Blogs Pie Chucker Having His Pie
December 23rd, 2008 by calypsoAfter the Harbhajan versus Hayden show that ended with the Indian off-spinner coming on top during the test series between Australia and India, it is Yuvraj Singh versus Pietersen. It takes no guessing to say that Yuvraj may be the most disliked of Indian players for the English skipper. The very apparent hostility began after the incident of the T20 match where Yuvraj pasted Stuart Broad for a record number of sixes. Ever since then, he has been a thorn in the English side to the extent that he has single-handedly contributed to England’s defeat on more than one instance. Take the case of the one-day series that was held in India. Yuvraj was again in sublime form and responsible to a large extent for India winning the series so comprehensively against the Englishmen.
Again, during the one-day series Yuvraj got Pietersen out with his vastly improved left-arm spin bowling. This seems to have further fuelled the English skipper’s frustration — a part-timer that Yuvraj is supposed to be, has been able to get Pietersen out quite a number of times — once even in the two-match test series. So, it was no surprise when during a match conference, Pietersen branded Yuvraj’s brand of bowling as rubbish and termed him as a “Pie chucker”.
Well, the point that Pietersen has comfortably afforded to ignore is that the man whom he has gone about terming as something of a nonsense bowler has been able to get his wicket repeatedly. The England side couldn’t lay out a plan other than mouthing off and verbally abusing Yuvraj and he continued to bat beautifully in the test series too. Flintoff, Prior and Pietersen have all tried their level best at disturbing Yuvraj’s concentration at the crease by constantly trying to involve him in verbal duels and even succeeded once, but in the end just look at Yuvraj’s average in the test series and his contribution to the Indian cause.
The verdict? For the moment, it is advantage Yuvraj, pie chucker or not, as it is nobody really seems to care what kind of bowler he is as long as he is getting the rival team captain’s wicket and scoring tons of runs.
