Exactly, on drive, was on autopilot there - the one in the poll with zero votes at the time, my mistake.

I have watched some good on-drivers in my time. Greg Chappell was unquestionably the best by some distance, but others that come to mind are Tendulkar (although in his case it is more like a straight drive only slightly on the leg side), Viv Richards and Dilip Vengsarkar. Vengsarkar played the shot a lot like Greg Chappell, but he ususally tried it only when he was well set in the innings.

To be perfectly honest I'm just happy to get bat on ball... heaven forbid a run!

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For me the on/straight-drive is one of the few shots where the right handers have the edge in terms of aesthetics. Because of the angle across them the left hander if he wants to hit the ball back straight has to use a lot of bottom hand and drag the ball that could be played to the right hand of mid off back down the ground. For them it's a shot that require more physical strength to bludgeon the ball rather than the precise nimble footwork (the crucial getting the front foot out of the way whilst staying on balance) and as such the strong-men of the modern game Smith and Hayden may be brutally effective but lack the technical purity of a Ponting (best I've seen) or on occasion a Bell.

Very good post and I agree that left handers seldom play the 'proper' on-drive in the manner that right handers do. A lot of left handers - Ganguly is a good example - tend to exaggerate the "taking the right leg out of the way" movement while playing leg side strokes and so even though the ball goes to deep mid-on or long-on, the stroke looks more like a pull down the ground. I think this happens because left handers face more right arm bowlers during their formative years and so have to make that adjustment to play the ball on the leg side.

That is probably also the reason why left handers - Gilchrist, Yuvraj, Ganguly, Hayden, Sangakkara, Gayle - to quote a few - are so much better at hitting big sixes in the arc between long-on and deep mid-wicket. The use of the bottom hand like you said gives a natural 'lift' to the stroke.

hi all friends ,iam an indian this is my first post here , i like few shots like cover, straight , late cuts, pulls etc , well especially frm tendulkar's bat , may be coz of his body stature makes it more sexier , but recently in waca test, sachin has played a skillfull shot to boundary , when lee bowled a bouncer, i donno wat u guys call that shot , that was one of the amazing shot i have ever seen in my life after watchin cricket for almost 18 years ..when i seen that ball comming to tendulkar i thought that ball wud chip his head off ohh well may be neck coz it was moving down to upward position with a bit of inswing very close to the body line ,thats makes it almost an impposible way to stroke the ball away,coz it might be comming with minumum 150 M/speed, then in a blink of a second i seen The master in act wooohooo i was shocked ,body bending bakward (like matrix style) and guiding the ball to the opposite direction where it was going ,then i realised oh well i was watching none other than tendulkar lol ...so now i will say thats my fav shot ,and i call it as matrix shot lol.. i wud love to see more of those shots frm "tendu" or frm anyone .well this is only just my opinion.anyways iam adding a picture of that great shot if u guys didnt get wat i meant .. c u arnd guys , i like this forum

I loved Allan Border's baseball style pull shot

Border also played another very unusual shot that would seem unintentional to onlookers who had not seen him play it before, but over the years I have seen him play it very delibrately many times. It was a sort of late under-cut, played to a pace bowler with bat striking the ball close to the bottom edge. Border played it with dismissive authority, often so late that he actually ended up facing the second or third slip as he completed the shot. The ball's trajectory then took it past the 'keeper's left side and by the time it reached the boundary it would actually be in a very fine leg position! I think Border imparted a lot of spin on the ball with that stroke resulting in that unsual angle.

I have read that Everton Weekes (a right hander, of course) used to play that stroke sometimes.

I'll go with the off drive myself, either along the ground or back over the bowlers head. In my opinion, it is the most technically difficult shot in cricket to get right and the margins for error are quite large if you aren't to give a leading edge, or spoon a catch to mid off. However, perfectly executed it can be a real joy to watch.

There are very few players in world cricket who play the shot well, and those that do don't pull it out of the locker that often due to the elements of risk in getting it wrong.

Surprised in some ways not one single person picked it.

I'd certainly agree that a well timed cover drive can be exquisite (specially when Vaughan plays it and there are few better cover drivers in world cricket than Vaughan) but it's played too often by too many players for me to consider it my favourite shot.

In terms of my own personal playing attacking stroke, I'd go with the square cut, low risk/high return shot when played along the ground and not that hard to get right - just need the right kind of ball!

Not seen as much these days Scott, and due to the influence of PJ cricket - attempts at this shot against the wrong ball has seen players persish with bottom edges onto their stumps, and top edges caught behind.
Shot selection is so poor these days, a square cut is a risky shot IMO - look at the runs rates in test cricket to see my point.
Not many Robin Smiths or Allan Lambs about these days.

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