The uncalculated risk. The “what if” that brings fans to the edge of delight. In an era of hyper-professionalism and analytics, it is the one move a captain makes just because “why not?” And every now and then…like Clarke in Mumbai…it becomes history.
In cinema, directors deploy comic interludes to ease tension and reset the audience’s pulse. But for the comedian stepping into that spotlight, the laughter is never accidental … it is a moment that can define legacy.
That’s precisely what happens when a specialist batter takes the ball. To us, it’s a breather, a chuckle between the heavy overs of Test match theatre. To him, it’s a chance to steal a scene, to flip a script written for others. The part-time bowler may look like the comic sidekick, but beneath the grin lies ambition; because in cricket, as in film, sometimes it’s the unexpected cameo that earns the loudest applause!
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