KyroSports
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Cricket
  • Tennis
  • Formula 1
  • Football
Write for Us
Kyrosports
  • Home
  • Cricket
  • Tennis
  • Formula 1
  • Football
No Result
View All Result
Kyro Sports
No Result
View All Result
Home

Michael Bevan: Tribute To Australia’s Tireless But Unsung Hero

During the '90s,Michael Bevan waged lone battles, won games, and set the bar high for a term we use- the finisher!

Dev Tyagi by Dev Tyagi
8th May 2020
in Cricket, Analysis, Cricket Australia
6 min read
5 0
0
Michael Bevan

Source: Official Twitter account of Cricket Australia

4
SHARES
103
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Fundamentally, Cricket is the runs scored, balls bowled, wickets taken, at the end of the day.

In that regard, a forever-accompanying habit truth is to refer to statistics while passing judgment on a cricketer.

But is that all?

What about impact?

Not everyone will have big daddy hundreds against their name. Not every name will see the ‘enviable double’ of possessing 10,000 runs in both formats.

But does that mean theirs is a tiny contribution?

Does greater merit also lie in finding out about games won at the back of sheer single-mindedness and resilience?

Is there a greater tale in the way one went about pacing an inning? Can success be defined by how well did an individual held on to an end alone?

READ ALSO

India vs England Test Series

India vs England Test Series: England relies on fast bowlers

24th January 2021
88
Inzamam-Akhtar salute Team India for the series win against Australia

Inzamam-Akhtar salute Team India for the series win against Australia

20th January 2021
50
Natrajan

The debut of 5 Indians on Australia tour: Natarajan the first Indian to debut in all three formats on a tour

15th January 2021
61
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Azharuddeen hits 37-ball century as Kerala beat Mumbai by 8 wickets

14th January 2021
207
India vs Australia 4th Test

India vs Australia 4th Test: Preparing to win series from Australia, Team India starts practice in Brisbane

13th January 2021
87
India vs Australia 3rd Test

Team India is not happy with Australia’s Government Quarantine Rule

4th January 2021
41
Load More

There’ll always be cricketers you’d queue up to watch, talents whose mere public appearance can make city streets clogged with endless jams.

Then there will be the likes of Michael Bevan, who’ll make you sit back and appreciate the broader picture of Cricket.

That may be true glory stems from playing for the team’s cause.

That for as long as one is able to change the context of a match at the back of fighting abilities, it doesn’t matter how stylish a batsman is or if his cricket bears a signature of elegance.

From the onset of 1994 to 2004, Michael Bevan signified that Cricket was more than just being about big records and dollops of runs.

And that it was about some rare qualities, at the back of which, teams became big, unbeatable, and undeniable like the elephant in the room.

Part of a star-studded Australia, where big names belittled the existence of others challenging them, Michael Bevan appeared more of a simpleton who gave his all for the team.

He was that man who didn’t have to be mean; the man who believed in the pleasures of quiet humility.

That sort of guy who’d reach the nets first and be the last to depart.

The workhorse like a Kallis! A grinder of the kinds of Chanderpaul!

Very much like his batting that bore a perfect marriage of the keenness to defend during tough situations and the foxiness to accumulate runs when the opposition thought theirs was the game.

And yet here he is, unrelenting like a perplexing enigma.

Michael Bevan

He doesn’t have a triple hundred against his name. In fact, he doesn’t even have 10 international hundreds in a decade of batting at the top annals.

What Michael Bevan does have, however, are painstaking hours spent in the middle to often repair a broken inning, and that undeniable quality to bat on when others had perished.

Hours that he spent battling pace and spin, braving heat, humidity, and sunburn, often eschewing the desire to stroke but accumulate those 7,500 plus runs.

Never complaining. Always practicing monk-like abstinence from emoting. Imagine, to this day, only a handful among us would probably know what Michael Bevan sounds like while we’ve heard a countless number of times from Ponting, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath, and Waugh brothers.

His is a case as of a permanent disposition to reticence.

Like how when a game is done and the awards are handed, the hero walks back home- quietly and with grace.

If you are of the opinion that what made Australia the visibly and statistically mighty force throughout the 90s were facets like Glenn McGrath’s disciplined line-and-length, Warne’s mastery at turning it on any track, Hayden and Mark Waugh’s mighty batting or Steve Waugh’s leadership, then perhaps it may not be wrong to place the missing jigsaw in the frame.

Without it, the picture would appear incomplete.

Do not, therefore, forget to be reminded about Michael Bevan’s tireless batting down the lower order that made Australia into the bullies the others saw them as.

Not the most dazzling stroke-maker, yet someone who relied on his ability to hold an inning together, Michael Bevan compromised the style quotient and attached more emphasis to the art of timing.

He was the gap-finder, the strike-rotator.

The man who denied himself the wicked pleasure of mindlessly dancing down the track or flirting with deliveries bowled outside the off.

Batting as if his life depended on his sense of awareness.

For had he done that, how else would he have managed to carry Australia’s hopes?

If you are to truly understand the importance of Michael Bevan and just why he was so utterly irreplaceable in the solid eleven of the 90s, now relished ever more for the strong nostalgia content the past eras offer, rewind back to the 95-96 Benson & Hedges World Series contest against the West Indies.

With Australia needing just 173, he arrived with the scoreboard suggesting a lost cause, the team 4 down for 32.

And then, he batted and batted for nearly 40 overs.

