What happened?_______________________________________
First game of the season played in the 2nd XI
against Eastwood 2nd XI at Belfairs Park just outside of Southend on
sea. Weather was grim – westerly at 35-45mph with the temp around 12-15 degrees
e.g. bloody cold, whereas the weekend before had been 25 degrees
and one of the
hottest Easters ever. Both sides were short of players and we both played with
10 a side. More details can be found at www.bowlingplans.blogspot.com
where you’ll find detailed analysis of the batsmen.
How do I feel it
went?___________________________________
Given that over the weeks and months leading up to this game
I’ve been feeling really old and unready, it went surprisingly well. In the last
2 weeks or so I’ve been bowling and getting fit and it seems to have paid off
as I bowled relatively straight and got myself 2 wickets… One bowled and one stumped.
Evaluation – what was
good/bad?_________________________
Despite the fact that we lost by about 30 or so runs it was
an enjoyable game. The rain didn’t dampen our enthusiasm and we stayed out
through the handful of drizzly episodes. For some reason, given the short format
of 40 overs I thought I wouldn’t get to bowl especially as they had two other
spinners (Finger-spin)... John “Moondog” Beford and Rob Brooks, but in the end I
had 6 overs which I was happy with. I took two wickets and bowled relatively
good areas which I was happy about. The opposition were a decent bunch of
blokes as well and the game was played in a good spirit. The only bad aspects
were the previously mentioned weather and the
fact that the games are so short in this league, but we'll just have to get used to it.
Analysis______________________________________________
From my perspective as a slow bowler the first observation
on arrival was that the cut strip was over to one side meaning the Westerly
boundary was short, so I really wanted to bowl from the southerly end so that
leg-side shots had to be hit harder to get to the boundary. The night before
I’d checked the weather and knew that the wind would be westerly, so there was
also the fact that bowling from the southern end would mean that although there
was a much bigger boundary the batsman had the wind behind the ball, whereas at
the other end they’d have to hit into the wind with the short boundary. In the
end I was given the northern A127 end so had the short into the wind boundary to contend with.
Click on the image to open more detailed image and analysis of individual batsmen.
With 10 players the field which was set by my captain Chris
Debond was pretty conventional with no slip. See diagram here above. I had no
input and the only change that was made was a slight change in square leg – he
went deeper onto the boundary and that worked really well keeping shots through
there down to singles.
Almost all of the players with the exception of the opener (who I didn’t bowl at), seemed to have as their primary shots the clip off the
legs through the area which is hatched on the diagram below. For more detailed
analysis of individual batsmen see
I was kind of caught off guard a little as I didn’t expect
to bowl, but in the end I got 6 overs which was nice and I went for 6-0-31-2.
The
key here was to bowl a middle and off-stump line turning the ball away from the
outside edge and I didn’t really notice quickly enough how effective this was
until I’d been hit a few times through the leg-side. As soon as I adopted this
approach the runs dried up and almost every ball was either threatening to be
caught behind or hit the off-stump. There were a lot of play and
misses, primarily because the variation in turn off the wicket, this wicket
turns if you’re spinning the ball hard!
My wickets came about in both instances through the batsmen
taking an aggressive approach. The first one occurred seemingly after a
conversation between Ciaran Turner (7) and R.Ruffell (4) where it appeared that they agreed a more aggressive
approach was required. This is at a point where Ciaran was hitting Finger spinner Chris Brooks for
4’s and 6’s on the leg-side. Ruffell's momentum at this point had stalled slightly.
Ruffell then came
out of his crease a little looking to play a big straight shot and the ball
might have drifted? As it seemed to be on around leg-stump. The ball turned and
hit middle and off having gone through the gate.
The 2nd wicket was very similar. I bowled the final over and it started
with the score on 194 and the umpire was saying that they wanted 6 off my last
over to get to the psychological target of 200. By the last ball the bloke
needed 4 and he too came bounding down the wicket and ran straight past the
ball for Daniel Vanderputt to whip the bails off.
There was a really daft passage of play against P.Bartlett
who scored a number of 4’s off of me and I didn’t make any adjustments for it.
On reflection I can’t remember being that bothered by it, seemingly because I
had my mind focused on getting the other bloke out? It might have been that I realised
the Flipper would have been the solution, but I've currently got a cut on my finger and couldn't deploy it. So I kept bowling the same ball for which he
had a solution for. I’m blaming it on the cold and saying that my brain wasn’t
functioning at full capacity because of it! But I’ve got a plan for the next
encounter. The important thing is to at least have a plan.
