Cricket making notes - post match

Over the years reading the odd book here and there I've heard accounts about Wrist-Spinners that make detailed notes about the batsmen that they have to face. Clarrie Grimmett being one of them as I recall.

These days I guess the statisticians do a lot of that for them and you hear stories about bowlers and coaches reviewing footage of batsmen prior to and after games. Unless you've got a very committed Mum/Dad or friend who know their way around a digital camera, this isn't going to be possible to this extent. But over the last couple of days I've heard about some good 'Old school' practice that is conducted by some fairly surprising bowlers.

Today is the 2nd day of the 2nd test - England v Virat Kholi's India at Lords and it's the 2nd day where it's rained all day so far, although this morning about 20 minutes were played and 3 of India's wickets fell. So, with no play yesterday, BBC Radio 5 Live test match special did a series of interviews with players and ex-players with a focus on Spin Bowling. One of the things that came out of this was Ravi Ashwin mentioning that every time he plays, as soon as he can - after the game he makes detailed notes with regards what the batsmen did - their strengths and weaknesses etc. He said as this helps him make critical adjustments to his approach to the individual batsmen - increasing his chance of winning the battle.

In the same studio Graeme Swanne and Michael Atherton (who bowled a bit of Wrist-Spin in his time), both reiterated how important this is as part of your Reflective Practice and development as an effective bowler.

We even as club players can do the same.

1. You need to be watching the game and the batsmen even before you bowl - maybe talk to your captain and or talk to more experienced players around you and get their opinions quickly between overs and definitely at the end of the game or during drinks breaks... "What do you reckon his strongest shot is"? or "Where do you reckon he's most vulnerable"? Those kind of questions. The more you play the more you'll start to recognise such things and be able to put strategies into place.

2. Bowl your spell to your plan - based on what you've observed before bowling and make a mental note of what happens during your spell.

3. As soon as you've finished - write your notes and draw diagrams by way of explanation.

4. Maybe even consider approaching the batsmen and talk to them about your bowling and their batting, make sure you flatter them to some extent to bring them 'On-side' so you can extract any good nuggets of feed-back that might be useful or even a compliment or two! I find at my level they're happy to talk to you as a Wrist-Spinner because they rarely see it in games and it provides a good test and battle for them. Make notes on what they say if it's useful.

5. Finally make a note of their name or - if you're as mad and obsessive as me take a photograph of them to keep with your notes, to help you remember next time you come up against the bloke.

Next time you play that team dig your notes and in the meantime you'd have come up with a plan. Keep your fingers crossed that it's you that bowls to him - beg the captain for a chance to bowl at him and put your plan into practice.

Obviously, me being me I take it a whole step further, the notes are converted into digital versions and I share the whole thing with the rest of the world - see here...

https://battinganalysis.blogspot.com/

and here...

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/2017/10/batsmen-of-sedcb-region-and-how-to-get.html