In the 18 months as an international cricketer Stuart Binny has had scarce opportunities to show his abilities as an all-rounder. He often walks in to bat at the fag end of the innings after the star-studded lineup has done the bulk of the batting job.
Before departing to Zimbabwe, Binny said he hoped to play a bigger role within the team in the ODIs here in the absence of some of the regular batsmen. And at the first opportunity, he delivered. In the first ODI, with India in a pickle at 87 for 5 in the 25th over, Binny walked in to bat and scored a 76-ball 77 in a 160-run partnership with Ambati Rayudu.
With over 25 overs at his disposal Binny could show his capabilities with the bat and notch up a career-best score.
"I've played 10 ODIs and I haven't had the opportunity to bat more than five or six overs," Binny said. "It was a great opportunity for me to go and spend some time in the middle and try and get as much as we could."
The situation was tricky when Binny joined Rayudu in the middle and that meant he could not afford to play his usual aggressive brand of cricket. But this was a golden opportunity for him to bat long and he was ready to dig it out and bind his time.
"We didn't set any totals when we went into bat, we just wanted to bat the next 10 overs and try not to lose any more wickets. It was a bit tough but the wicket started to ease out a bit. Once you were set you could rotate the strike a bit more and play a few shots. But we just wanted to bat the first 10 overs," he said.
After the hard work it was time to reap the reward. In the last 10 overs of the innings, Rayudu and Binny added 90 runs to take the Indian total to 255. Binny said that was possible because both he and Rayudu were well set to take the advantage of the death overs.
"The difference was when we were batting it was me and Rayudu both set at that point of time, but [Zimbabwe] had one batsman set and the other one was trying to rotate the strike, so two didn't go hard at the same time. But when we were batting we set the platform. We had batsmen in the shed who could go, and we were both set on 60-plus. If you're set you've got to take it as far as you can," he said.
With early morning start in nippy weather, the Harare Sports Club wicket will assist the bowlers in the first innings. Keeping that in mind, Binny said it will be crucial for the batsmen to see off the swinging new ball with respect before capitalising with big shots.
"If we get a chance to bat up front again early in the morning it's crucial, with the Dukes ball that does swing and seam a bit, that we've got to give the bowlers a lot more respect, compared to playing with the Kookaburra ball in other ODIs. If you can get through the first 15 overs without losing more than a wicket or two, then we've got the firepower to get 300 in an ODI."