During the game one of our players came up to me at the
end of an over and said something along the lines of… “It’s like you’re getting
too much turn… you need a straight ball as well”. Absolutely! John “Moondog”
Bedford in the same game took 4, bowling off-breaks and arm balls. I was
fielding at slip and saw so many ball go past the outside of the bat when I was
expecting them to be beating the inside of the bat! So it appeared that he’d
shown them the ball that comes in and then from then on they were looking for
that ball and instead it was just missing the off-stump. So he’d created utter
confusion with just one variation supporting his off-break.
I do have variations – Flippers x
2 – The standard bog standard up-right seam back-spinner and a back-spinning
off-break. Both very different to the leg-breaks. The other variation is a
Top-spinning leg-break with a lot more over-spin which can go straight on with
a lot more bounce and pace. This is the one I’m working on in practice all the time
at the moment as I’m looking for it to be totally up-right… e.g. a pure Top-Spinner. The only reason I didn’t
use these in the game in this instance was that I’ve got cuts on my fingers
that need to heal before I can bowl the Flippers and I’m not quite happy with
the over-spun leg-break at the moment.
My practice regime at the moment
involves bowling sequences of 2 flippers, followed by a leg-break ad infinitum.
The flipper is a far more accurate ball and much faster. A slower variation
bowled at the pace of the leg-breaks has so much back-spin that it almost stops
and often bounces a 2nd time before the stumps, so would be called a
no-ball!
Eliminate the bad balls: I was thinking about the reasons I and
others bowl bad balls at the start of an over. You might have noticed elsewhere
on the blog I’m concerned about my heart at the moment and I’ve become far more
aware of my heart rate in different situations. In this game as soon as I was
given the nod that I’d be bowling I noticed that my heart rate went up
dramatically and then calmed slightly to go up again as my first over arrived. Aware
of this and having watched so many Shane Warne videos where he endorses the
need to relax it kind of make sense that the more up-tight you are and tense
you are the more likely you are to get it wrong initially when you bowl your
first over. With what we do, we know far too well that there’s a massive
expectation that you’re going to be spraying the ball all over the place –
wides, too full, too flat, drag-downs and more. I would imagine every
wrist-spinner has had these situations occur and looked at their stats at the
end of the game and seen that their average compared to all the other types of
bowling is way higher. Often you’re left looking at the data thinking we lost
the game because of my bowing.
Generally we know that if we can
have 3 overs there’s a good chance that we’ll settle and get into a rhythm and
bowl well. Trouble is, that usually relies on having a relatively decent first
3 overs in order that the stress doesn’t go up during that phase. If we’re
smashed for 6’s or 4’s in those three
overs it’s very difficult to keep a lid on your psychological state and
therefore your performance as you’re far from relaxed and you can see the
captain weighing up whether he’s going to allow you to continue.
So what can we do to try and
alleviate this problem?
(1). Bowl at your mate.
(2). Be aware of your heart rate
and try the idea below.
One thing I’ve adopted in the last
season and now do every time now, is get the attention of one of my fielders
mid-off or Mid-on and bowl a couple of balls at them. I’ve found that it
settles the nerves a little and makes you feel more confident that you’re going
to get it down the middle on the wicket when you bowl that 3rd ball
at the batsman.
Recently and I’m talking literally
in the last day or so I’ve adapted my practice regime to try and explore the
idea of bowling with an increased heart rate to try and re-create a similar
scenario when you’re standing at the top of your mark with your heart pounding.
I now run up and down the strip as fast as possible and then rest for a moment
and try and bowl accurately with a fast heat rate. I then bowl six balls and
then repeat that 3 or 4 times. In practice it seems to be okay and I’m still able
to execute decent deliveries despite the fact that my hearts beaten so fast.
I’m going to continue to do this over the coming weeks and see if it transfers
to the game scenario and makes any difference?
I’ve also found these which are
far more specific to cricket and offer solutions and ideas.
There’s a lot of useful info on
this website, so it’s worth having a look around.
Action Plan
·
As above, I’ll continue to practice with the
excited heart rate at the start of my practice sessions.
·
Work on the Top-Spinner trying to get it so that
it’s a perfectly straight Top-Spinner as opposed to an over-spun leg-break.
·
Look to practice at least an hour a day.
·
Continue with fitness and agility training.
·
Try out some of the approaches mentioned on the
website above and see if they have any impact on the next game.
This is their pavilion. Double click on the image to see a Typology of pavilions from different places within the country.
