It’s not always that a dainty-built bloke manages to brisk past the effort produced by a burly Chris Gayle. Chances of that to happen are probably lesser than the frequency with which an Asian city goes a day without inhaling toxic air.
After all, it was Gayle who had plundered 6 sixes, in an inning that seemed a mere formality, requiring his Tallawahs to score 86. That was in 2016, a year where the CPL produced Rovman Powell as a rising star.
Two years hence, a new star seems to have emerged on the horizon of a tournament rightly called the biggest party in the Caribbean. Interestingly, he’s already established his credentials on the international stage for the West Indies.
Shimron Hetmeyer wasn’t around in 2016
Back then, his Guyana Amazon Warriors were chewed up by the alligators from Tallawahs.
Fast forward to 2018, What do we see?
Striking a 79 off 45 balls, Hetmyer trounced the Gayle-powered Jamaica right at the start, helping his team win their opening game.
What would follow later would be a fascinating display of his potential.
A solid knock in the late-40s, a half century, and a domineering hundred later, Shimron Hetmyer appears fresh as a morning bowl of Ceasar’s Salad. To the eye, gorging on those big hits, Shimron Hetmyer presence a sorted and pretty straightforward approach to the game.
In all of this, Hetmyer’s lived by a simple rule- see the ball, hit the ball. Not a batsman who possesses an AB-kind of 360-degree range, Hetmyer’s power comes from both finding the gaps and backing himself for the shots he’s able to strike.
And in that rests his key. He probably isn’t your man if caressing the ball smoothly to beat the gaps was cricket being a Jazz-music concert for you. He’d play and miss; attempt the wild heave once in for a while; shuffle back to and fro and then, produce a rocky punch off the backfoot to even the sweetest delivery there is.
Shimron Hetmyer: What’s special?
With a carefree, very Calypso approach, Hetmyer raises his willow in a bid to heap tons of runs; for that’s how he likes to approach a game.
Good numbers have already shown on his resume, with feats like scoring a fiery forty, quick-fire fifty and, a mighty fast hundred appearing like good grades on his CPL report card. It also, then proves that Shoaib Malik wasn’t wrong about expecting big stuff from this 21-year-old.
But for Hetmyer to pass with flying colours in the remaining examination of sorts, he’d be expected to carry forward his unflustered body language.
It’s something that he’ll once again display, effectively in the next few hours as he will be taking the guard in a do-or-die for his Guyana.
In the twilight moment for the CPL 2018, it’s Shimron Hetmyer’s shadow, that of a chilled bloke, not a nervous wreck, looms threateningly on the finalist; not Gayle’s, not Bravo’s, not Pollard’s either.
In a series that was meant to have been Bravo taking wickets and athletic catches as if it were a DJ jiving in a club, where it seemed the other Bravo was on a six-hitting spree and, where Powell, Rahkeem, and Pollard were the big fishes, Hetmyer’s been a shark.
What’s also been a fitting sight has been the support of Rudderford that’s helped Shimron Hetmyer to hunt in pairs.
While the suddenness with which he’s upped the ante of an often bowling-reliant Guyana this season exposes anyone who suggested that Guyana Amazon Warriors were always there to make it to the finals.
Shimron Hetmyer needs to come good again
It also proves that those who thought Guyana had the physicality and batting experience to take the game away from the likes of (potential series-winners) biggies such as Jamaica and Barbados aren’t averse to lying.
While some may still resort to undermining Guyana Amazon Warriors, the free-stroking left-hander, who’s given more smiles to West Indian fans than a more experienced and an even bigger striker of the ball- Evin Lewis- failed to, all this season, can only be expected to keep trying.
After all, it’s just about one final chance at staking a claim in a meaningful glory, isn’t it?
How else can one describe the importance of this series for a team that collectively is yet to make giant strides ahead in stealing away a prominent series?