We all know that cricket is among one of the most-viewed and most-watched sports across the globe. The Gentleman’s Game is fast spreading across different parts of the globe, which is a clear indication of the sport reaching more people across the globe and giving more exposure to the other countries that are starting off.
While the game itself is not difficult to understand, there are a lot of underlying technical terms which means that new followers of the sport do find it a little complicated at times, especially fielding positions. With that in mind, we will be here explaining fielding positions over the course of time. And today we will start with one of the most common and most basic positions of them all: The slips.
A slip is basically a fielder who is placed beside the keeper at a particular angle. The term gained prominence after many captains observed that only a wicketkeeper behind the stumps was not really a foolproof plan of action, with him not able to cover the entire length of space by himself. Also, it was seen that the keepers were culpable of fumbling the ball, so the captains thought it would be best if they placed a couple of fielders there in order to avoid any ‘slip’ by the keeper. And thus came the coinage of the term Slips.
In modern cricket, the slips are a tactical and psychological ploy to assert dominance over the batting side to take full advantage of the seaming and swinging conditions. Recently, Ben Stokes took a rather aggressive call against New Zealand in a test match, keeping not 1 or 2, but SIX slips, which bought a lot of cricket purists salivating at the thought of this latest resurgence in Test Cricket.
In modern cricket, Rahul Dravid and Mark Waugh are considered to be two of the greatest slip fielders of all time. Dravid holds the record for having the most slip catches in Test Cricket. Standing at slips requires a lot of mental and physical endurance because such is the nature of the position, you stand for hours with nothing coming towards you, and then out of nowhere, there is a ball flying at you, which is why it is the need of the hour to be alert at all times.
Some of the greatest and match-changing catches have been taking at slip. Dinesh Karthik took a blinder in the 2007 T20 World Cup vs South Africa to dismiss Graeme Smith, thus changing the outcome of the match.
So this was all about the slip position in cricket. Do tune in for more to know about the other positions.
