Yeah, I don't know how much time Gillespie spent on batting but he often looked to me like he had some potential. He always seemed to me to pick the ball up early and be a very good judge of what to play and what to leave. If he'd worked a bit harder and tried to develop a game on the off-side (for most of his career he pretty much just left anything outside off and only scored when the bowlers drifted onto his pads) I reckon he could've been a good (not merely decent) number-eight batsman. He certainly played a large number of long innings', far more than most number-tens will ever do.
If you are a bowler with a latent flair for batting you need to be lucky enough to get some good knocks in early enough in your career. That makes you take your batting more seriously. Mitchell's is a case in point.
'Flair' when it came came to Dizz's batting is a bit more than he aimed for, really. Even before getting his Aus cap, was almost famous for batting out most of a day for 50-odd for SA. Was primarily concerned with sticking around, reasoning that runs would come through attrition. Took 'waiting for the right one to hit' to pretty extreme lengths. haha
No-one worked harder on his batting than Dizzy when he was in the nets. He just limited his game to only a few things he could do then spent all his time on that, reasoning that by hanging around, he was doing his job as a tail-ender. Wasn't really a matter of work, per se, just of focus and Dizzy's was squarely on his bowling. Didn't really care enough to add shots until later.
And even then, he only played them after he was in at least 50 balls.
Exactly.
His most important innings for Australia was possily his 26 off 165 balls in the partnership with Martyn in Chennai, India 2004.
He wouldn't pull them out until he was well in.
Haha, yeah pretty much. His strike-rate in his double ton was pretty slow going compared to Mike Hussey's near run-a-ball 180-odd too. And Dizzy's strike rate was only as high as it was because the slog was on towards the end of his knock!
Grrrr!Dizzy was close to SA's most reliable batsman for a season
Not suggesting for a second that it didn't, merely that he could possibly have done even better if it'd occurred to him to try.
Perfect summary of the way Jason Gillespie batted. Even during his 200 against Bangladesh he essentially kept his technique the same. Left nearly anything outside of off stump. Just waited for the bowler to pitch the ball on his pads, so he could whip it through the leg side. Ended up with 200 largely due to the ineptitude of the Bangladesh spinners who where willing to bowl to his strengths.
In other news, Glenn McGrath bowls a delivery outside off-stump... again!
Anyway, think Gillespie's value is being a teeeeeeeeeny bit overplayed here. He played several superb knocks which played a crucial part in massive stands with top-order batsmen (both as nightwatchman and as tailender) but there's no way he was a regular contributor. A 32-ball 4 at the end of an innings isn't likely to grossly swell the total. Gillespie's attitude to batting was indeed admirable and indeed ideal for more tailenders than not, but it's stretching it a bit to suggest he was worth "so much more" than such-and-such.
