This
was definitely the 'Ato Boldon heat' of Outside the Line's search for the ultimate cricket shot. Remember how Ato Boldon was near the top of the sprinting world for more than a
decade, always competing against the best, always making it to the podium, and yet
he never actually won anything?
(From my entire childhood, all I remember vividly
about athletics was Bob Beamon's long jump record, Michael Johnson's 19.32 in Atlanta, and Ato Boldon getting either a
silver or a bronze. First to Frankie Federicks and Linford Christie, then
to Donovan Bailey, then to Maurice Green, then to Tim Montgomery... Ato was
always second prettiest at someone else's ball. He's a strange kind of legend -- good enough to remember, but never good enough to be
best.)
It seems VVS Laxman will be playing the Ato Boldon role in this competition. 
Laxman cruises easily into the final with his gentle clip off the pads, but there's no doubt who was No. 1 here. With half the vote, Sachin Tendulkar's straight drive commandeers ahead decisively, and looks as strong as anyone in the finals (Last week, we had Rahul Dravid's block and Mark Waugh's cover drive moving forward.)
Not much else to cheer beyond the two Indians. Jesus McChesty Matthew Hayden couldn't even a muster a single mercy vote, and goes back to Queensland empty-handed. (I'm sure he could catch a live shark with those bare hands anyway, so he won't remain that way for long.).
Jacques Kallis, however, definitely will not like the disappointing single-figure total for his masterly on-a-length leave. He came into this competition looking to keep his weekly poll average above 15%, yet he's failed to reach it by more than half. A rare lapse in concentration from old Zhaahck.
Last heat this week, and this one should be the tightest one. We need two more finalists. Options, as always, are on the right. Gotta rock the vote, yo.
Were there only 14 votes? It seems to be a lower vote tally than most of the polls I've seen on this blog.
Posted by: David Barry | July 07, 2008 at 08:16 PM
Tell me about it, DB. We don't know what to attribute it to... maybe the summer holidays in the northern hemisphere, maybe some people didn't realise it was a different poll from the week before, maybe we've just worn out our welcome in the cricket blogosphere. Who knows?
I was thinking of letting run for another week, but since the two finalists are obvious already, I didn't see a point to it.
Posted by: D.S. Henry | July 08, 2008 at 12:31 AM
Thankfully you've given Lara another chance to prove himself. I thought it was a bit stingy of you to present us with his play-and-miss as our only chance of getting him to the final!
Posted by: Conor Kissane | July 08, 2008 at 04:52 AM
How about a wild card entry for Viv Richards hook off his eyebrows for six?
Posted by: Kym | July 08, 2008 at 11:37 PM
Kym, I'm always up for a good write-in campaign. Consider your vote for Viv counted.
Posted by: D.S. Henry | July 09, 2008 at 12:08 AM
You know who played pretty shots...
Do you like to fight injustice?
Yes, that is truly an exceptional quality you have.
Please sign our Save Our Bill Lawry petition to keep the Corporate vultures from ending the career of our favourite excitable one.
http://www.petitiononline.com/SOBill/petition.html
Think of the children.
Posted by: jrod | July 15, 2008 at 12:41 AM
Shouldn't that be Uthappa's scoop? He actually won a one-day international with that in the last over. Misbah just lost a cup with it. Or perhaps that's why you picked Misbhah over Uthappa?
Posted by: Samir Chopra | July 16, 2008 at 09:35 AM