Billings takes satisfaction in epic show of restraint

Gloucestershire 221 and 34 for 4 (Stevens 3-11) trail Kent 533 for 6 dec (Billings 171, Stevens 140) by 278 runsScorecard

“Look, if you bought Stones tickets and Jagger didn’t play Satisfaction, how would you feel? Would you be happy?”

So asks Dustin Hoffman of Jon Favreau in the film Chef: the former a restauranteur desperate to turnaround an ailing business – the latter a chef searching for a deeper meaning to life. Favreau says no. Hoffman agrees: “You’d burn the place to the f****ng ground!”

The reverse sweep is Sam Billings’ “Satisfaction”: a hit he has at his fingertips, able to be unleashed at any time. Fans go into games expecting him to play it and many leave disappointed when he doesn’t. It has become synonymous with his name: “Billings” and “reverse sweep” together paints a very vivid picture of quick footwork and faster hands, in one smooth yet devastating movement.

But Billings is keen to show that, particularly in red-ball cricket, he is so much more than a player who panders to the New Age crowd. Speaking at stumps, after striking 171 from 202 balls for his third first-class hundred – a second for Kent – he was in reflective mood: “You don’t want to play the way people think you should play, or just allow people to talk about you in just one way. Actually, sometimes I want to be the one that can grit it out and stand up. I’m not just going to panic and bring out the sweep.”

Together, he and Darren Stevens stood higher than any other, as they amassed Kent’s highest fifth-wicket stand in Championship cricket, beating a previous best of 254 set way back in 1910 against Lancashire in Tunbridge Wells, with shots that might have caused fainting in the aisles. Even umpire Alex Wharf made the point to Billings at the non-striker’s end – rarely will you see two attacking players go blow for blow without …

continue reading in source www.espncricinfo.com