Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

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The Brave Hearts
How can one, who is accustomed to using both eyes, function with only one eye? Difficulties accosted him every now and then. Describing his condition of those days Pataudi says, “Even my daily routine posed difficulties for me. After 34 weeks of the operation I went to the ground for net practice to find out how far my batting had been affected. Only a boxer who receives blows on his eye from the opponent alone can understand the predicament in which I was placed. I found it difficult even to judge the position and the distance of an object. For instance, when I wanted to light a cigar, I could not see one-fourth part of its end. When I wanted to pour water in a glass from a pitcher, the water spilled over the table instead of into the tumbler !" Pataudi passed through many such difficulties. Gradually he started learning afresh how to do many things in the given situation.
When he played at the 'net for the first time thereafter, the difficulties he encountered were beyond his comprehension. Initially the bat and the ball would just not meet. He could not judge the speed of the incoming ball. Even with all this, he was not a person who would accept things as they were. He started practicing more and more. He started judging as to the kind of ball he would not be able to play. He changed his style of standing at the crease. He almost gave up his favourite stroke of hitting a 'half-volley'. He stopped hooking* a ball by turning his bat and also gave up hitting the let cut**, a stroke which was too risky. He started playing a
Mostly a fast, short pitched ball is hit in this manner. If the ball bumps and is comming in the line of the stumps, the batsman moved inside the creez and hits it. It is hit near or outside the leg stump. In doing so, the action of the bat and the rank of the batsman take the shape of a hook. In this, the batsman watches the ball moving outside the off-stump and after it leaves, hits it either to the gully or to the slip.
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