cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, the helicopter shot is the act of hitting the

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

by means of a wristy flick, using the bottom-hand as the dominant force. The shot gets its name from the flourish completing the stroke, with the

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

being circled overhead. It has been considered an unconventional and innovative stroke which, when executed effectively, can be used to score boundaries, even against good

yorker In cricket, a yorker is a ball bowled (a delivery) which bounces by the batsman's feet. This makes it very challenging for a batter to play. When a batsman assumes a normal stance, a yorker generally bounces on the cricket pitch on or near th ...

s or fuller-length deliveries, which have traditionally been used by faster bowlers towards the end of limited-overs matches because it is difficult to hit such balls to the boundary.

Mohammad Azharuddin Mohammad Azharuddin (born 8 February 1963) is an Indian politician and a former cricketer who also served as the Indian national cricket team's captain. He was a right-handed middle order batter and an occasional medium fast bowler. He playe ...

played a shot similar to the helicopter shot against the South African team in 1990 at

Eden Gardens Eden Gardens is an international cricket stadium in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. Established in 1864, it is the oldest and second-largest cricket stadium in India and third-largest in the world. The stadium currently has a capacity of 68,000. ...

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who List of India national cricket captains#Men's cricket, captained the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer ...

, Aravinda Silva,

Kevin Pietersen Kevin Peter Pietersen (born 27 June 1980) is a former England international cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest England batsmen to have played the game, and renowned for his competitive, and often controversial nature. He was a ri ...

Chamara Silva Lindamlilage Prageeth Chamara Silva (; born 14 December 1979) is a former Sri Lankan people, Sri Lankan cricketer, who played all formats of the game for 12 years. He is a right-handed batsman and a leg-break bowler. He has been compared with A ...

, Abdul Razzaq are some of those players who played similar shots, although, they all just played on the merit of the ball and not intentionally as a particular shot itself and that too for only once or twice. The shot got its name and fame through M. S. Dhoni, who played it on a regular basis as a way to score boundaries against full and yorker length deliveries. It was a fellow player

Santosh Lal Santosh Lal (4 December 1983 – 17 July 2013) was an Indian cricketer. He played eight first-class matches for Jharkhand between 2004 and 2008. He was a childhood friend of MS Dhoni, whom he taught how to play the helicopter shot. Lal di ...

, a childhood friend of Dhoni, who taught him how to play the shot.

References

{{Reflist Cricket terminology Batting (cricket)

See also

References