XVI.—The late cut: right foot well across, left leg extended.
against slow bowling, especially if this breaks much, on a slow or caking wicket; for it needs very accurate timing.
In this late-cut the right leg is moved back and across the wicket (see Photograph XIV. of Shrewsbury’s legs), so that the left leg and foot now does what the right leg and foot do for the other strokes—namely, serve as a pivot. Some move the right foot and then make the stroke; I believe Ranjitsinhji generally prefers this plan. Others, like Abel, often make the stroke as a single movement. Others use now one plan and now the other. Anyhow the weight passes from the left on to the right leg, which is bent. Shrewsbury, in the photograh ([XV.]), is allowing his left foot to rise slightly on its ball. Contrast Abel, in XVI.
He does not alter his ordinary grip, and he uses his wrists a good deal; others let their right hand slide down the handle towards the blade, and sometimes let their left hand slide after it. The bat strikes downwards, passing about twelve inches over the wicket.
The direction of the cut is most important: this depends partly on the presence or absence of a wrist movement, partly, as Ranjitsinhji says, on the moment at which one strikes the ball—the earlier hit goes squarer (nearer to point), the later hit goes finer (nearer to short slip).
The late-cut involves not a little risk. It may be well at the beginning of an innings to study the art of
LEAVING BALLS ALONE.
A good length or “blind” ball on the off-side, and a certain kind of bumping long hop (almost out of one’s reach) are intended for a catch behind the wicket. Some may be cut or driven, but it would be safer to let a few pass by (unless they are going to break in) till one sees what they are doing. The continued practice of this plan is not for the good of Cricket as a form of sport.