2nd week of pre-season nets

This week just the net session at Writtle.

What happened ___________________________________________________________
 Batted and bowled much in the same mode as last week with pretty much the same scenarios. Intended to have a look at different aspects of my bowling.

How do I feel it went?_______________________________________________________
Any batting practice for me is good batting practice, the bowling is always going to be sketchy in nets and it's difficult to remain focused on any plans made, but it did go okay. Generally it was good.

What was good/bad?________________________________________________________       Apart from partly being put off my intentions by the way the batters bat, I did get to the stage where I executed some of my intentions, so that was good. Batting I was also happy with for the most part.

Analysis____________________________________________________________________
So, there was a plan (See last weeks net post). I'd seen the bloke batting and he had a definite approach whereby he was hitting almost every ball through the off-side and doing so with relative ease. All the shots were between the area indicated by the mustard colour whereas I'd have preferred him playing through the region B, but this was obviously his preferred approach as he played almost everyone in the same way.

I kind of have to dismiss what happens in the nets to some extent, because (1). The bounce and the way the ball comes off the surface is consistent. (2). The batters don't generally play in the same extravagant way in a game.

The amount of turn off the wicket was petty consistent and my speed being what it is the bloke was playing the line, assuming the ball was going to pitch outside of off stump and either play a straight forward cut shot or a late cut back of point. All the time I bowled this line, he was more than up to getting the ball through the off-side zone indicated with relatively powerful shots, some were in the air and would have risked being caught.

Looking at the shots he played, the bloke at 3rd man (5) could have come squarer - more deep backward point, but slightly in off the boundary.

There's an adage that I came across recently with regards fielding it may have been in Bob Woolmers Art and science of Cricket... "Don't move a fielder in response to something the batsman has done unless it's an attacking option". So to bring the 3rd man into the backward of point position would I guess be far more pro-active in this scenario?

Having seen how strong he was through the off-side I threw up a couple looking to come in from just out-side of the leg-stump attacking the middle stump, one I remember - trusting the bounce and knowing how much I was turning my stock-legbreak he stepped across the stumps to the off-side and hit the ball through the square-leg zone which would have been fielded for a single by No.3 fielder in the deep.

Having seen all this, as discussed previously in last weeks blog post, this is where I needed at least one variation. So early in the season with no real opportunities as yet to practice, this was going to be the opportunity to try the top-spinner. It worked - first ball, expecting the ball to turn away from him he stepped back to play one of his aggressive cut-shots and the ball (1) didn't turn so he was immediately cramped up (2) the bounce was exaggerated because the top-spinner dips. The shot was completely mis-timed and ballooned up into the air to potentially be caught by the fielder at 8 (Cover). In a game scenario, you'd imagine that the batter would then become a little more circumspect with regards playing in such an aggressive manner thereafter if he valued his wicket.

Action Plan________________________________________________________
This reinforces the need for at least one variation if not two. As with last year, I'm probably going to work with 2 variations as well as a series of leg-break sub-variations . The one delivery that I want to be able to execute well and be confident to bowl in games is the Top-Spinner, so in the short term over the coming weeks as I work on my fitness I'll be bowling more top-spinners. So, at home while I'm flicking the ball keeping the fingers supple and always working on muscle memory for the wrist and flick action and in the nets I may look at only bowling top-spin this coming session to try and develop and improve the release and the seam alignment.


Needless to say there are shed loads of people that know far more than me so you should have a look around and read more on the theories and tactics https://www.pitchvision.com/complete-guide-to-cricket-field-settings#/