Rayleigh cc had a 'Cricket week' last week and we got a game with them. Because it was mid-week... 40 over game on Wednesday our team was a mix of players of all levels with 3 blokes from the 1st XI and the rest of us as I recall mainly from the 5th and 4th XI and mostly small boys. They had a similar set up - perhaps slightly weaker, but a number of good batsmen and as per usual it was me at the fore-front of the bowling against said good batters!
We've had some new nets built at our club and I'm a key holder and not wanting them to stand idle I've been opening them up Tuesday and Thursday 10-12 and bowling a lot and getting a few Leg-breaks bowled with a good degree of success. Seemingly by not over-thinking and complicating what I'm doing other than ensuring I get up on my toes at FFC/BR. For some reason out of nowhere my accuracy has got so much better along with a bit of pace??? I think it helps if I mix them up with the Flippers too which I suppose is stating the obvious.
A key moment came in the Rayleigh game. The captain was Jon Bonnett and he's also the WK and whilst bowling he came down to speak to me at my end and said 'Don't just bowl your Flippers - throw in some Leggies'. Now that was a good show of confidence! Making it a more realistic prospect was the fact that behind me I had a bloke called 'Swiz' another keeper and a 1st XI player. You may have read previously that I stopped bowling Leg-Breaks because despite the fact that I could easily force the batters into rash and mis-timed shots, I never had anyone who could catch the balls. In this game, with Jon's encouragement I bowled a few and the batters were unable to pay them and then one bloke came after me - coming down the wicket and hit the ball back over my head, but far more up than along. Swiz - who was about 1/4 of the way around the ground ran God knows how many yards - settled himself beneath the ball and pouched it... Wicket with a Leg-break!
In recent weeks, I've bowled against some pretty good batters in the nets and done pretty well against them. The unfortunate thing is I think I've only got 2 games left now to try and put this into practice in a game situation and when I do it'll be without the wicket keeping of Jon Bonnett and 1st XI fielding. But... just mixing it up may bring more LBW's and bowled's from Flippers. Oh yeah in that game I had one of the most plumb LBW's I've ever been refused and had a dolly of a catch dropped at fine leg (1/2 way up) off a leg-break.
Aug 16th 2022
Today, I've taken diagrams to nets now of my field settings and showed the batters and said that's my field, do what you can. This is the one below, I used today against some decent younger players who I always feel have a propensity to show no respect to a wrist-spinner and generally will go for big leg-side shots.
This did work okay, but it turned out that coming around the wicket and bowling a mix of Leg- Breaks and Flippers, the batters suddenly confessed that they found my bowling difficult to face and that in-fact they both felt that their leg-side shots were a weak component of their batting.
But if I strayed at all towards the off-side they were able to get shots away through the cover region.
This field is an adaption of the one here which I was bowling to in winter nets with some success https://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/2022/03/im-still-here-2022-pre-season-nets.html
I then adapted the field, moving 9 into a deep cover point region (see below) and this simple move made a significant difference.
They, then with the massive gap offered down the ground in the V looked then to score driving straight - coming out of their ground and edging the ball to the keeper. Of all the potential dismissals, I felt that stumped was potentially the most fruitful, but there were caught-behind with balls outside of leg hitting the bat or gloves going through to the keeper and several clean-bowled with the Flipper. The Flipper remember - staying low in complete opposition to the Leg-Break which can be bowled with more over-spin and therefore a lot more bounce.
I reckon in a game situation you're going to need to be confident and be able to hold your nerve and buy a wicket. During these net sessions in between getting the wickets I was hit for at least 1 six and a couple of fours. You'll need committed catchers at 4,6 and 8 and fast runner at 9 to cut off and gather up the balls through the cover region. Bowling at the 2 batters for best part of an hour I reckon they only scored a few fours between them anywhere between backward of point and deep cover point (9).
I get another chance on Thursday, hopefully there'll be more batters to try this on...
This is the theory... Right Arm around the wicket bowling into the leg-stump. The field is set with your best and most agile fielders that can catch in the deep... 4, 5 and 8 in this colour diagram. The expectation is that what with you bowling outside the leg-stump the batters are going to try and sweep or nurdle the ball down to fine leg.
Needless to say, try and bowl from the end that gives you the biggest boundary on the leg-side to the right-handers.
3, 6, 7 and 10 are in close to take catches off of totally mis-hit deliveries and to prevent the rotation of batters off of singles.
B is a massive gap to try and get the batters looking to drive straight. (See notes about experiments in nets). This then brings in the increased chances of the edge being taken and 'Caught behind'. Or advancing down the wicket to drive bring in stumping chances.
I think it's essential that you have at least one variation in terms of line. I bowl basic flippers along with my Leg Breaks. With the Flippers I can then either bowl much faster or slower and because of the back-spin they stay really low in comparison to the Leg-Breaks, so a lot of aggressive batters having seen the "Leggies" which typically bounce far more, step back to play aggressive cut shots or a big heave ho across the line only to find the ball stays low and hits the stumps.
18/8/22 Follow up session - different batters. Again it went well. The first batter really struggled once he'd seen the field and was out 6-8 times in different ways and commented that my bowling was so much better than the last time I'd bowled at him, but I think that was primarily down to the fact that he was batting with the field in mind whereas it wasn't a consideration previously. The first batter was out stumped most of the time and caught at 10 (Above) and 6. This was bowling 80% around the wicket bowling exclusively Leg-Breaks. I couldn't bowl Flippers because early on during the session, just flicking the ball between the fingers and thumb bruised my thumb. I've noticed recently that my hands/fingers and thumb seem to bruise and swell up relatively easily from ball impacts and now just squeezing the ball hard. Probably an age thing?
The next batter in was a leftie who bats 5 or 6 and he was a lot more troublesome. I got him a few times, but at the same time he scored down the ground quite easily
More about Flippers here https://spinbowling-flipper.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-bowl-flipper.html
Just seen this - I wasn't aware... https://thebigkickoff.com/2021/11/01/wrist-spin-godfather-peter-philpott-passes-away/
