These unconventional strokes have changed the way cricket is played

On this day in 2006 cricket saw the birth of a new shot one that would join a select list of unorthodox and unique shots that no cricket manual or coach would teach or tolerateICC celebrated the birthday of the switchhit on Thursday in a tweet Englands mercurial batsman Kevin Pietersen played this shot for the first time against Sri Lanka at the Home of Cricket Lords during his innings of 158ThrowBackThursday KP24 strikes 158 against Sri Lanka at Lords the match where we first saw his switchhit pictwittercomXCrJIzmSidmdash ICC ICC June 9 2016When KP gave birth to switchhit the the cricketing scene wasnt ready for it and there wascontroversy with a few players and experts claiming it was unfair on the bowler as the field placements were according to the batting style of the playerWith the growth of T20 cricket switch hit has now become an accepted stroke with explosive Australian opener David Warner one of its best exponentsCricketers are now more accepting and open to improvisations and trying out new and unconventional shotsHere are some of the morenonconformist and outofmanual book shotsSwitch HitDelhi Daredevils Kevin Pietersen plays a switch hit during the IPL match vs Chennai Super Kings at The Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi on April 10 2012 PicAFPDespite the reservations of most classicists theInternational Cricket Councilrsquos ICC Cricket Committee has kept the muchdebated switchhit as a legitimate part of the gameKevin Pietersen changed the game when he switched from being a righthander to a lefthander just before the ball was deliveredThis differs from the traditional reverse sweep Incidentally Pietersen may have started the switch hit but David Warner has made it his own Its also called the palti shotDilscoopRoyal Challengers Bangalore RCB batsman Tilakaratne Dilshan hits a boundary using his trademark Dilscoop shot during the IPL Twenty20 match against Deccan Chargersat the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on May 6 2012 PicAFPThe shot is named after the man who made it famous Tillakaratne Dilshan The Sri Lankan played the shot to perfection and so had it named for himThe shot has existed on the fringes for a while with Zimbabwersquos Doug Marillier and Western Australian Ryan Campbell the pioneersThe stroke has the batsman going down on one knee and scooping the ball over the wicketkeepers head Afamous example of the Scoop backfiring is Pakistan skipper MisbahulHaq improperly executing the stroke inthe 2007 ICC World Twenty20 World Cup final against India off Joginder Sharma Pakistan were 1529 at the time and needed just 6 runs off 4 bowls but Misbah handed the match to India as he was caughtby SreesanthUpper CutThe Upper Cut may be associated with former India opener Virender Sehwag but it was first played in a Testin limited overs cricket by Sachin Tendulkar against Makhaya Ntini and Nantie Hayward But Sehwag used it to deadly affect in the 2001Bloemfontein Test against South Africa With T20 gaining popularity almost every batsman now has this shot in his arsenalReverse SweepThe most famous reverse sweep in cricket history was played by Mike Gatting in the 1987 World Cup final in then Calcutta Australia had made 253 for 5 and England captain Gatting was looking good on 41 when he attempted the reverse sweep to Allan Border off his first ball England 135 for two after 31 overs was looking good for a win but Gatting topedged the delivery off leftarm spinner Borderon to his shoulder and then to the waiting hands of Greg Dyer behind the stumps The shot has come a long way since then with South African AB de Villiers and Australian Glenn Maxwell popularising the shotIt was first regularly played in the 1970s by the Pakistani batsman Mushtaq Mohammad though Mushtaqs brother Hanif Mohammad is sometimes credited as the inventor Cricket coach Bob Woolmer has been credited with popularising the strokeHelicopter ShotIndian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hits a six to give India victory over Sri Lanka in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 final played at The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 2 2011 PicAFPIts the trademark shot of India limited overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni Dhoni isthe first player to play the shot with a great amount of success He reportedly learned the shot while playing tennis ball cricket from a friend Some of the others who have played the shot with some level of success are Indias Virat KohliAfghanistans Mohammad Shahzad andAustralias Ben Cutting The shot helps cricketers to counter yorkers but requires strong wrists to ensure the wrist work and bat speedPaddle SweepSachin Tendulkar used this stroke to good effect against Shane Warne in the 1998 ODI triseries at Sharjah Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has also used this shot regularly in the IPLA paddle sweep shot is a sweep shot in which the ball is deflected towards fine leg with a stationary or nearstationary bat extended horizontally towards the bowler whereas the hard sweep shot is played towards square leg with the bat swung firmly in a horizontal arcPeriscope ShotBangladesh cricketer Soumya Sarkar plays the periscope shot during the second T20 cricket match between Bangladesh and South Africa at The ShereBangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on July 7 2015 PicAFPYoung Bangladesh opener Soumya Sarkarplayed ashot in a T20 match against South Africa last year and it was named the periscope shot Sarkar lofted a Kyle Abbot delivery over the short third man fielder David Weise To execute the shot Sarkarleaned back without moving his feet to the bouncer and caressed the ball over the wicketkeeper into nomans land behind the stumpsThis particular shot is a new and improved version of the upper cut And Virat Kohli has since adopted it too TheInternational Cricket Council in its Facebook page has acknowledged Sarkars periscope shot as the latest innovation in the world of cricketThe ICC Facebook page described it as the periscope shot alluding to how a periscope emerges out of a submarine in midsea almost from nowhere