Ben Cutting has been known for his big hitting skills, punishing the bowler for missing the length by a margin and smashing the ball way out of the ground. Cutting came to bat in the death overs during a JLT Cup match between Queensland and Tasmania. The right-handed batsman took on James Faulkner in the 49th over of the innings. He shuffled across the stumps and struck the full-pitched delivery over deep midwicket for a mighty hit. The ball went onto the Blundstone Arena roof and the commentator could not control his emotion. TV presenter Pete Lazer described it as a ‘4,312 metre six’. Lazer also said that it was the biggest shot he has seen in a while.
Though Faulkner had the last laugh as he got the wicket of Cutting on the very next ball as he tried to go for another big hit. The 30-year-old scored just 8 runs from 4 balls including a monstrous hit. Queensland were able to post a total of 339 for 9 in the first innings which turned out to be too good for Tasmania. The latter could only score 256 runs before getting bundled out in the 49th over.
Despite the toss, the Tasmanian batsmen were able to get the better of Cutting on several occasions. The all-rounder took two wickets in his full quota of 10 overs but ended up giving 81 runs. Cameron Boyce went all guns blazing against him scoring 52 runs from 31 balls including 2 fours and four sixes.
It was a team effort from Queensland batsmen posting a mammoth total. Marnus Labuschagne, Sam Heazlett and Joe Burns scored half-centuries but could not convert them into centuries. Whereas Jimmy Pierson and Usman Khawaja missed their half-centuries scoring 43 runs and 41 runs respectively.
Cutting has been a valuable asset for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 contributing with both ball and bat. He might get big bucks for his big hitting in the IPL 2018 auction.
