Michael Bevan calls it a day

I was quite fond of Ajay Jadeja & Robin Singh and Mohammad Kaif & Yuvraj Singh. They would never drive the crowds crazy with their superlative strokes, they just didn't have the repertoire of a Sachin Tendulkar or Rickey Ponting. But they pulled off something else, something far more important, far more romantic - a victory for your team. They got teams over the line . Like while chasing 245, Sachin would depart at a crucial juncture ( after making a well-crafted hundred for which he would be later given the MOM) leaving the match on the tenterhooks. And from there, it would be my pair which would each make a smallish 20 or 30, paltry enough to not win them the MOM, but big enough for the team to cross the line - towards a win.

If Michael Bevan had been playing for Mumbai and not for NSW, for India and not for Australia, chances are, I would have easily dismissed the above four gentlemen. Michael gwyl Bevan was a master at the game of crossing the line - he was a winner.

Bevan never bothered about the boundaries if the situation didn't need him to. If the chase demanded an asking rate of 7, Bevan would get the 7th one by converting a single into a two. Greater (or lesser, depending on how you think) men would have prerered playing the odd dot ball coupled with a boundary. You don't need to be an ex- test cricketer to figure out what worked better. Bevan showed it time and again - and his contribution to the current run of Australia's ODI success has been truly underplayed and underrecognised.

After a glittering career consisting of 232 one-dayers, 6912 runs at a phenomenal average of 53.38 and 2 World Cup triumphs, Michael Bevan announced his retirement today in Hobart. My salutations to this great cricketer.

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In case Indian cricket fans are wondering, the man-in-blue is indeed Michael Bevan, and not Yuvraj Singh!!