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Reverse Order Theory

Natman20

International Debutant
You might think I am stupid and I also think I am in part as well but this is an idea solely for the ODI format ...

What if the entire batting line-up was reversed bar the number 11s who can't score a thing. For instance using New Zealands line-up from last night have the order like so -

K Mills
*D Vettori
M Gillespie
J Oram
+B McCullum
L Vincent
J How
M Sinclair
R Taylor
S Styris
J Patel

Right you may think I'm making a fool of myself here but I believe I have a few valid points to make about having a line-up such as this.

The tail-enders generally (particularly in NZs case) are hitters and finishers who know how to hit a ball and can quite often do it from ball 1. What if we brought them to the beginning of the order and use there abilities to slog the ball at the beginning of the innings to our advantage while there are fielding restrictions. Now with the power-plays it probably won't work so well but whos knows if the tail-enders could start the innings with power it might leave an oportunity for the batsmen later on to just rotate the strike and therefore make it safely to a desired total.

The tail-enders would ideally see off the new ball and leave the batsmen better conditions in which they could prosper. Of course the negative effect may out weigh the positive. Being aggressive will mean more opportunities for many wickets to fall but the batsmen can still make a difference at the end. If it came off it could be a way to produce large totals or alternatively it may leave the batsmen at the end under a lot of pressure because of the wickets in hand.

Just putting that out there... Make your own judgements on this idea and comment back.
 

Jungle Jumbo

International Vice-Captain
My thoughts after 20 seconds of glancing over...

1. The batsmen getting stuck at the crease and not scoring fast enough, meaning that the 'real' batsmen not facing enough overs.

2. As you mention, if you're five down after 15 overs, you're not likely to have that many runs either and there are no wickets left to play with.

Can't see it catching on... :p
 

NZTailender

I can't believe I ate the whole thing
It would be interesting if two sides put it into practice for an exhibition match. But beyond that novelty it wouldn't work imo.
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
If any team was able to perform the reverse order with success it would be NZ.

Could work in Twenty20 IMO.
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
The theory obviously flies in the face of the popular belief (held by myself also) that you want to give your best batsmen as long to bat as possible to enable them to have enough time to build a big innings.

However, would be interesting if a captain or coach had the balls to go ahead with this as its a watchable experiment.
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
As opposed to a total reverse order you could do a half reversed order such as

K Mills
L Vincent
*D Vettori
J Oram
J How
+B McCullum
M Sinclair
R Taylor
S Styris
J Patel
M Gillespie

Yet I feel that this would probably not work outside of T20 cricket and really depends on how good the tail order batsman are, Mills is a great striker and Vettori is very unorthodox which both could have their uses up the order.
 

Calvin

Cricket Spectator
Hitting an old ball is different from hitting a new one when the bowlers are fresh and probably at their best.
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You are Martin McCague and I claim those five old balls that you smacked out of Canterbury one fine early 1990s day.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Might have done if he'd not got there first I suppose. Don't actually recall the game though TBH, though I do remember one where Iqbal Siddiqui - in his only Test - opened and hit the winning runs.
 

Macka

U19 Vice-Captain
First thought: No.

Second thought: No.

Instead of trying novel ideas, we need to develop batsmen at FC level.
 

TheLad

School Boy/Girl Captain
I've seen some strong youth teams experiment with a reverse order batting line up when playing weaker teams... they lost,

It was an unmitigated disaster as the break up of early wickets from hitters who did not have the technique to handle fresh bowlers with the new ball and the pressure of wickets lead to scoring pace problems and the pressure that brings. Not to mention the lift of early wickets brought to these struggling teams and the confidence of the fielding team grow.

Often talked about rarely used outside of primary school cricket because the fact is it does not work.
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yeah. I've had enough of NZ selectors with novel ideas - such as trying to turn the Marshall twins into Crowe or Hadlee dynasty for the 21st Century.

Newsflash people.... Jeff Crowe and Dayle Hadlee are countless times better than the Marshall *****. Take your ****ing Marshall and go and use them to help give some fat old bint with too much money a nice curly haired bowel disimpacting.
 

Somerset

Cricketer Of The Year
NZ opened the batting with Martin Snedden and Danny Morrison in a test once...
Actually that was part of a question on RadioSport to give away a subscription to a NZ cricket mag about a fortnight ago...think it was which NZer last opened the batting and bowling in the same test match which was Morrison.
 

Matt79

Global Moderator
I suspect when tail-enders do well, its because they feel they're not under pressure to perform. Not being able to perform with some consistency when the pressure is there is what makes them occasionally handy tail enders, rather than batsmen or allrounders.
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
Might have done if he'd not got there first I suppose. Don't actually recall the game though TBH, though I do remember one where Iqbal Siddiqui - in his only Test - opened and hit the winning runs.
You snooze you lose.

(I'm guessing you were asleep)
 

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