Natalie Sciver innovates the 'Natmeg' shot

With the advent of the Dilscoops, the switch hits, and sweeping and reverse sweeping fast bowlers, the game keeps on surprises us with new shots. England Women’s middle over batter Natalie Sciver also contributed to the game of cricket by giving a name to a new kind of shot in cricket. Yesterday, we witnessed a new kind of shot known as ‘Natmeg’ which has its connection to football and named after Natalie.

Sciver becomes the only the second batter after Tillakaratne Dilshan to have shot named after her. The idea of nutmeg is done dribble the ball between the space of two legs of the defender, thereby, achieving the greatest deception through skills. The likes of Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have sold many tickets with their nutmeg skills.

Similarly, in a match between the White Ferns and the Three Lions yesterday, Sciver executed a shot she was practising for a while now and the ICC World Cup Twitter handle was quick to upload the video of the shot, thereby, providing with the nomenclature of the shot.

Hitting a full ball is one of the most difficult things to do in cricket. Only of you are a Dhoni, you can play the helicopter shot to deposit the ball into the stands. With this new shot, one can use the pace of the bowler to find the gap and score a boundary near fine leg.

After giving herself some room outside the leg stump, Sciver had to do something about the ball darting in towards her shoes. The right-hander glided the ball with the closed face of the bat, in between her legs, to place the ball bisecting fine leg and Deep square leg boundary. This shot would be known as ‘Natmeg’ shot for future reference.

Here’s the video:

Introducing the Natmeg shot! Great innovation by @englandcricket‘s @natsciver! #WWC17 pic.twitter.com/XGRmxd2PwH

— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) July 12, 2017