In cricket we have quite a few examples where good players have missed out playing at the highest level because an established name was already there. Call it their hard luck or just being born in the wrong era
Sheldon Jackson
Gteater Noida: In cricket we have quite a few examples where good players have missed out playing at the highest level because an established name was already there. Call it their hard luck or just being born in the wrong era.
Sheldon Jackson
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Saurashtra's wicket-keeper batsman Sheldon Jackson will turn 30 this month. It is that side of the age when players, especially in India start to wonder if their big chance is going to ever come.
On the third consecutive rain interrupted day in the second Duleep Trophy game between India Red and India Blue, Jackson's displayed exactly those qualities proving as to why he has been considered a good prospect.
For someone who has a batting average of over 50 in 38 first class games, Jackson was displaying the same consistency when rain stopped play here yesterday.
The key here was not the runs, but how he scored them. He came into bat towards the end of second days play when Red's chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav had picked four quick wickets and pushed India Blue on the backfoot.
Jackson, who was yet to open his account when the play resumed on third day, hit his second ball to boundary. The next few overs were spent building a partnership with another wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik.
The two looked busy with an intention to up the scoring rate as well. It was in the 70th over of the innings when Red's skipper Yuvraj Singh again brought on Kuldeep Yadav and this is when Jackson hit him for two consecutive boundaries on the first two balls.
It looked like a planned move to build pressure on the man who had dominated the proceedings during the previous evening.
The highlight of his innings was how Jackson read Yadav's bowling including the 'googly', which had troubled other Blue batsmen. He also used his feet well to counter it. When rain stopped play he was batting on 48 from 55 deliveries.
Runs under his belt
The Saurashtra batsman made his first-class debut in 2011-12 and the next season gathered 756 runs for Saurashtra at 58.15 in just nine matches, with three centuries and four half-centuries.
The 2014-15 season was even better where he managed 819 runs in just eight matches at 68.25 with three centuries and three half-centuries. In the last season he made 634 runs at 42.26 with two tons and three fifties.
Brief scores
India Blue 285-5 (Gâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Gambhir 77, Mâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Agarwal 92, Sâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Jackson 48*; K Yadav 4-78) vs India Red
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