A paddle scoop is a modern cricketing shot, similar to the Marillier shot, used more and more often in One Day International and Twenty20 cricket matches since appearing in the early 21st century. The shot is performed by positioning the body square-on with the ball; with both feet pointing towards the bowler at a perpendicular angle. The bat is used to deflect the ball over the batsman's leg side shoulder thus guiding the ball towards the fine leg region.
The shot is regarded to be very unorthodox and not usually included in coaching manuals and textbooks. Many purists suggest that it is not a true, graceful cricketing shot and often describe it as "ugly". But when executed well, the "paddle-scoop" is very useful. This is often because the shot can be used on a delivery that is usually regarded to be a good "line and length" delivery and otherwise a delivery that is difficult to score runs on.
Also, the area where the ball is guided to is often unpatrolled by a fielder and since the bowler's pace on the ball (which is faster than the pace imparted by a batsman's hitting) is being used to send it to the boundary, a fielder may still find it difficult to cover more than a couple of yards either side of him or herself to stop the ball because of its momentum.
This shot requires a lot of excellent hand-eye coordination and bravery, especially against the faster bowlers where a miss can not only result in the batsmen being dismissed but also the ball inflicting serious injury on the batsman because the ball can be hit into his head. However, if the shot is used occasionally as a calculated risk, it can be very frustrating to the fielding side's captain because putting a fielder in that position to stop a "paddle scoop" can often present gaps and scoring opportunities in other areas in the field where scoring is in fact easier.
Batsmen that are known to play such shots frequently in international cricket include Robin Uthappa (India), Mohammad Ashraful (Bangladesh), Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan) and Brendon McCullum (New Zealand).
Ashraful is frequently remembered to have scored couple of boundaries by playing this shot which helped Bangladesh win the game against South Africa in the venue of Providence, Guyana in the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Misbah is often remembered to have attempted the paddle-scoop in the last over of the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa against India in the final. The shot was not timed correctly, causing the ball to go high in the air and be caught by Sreesanth at short fine leg, resulting in India beating the Pakistan to win the first-ever T20 World Cup.