A Sreeram Veera Piece on Mohammad Rafique : Youthful zest and experience

[Miraz]

"I enjoy bowling against the aggressive batsman. My bowling is all about control. The attacking types get the runs but also give you more chances." Bingo. Irritate the batsmen with tight line and length, and then slip in a sucker ball or trap them with the quicker one.
<table class="pullquote" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="170"> <tbody><tr> <td align="left"> http://img.cricinfo.com/cricinfo/furniture/quote-left_11x8.gif "Lara doesn't allow one to settle. The way he switches from defence to attack, even as the ball has been delivered, is something to watch. And Jayasuriya can simply take you apart." http://img.cricinfo.com/cricinfo/furniture/quote-right_12x9.gif </td> </tr> </tbody></table>
He rates Brian Lara and Jayasuriya as his favourite batsmen. Not surprisingly, both are aggressive. "Lara doesn't allow one to settle," he says. "The way he switches from defence to attack, even as the ball has been delivered, is something to watch. And Jayasuriya can simply take you apart."
Rafique doesn't spin the ball alarmingly. He uses the crease well, creates angles by going wide of the crease, has no problems in going round the wicket and in the recent times, his bowling arm has gone rounder as he made the occasional ball skid on. Rafique explained his art. "I try to vary the amount of spin and the bounce. Sometimes I bowl with a high-arm action and when I don't want the ball to bounce much, I slip in one off a round-arm action. It is all about trying to keep the batsman guessing." But for an umpiring error, he would have had the wicket of Tendulkar with a delivery that skidded in from round the stumps in the second Test. Rafique laughs in agreement when you remind him.


Read full from Cricinfo (http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/aac2007/content/current/story/297001.html)

[Farhad]

Great article. Couldnt agree more with the following:
There was nothing dramatic about the delivery. Just like Rafique's bowling. You're not going to see him bowling the ball of the millennium nor is he going to get young boys to fall in love with the game. However, he has the admiration of his team-mates and the respect of the opponents

[Trigger_Tiger]

Sreeram Veera and most Cricinfo writers, write very nice articles :)!!!!!

[abdulw11]

Rafique is truly a legend. It's gonna be such a sad occasion when he retires.

[Tigers_eye]

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Tendulkar's furniture disturbed. :)

[Go_Bangladesh]

nice read

[Nafis_BD]

A great article and indeed it is going to be sad when Rafique retires!!!

[BD Tigers]

Rafique was the BOSS, is the BOSS, will be the BOSS. PERIOD.

[Sohel]

thanks Miraz bhai, great dig.

SUPER to see rafique getting the recognition he deserves. he continues to make some of us feel proud to be bangladeshi.

quote: -

Rafique's eyes lit up when you mention his duel, albeit lost, against Rahul Dravid in that series. Time and again, he would slip in an arm-ball from round the wicket, hoping to get an lbw. Dravid, however, had a plan. He took care not to press his front foot fatally across and stayed adjacent to the line. This went on through the ODIs and the Test series. "He is a very good batsman," deadpanned Rafique. "It's different bowling against patient batsmen. You play on each other's patience." Does that mean he would rather bowl against attacking batsman?

"I enjoy bowling against the aggressive batsman. My bowling is all about control. The attacking types get the runs but also give you more chances." Bingo. Irritate the batsmen with tight line and length, and then slip in a sucker ball or trap them with the quicker one.

nice to see the typically bland, textbook approach to cricket writing's giving way to a bit of flair. you learn a lot from textbooks, but rarely read them for pleasure. cricket is a pastime for most of us after all. cricinfo's been getting that picture more clearly of late, i'd say the last 5 years or so from my limited interface with the website.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Rafiq's been disturbing Tendulkar's furniture ever since he started playing for the national team. The 1994 (or was it 1993?) Asia Cup comes to mind. Tandy was born to be Rafiq's prey.

[Sohel]

Rafiq's been disturbing Tendulkar's furniture ever since he started playing for the national team. The 1994 (or was it 1993?) Asia Cup comes to mind. Tandy was born to be Rafiq's prey.

nicely put.

[baisab]

Cricinfo (http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/aac2007/content/current/story/297001.html)


Mohammad Rafique keeps on bowling
Youthful zest and experience
Sriram Veera in Bangalore
June 5, 2007

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An Indian declaration was just around the bend and Sachin Tendulkar was looking to attack. Mohammad Rafique was thrown the ball by his captain. He immediately started to strangle Tendulkar with nagging line and length. All the balls were on and around the off stump and 11 balls later, an exasperated Tendulkar tried to break free with a slog sweep - a shot with which he rendered Shane Warne toothless and ineffectual. To his dismay, this delivery drifted in quick with the arm, landed and hastened straight on. The bat came around the line, the ball collided with the inside edge and went on to disturb the furniture.

[Fahmid]

Read the article with an immense interest...Rafique is a true legend..when I met him in 2000, he was considering to retire then!!!! I profoundly believe he still has the mental and physical ability to stick around for another 2 more years. H e will be missed.