With 11 needed off the final 7 but with Australia holding onto the knife’s edge with just 1 wicket left, it was all up to Michael Bevan, who lifted the final ball of the 49th over for a 4 over mid-wicket.

With 6 needed off 4, he cover-drove Roger Harper to give McGrath a strike.

Was that hara-kiri? Well, not really. McGrath took a single and this meant with 4 needed off 2, Bevan was on strike.

But the penultimate delivery turned into a dot ball.

With 4 needed off 1, the West Indies were in it with Australia limping on the edge.

But as it often happened, one man turned the fate of the inevitable and meant it wasn’t over for as long as he was there.

On the final delivery of that nail-biter at Sydney, Michael Bevan lifted Harper’s off-break straight down the ground for a gun-barrel hit to the fence.

It was game over for West Indies. It brought glory for Australia.

In the must-win 1996 world cup contest against the same opponents, in the sub-continent, Bevan joined forces with Stuart Law to bring back Australia from the dead, after Taylor, Waugh, Ponting had all left the crease.

What seemed an onerous, gut-wrenching task of mending a broken inning, was often every day in the life of Australia’s tireless marathon runner.

Why Bevan will always be relevant?

Michael Bevan

The man, we sadly often forget, averaged 194 in that ODI series back in Australia during 95-96’ triumph, the man who averaged 64 against an Akram-Waqar-powered Pakistan in Tests, the man who ended his ODI journey at an average of 53.5.

For as long as favoritism will not dictate the mental make-up of the cricket fan referencing the bias that greatness only belonged to a Sachin and Lara or Kallis, a Michael Bevan will seem relevant.  

And for as long as Michael Bevan will appear in our cricket-doting psyche, what’ll always matter just as much as runs scored or hundreds struck will be the “not-outs” column.

If the 67 not outs from 196 ODIs do not hint at timeless greatness, then what will?

Tags: BevanCricket Australia
Share2Tweet1SendShareSend
Dev Tyagi

Dev Tyagi

Related Posts

India vs England Test Series
Analysis

India vs England Test Series: England relies on fast bowlers

24th January 2021
88
Inzamam-Akhtar salute Team India for the series win against Australia
Cricket Australia

Inzamam-Akhtar salute Team India for the series win against Australia

20th January 2021
50
Natrajan
Cricket Australia

The debut of 5 Indians on Australia tour: Natarajan the first Indian to debut in all three formats on a tour

15th January 2021
61
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
Analysis

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Azharuddeen hits 37-ball century as Kerala beat Mumbai by 8 wickets

14th January 2021
207
India vs Australia 4th Test
Analysis

India vs Australia 4th Test: Preparing to win series from Australia, Team India starts practice in Brisbane

13th January 2021
87
India vs Australia 3rd Test
Cricket Australia

Team India is not happy with Australia’s Government Quarantine Rule

4th January 2021
41
Load More

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
15 Highly Educated Cricketers Of All Time

15 Highly Educated Cricketers Of All Time

8th April 2020 - Updated on 9th April 2020
Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2020

Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2020 – Complete Team Analysis

24th December 2019
Mario Balotelli celbrates against Manchester United

The astonishing decline of Mario Balotelli

11th June 2020
East Bengal need to play in the ISL

East Bengal and ISL need each other

22nd August 2020
Kuldeep Yadav bowling in the nets (Image credits: Facebook | Kuldeep Yadav)

Kuldeep Yadav, the new Mystery spinner!

Ravi Shastri, the master, may become the Coach of Team India soon (Image Credits: Facebook | Ravi Shashtri)

Ravi Shastri throws hat in the ring for India head coach

He can be the all-rounder India needs

Basil Thampi and Krunal Pandya selected for India A tour to South Africa

The new captain; a lot will depend on how he manages his resources (Image Credits: Facebook)

Joe Root, Dean Elgar set to fight in the 1st England-South Africa Test

2021 Bahrain GP

Key Moments That Stood Out In The 2021 Bahrain GP?

29th March 2021
Max Verstappen

Why The Bahrain GP Is Poised To Be More Interesting Than You Think?

28th March 2021
Online Casino & Type of Bonuses Offered

Online casinos: History, Advantages, and Types of Bonuses Offered

15th March 2021
How Long Is a Soccer Game?

How Long Is a Soccer Game?

4th March 2021 - Updated on 5th March 2021
  • 15 Highly Educated Cricketers Of All Time

    15 Highly Educated Cricketers Of All Time

    506 shares
    Share 202 Tweet 127
  • Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2020 – Complete Team Analysis

    284 shares
    Share 168 Tweet 48
  • The astonishing decline of Mario Balotelli

    154 shares
    Share 62 Tweet 39
  • East Bengal and ISL need each other

    129 shares
    Share 52 Tweet 32
  • The world will live on these 5 fielders in the world cup 2019

    123 shares
    Share 49 Tweet 31

About Kyrosports

Kyrosports is an all-sports website, with multinational audience and writers. Users engage on the website, read, write and post comments while interacting with like-minded fans from all over the globe. The site covers mainstream sports like Football Cricket Tennis Basketball Hockey Formula One Badminton professional wrestling, mixed martial arts, and boxing as well as niche ones like kabaddi and squash through news, articles.

The site also provides its use live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards).

Kyrosports Tribe

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of use
  • Series
  • IPL 2020

© 2020 All Rights Reserved | Kyrosports - Powered by CodEye Technologies.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Cricket
  • Tennis
  • Formula 1
  • Football

© 2020 All Rights Reserved | Kyrosports - Powered by CodEye Technologies.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

*By registering into our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.