So what was the deal with Mal Loye and his sweep shots

[mr_mister]

This bloke comes to Australia one summer for the first time randomly in his mid 30s and makes it a habit to slog sweep our quicks once a match for 6 without doing much else.
It was so random. I've literally never seen a batsman play those shots against that pace before or since(we have the ramp and scoop now against pace but these were proper sweeps hit square of the wicket)And other than those shots he hardly scored a run that summer. I kept waiting for him to have a breakout innings all summer but it never came. Damn he looked good sweeping Brett Lee for six though.


Had he made a career in domestic English cricket playing this unique shot? Or only started doing it right before his run in the England side. Always intrigued me

 

[Prince EWS]

He developed it fairly late in his career from memory, but he'd been doing it for at least a couple of seasons before he was selected for ODIs.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I don't how often he actually did it with success, but yeah that one against Lee was awesome.

Probably more of an entertainment value thing than a legit "most effective batting method" thing, but cricket needs more of that IMO. Like KP's switch hits.

 

[mr_mister]

Just looking at YouTube now, it came off quite a few times, including against Lee, Bracken, McGrath and even Shane Bond. All hit for six with it

 

[TheJediBrah]

I must have a selective memory I only remember the Lee one and him getting sconned by McGrath

 

[Prince EWS]

Just looking at YouTube now, it came off quite a few times, including against Lee, Bracken, McGrath and even Shane Bond. All hit for six with it

He got Johnson as well.

 

[stephen]

I thought he tried to do it to McGrath and McGrath messed him up.

 

[Golden Horde]

I've always felt that he was treated unfairly. Especially given the sort of people who were playing ODIs for england those days He probably wouldnt have become a world beater, but 7 ODIs when Vaughan played more than 80 is cruel


He's missed but thankfully we now have Phil Salt to give us a few "is this guy mad?"moments

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/865985268213592065/pu/vid/316x180/Kxx3WdMIgiFGeZWU.mp4

 

[cpr]

Sweeping a fast bowler is no mean feat, neither is finding a Brett Lee ball low enough to sweep.

 

[turnstyle]

Bloke played for my club back in oz around the late 90's and had a couple of big seasons (and some not so big) before disappearing back to England. We were just as surprised to see him randomly turning out for England years later let alone play something like that.

 

[Prince EWS]

Bloke played for my club back in oz around the late 90's and had a couple of big seasons (and some not so big) before disappearing back to England. We were just as surprised to see him randomly turning out for England years later let alone play something like that.

I remember reading that if he hadn't got that unexpected England ODI call-up, he was strongly considering turning out for Ireland (through some sort of heritage) at the World Cup that followed. I think it was the one they broke out in with their win over Pakistan. I wonder if he rued his England call-up at all watching that.

 

[turnstyle]

I remember reading that if he hadn't got that unexpected England ODI call-up, he was strongly considering turning out for Ireland (through some sort of heritage) at the World Cup that followed. I think it was the one they broke out in with their win over Pakistan. I wonder if he rued his England call-up at all watching that.

I think almost every fringe county player at the time with an Irish grandparent was trying the same thing. I'm glad we didn't go down that path for too long. Coincidentally Jeremy Bray played in our first team the year after I left.

 

[cpr]

He was really peeved at how England treated him after that series, felt he deserved another shot at the side for sure. He'd been putting in some pretty good seasons for Lancs so his call up was less out of the blue, more finally gets the chance he's earned. Had previously been a damn good FC batsman for Northants too.

 

[_Ed_]

Was a beast in multiple early versions of ICC.

 

[Flem274*]

i loved this guy in the commonwealth bank series

 

[Prince EWS]

I think almost every fringe county player at the time with an Irish grandparent was trying the same thing.

Haha yeah but Ireland were telling most of them to GAGF, while simultaneously actively pursuing Loye, IIRC. I'll try to find an article.

 

[Top_Cat]

He got Johnson as well.

Was the best of them, personally.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Just looking at YouTube now, it came off quite a few times, including against Lee, Bracken, McGrath and even Shane Bond. All hit for six with it

he only made 142 ODI runs, at this rate a fair chunk of them must have been purely from slog-sweeping the quicks.

Only averaged 20 as well. If he had 5-6 that he hit for 6 and was only out, say, once (or not at all?) then he probably should have just stuck to doing that. Numerically far more successful than the rest of his batting.

 

[Prince EWS]

he only made 142 ODI runs, at this rate a fair chunk of them must have been purely from slog-sweeping the quicks.

Only averaged 20 as well. If he had 5-6 that he hit for 6 and was only out, say, once (or not at all?) then he probably should have just stuck to doing that. Numerically far more successful than the rest of his batting.

He hit five ODI sixes, I think we've identified the five (Mister's four + Johnson) unless one or two of them were actually one bounce fours or something.

 

[TheJediBrah]

He hit five ODI sixes, I think we've identified the five (Mister's four + Johnson) unless one or two of them were actually one bounce fours or something.

That's still ~30 runs from slog-sweeping quicks without being dismissed (I'm assuming), compared to a career average of about 16 using other shots. Coach should have told him to put everything else away and just focus on the slog sweeps.