Yep still going and still gagging for it!
So this year we've got 6 indoor net sessions at the Harris Academy in South Ockendon again, fewer than last year, I think we lost money on it... hire fee versus people showing up meant the cost wasn't covered by the weekly fee of £5.00. I can see why to some extent, net sessions aren't the best. I don't know how batters feel about them - whether they're any use to them. I don't like the fact that you only get to bowl once every 6 balls or so and I'm always looking to find the net with the least amount of people in so I can bowl more frequently. At the start and quite often during the one and half hour sessions there's an empty net where I generally start to get the first few ropey balls out of the way or try deliveries that I don't bowl that often such as Flippers which is what I did in this session.
Session 4 of 6
Last weeks cold got worse culminating with a really crap day on Friday and had to take a day off. Laid in bed all day Friday and woke up Saturday feeling a lot better and back at work Monday. So tonight not really fully recovered, but OK to go and have a bowl.
Again it went well, looking to get people out within 18 balls. My son Joe - within 6 balls he said Ct at mid-off, edge to slips and caught behind off gloves off a sweep. Michael Gray (2nd XI captain) bowled 2nd ball with a Top-Spinner. Some others did well defending, but not scoring runs... Peter Ellis, Rob Brookes and Luke Dawe 3rd XI captain.
I'm liking this approach where I'm actively looking to take wickets with a plan for it. I explain the field that I set and for the most part people don't look to target that area, so increasingly it's looking like a coherent plan? The majority of my wickets would come about (off better batters) through catches - so this highly reliant on decent and agile fielders. We'll have to see how it goes. I think next I want to have a go at Dan Gray No.1 batter at the club in terms of runs who incidentally refers to me as "Tommo the legend", so getting him would cement my legendary status!
Session 3 of 6
Felt crap tonight got a cold so didn't really feel up to it. Dosed myself up with Paracetamol and drove over on my own. Bowled in an empty net to start off with, just bowling at a piece of paper on a good length. That worked better when aiming at the stumps rather thn leg-side of the stumps.
I've watch Allanah King in the series between Australia and India and noted she bowls completely different in the test games compared with the ODI games. Whether that's a strategic thing or just poor form I don't know? In the ODI's she sprayed the ball all over the place with an in-out field bowling at the stumps leg-side and off-side, all Leg-Breaks. She doesn't seem to have any variations at all? Then in the Test matches with a massive advantage (Massive lead) she bowled completely differently - accurately... pretty much at the stumps or on 4th stump line on the off-side with a very aggresive and attacking field - almost everyone up under the gills of the Indian batters and it worked. Did the accuracy come with the confidence and lack of pressure afforded by runs of the board? Could she have performed as well if the game was in a far tighter situation? It's a moot point.
So I batted at 3 blokes properly tonight - did the usual thing explained the field in the diagram below and said you've been sent out and you've got to score runs.
Lennon - Got him 3rd or 4th ball having been hit for potentially 2 runs. He ran past the ball and would have been stumped.
Brad Staff - Similar 4th ball - played and missed just out of his crease.
The one that struggled with was the new 6th XI captain Joe Hill. He's a new batter, but he's getting better, but he's still pretty unorthodox in the same way that "Batty" kids are and so it look about 11-12 balls to get him and he'd have scored about 17 runs off those balls. I might have got him around the 9th ball with a stumping, but about 3 balls later he hit one back straight back me off a poorly timed ball that dipped that I'd have probably caught in a game.
So in terms of strike rates, I'm currently smashing it.
Session 2 of 6
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| Joe Front left Sri Kumar mid image looking left. L-R in the BG Luke Dawe, Phillip Tooke, Rob Brookes and Michael Gray. |
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| My Son Joe mid bound. |
A decent session, quite low numbers this week, so that mean at the worst points I was bowing with 4 others, but most of the time there was only 3 others in the net. So the plan was to choose a batter and aim to get them out within 18 balls and concede as few runs as possible. Luke Dawe who I do struggle against usually in the nets (3rd team captain and opening bat). He normally plays in the 2nd XI. I got him within six balls and where he was able to hit the ball I would probably gone for around 5 runs. I bowled him with a faster leg-break - bowled. I followed that up with a bowled and caught and a stumping. He said "I can't pick you - I haven't got a clue what the balls going to do".
Then my son Joe came over and said "Tom Tonnison wants you to bowl in our net - he said you're the one he needs to face because you're so diffilcut to bat against". That went well. I got him within 5 balls, after being hit for 4 through mid-wicket. He had a couple of play and misses and then was out running down the wicket for a stumping.
Rob Brooks, similar -drawn out of his crease for a stumping for only a run or two off of 3 balls.
In between I had few balls at Brian Waterman - old bloke batting legend. Defends brilliantly, cuts you through point if you get the ball a little short and it turns, or paddles you down to fine-leg if you get the length slighty short leg-side, or flicks you off the legs if too full.
I bowled a few at my son Joe before the net got too full. He's faced me since he was 8 years old and he was doing well at me off the 6 balls or so I bowled at him. He's batting really well so far this season in the nets.
Then I got bowl in the first XI nets against Phillip Took. I had about 6 balls at him, they were all played through mid on and mid -off and one over mid-wicket which may have gone for 4. I then moved on to an emptier net as that net filled up too much. He said later when I asked him how I'd gone and he said I'd bowled well and that he found it tough because I get the ball above the eye-line.
All in all it went well. Bowled very few Flippers and generally it seems that in this scenario with them being flatter and faster than the Leg-Breaks, they're hit easily it seems? Next week I'll try and bowl at my son Joe, Brian again because he plays so correctly and someone else from either the 1st or 2nd XI.
Session 1 of 6
So over the winter I've been considering bringing the Flipper back as in the last 2 seasons I've bowled it infrequently in games in part because I don't trust myself to bowl it with accuracy because of the lack of practice with it. So the idea over these 6 sessions in the nets was to give it a go, but in this first session it wasn't looking promising. The first 6 balls albeit effort balls were 3' down the leg-side and it wasn't till I slowed them down that I got my radar right. After the initial 10-12 balls in the empty net the batters were ready and I went and bowled at a couple of blokes.
I did the thing where I explain my field (See image) and tell them to bat with that field in mind and the 2 blokes that I bowled to I got within 6 balls and neither of them would have scored more than 6 with that field in place. That was using Leg-Breaks and Top-Spinners. The good news was that the Top-Spinners were straight and not breaking to the off like a Googly which is something I'm concerned about e.g. creeping Googly syndrome which seemed to be happening over the winter in the indoor cricket games using a rubber ball.
I'm not fussed on who I bowl at and I would like to bowl at the good batsmen in the 1st XI net, but there's always at least 6-7 bowlers in that net and to get them out is a different prospect. Really you kind of have to bowl 6 balls at these blokes to get the measure of them before you can come up with a plan which is never going to happen. I have been known to walk into their net and bowl a bloke around the back of the legs with my first ball. In a way it might be better not to bowl at them and wait for opportunities in inter-club games where they then generally show some respect because they don't want to be shown up by "The old bloke who bowls in the 5th and 6th XI".
Session 2 of 6
Plan - What I'll probably do is use the empty net to practice with the Flippers and take some markers and bowl 12-18 balls just trying to get the line and length right from the off. Then move over to the nets explaining my field and say to the batter - bat in accordance with that field and see how you get on. The intent being to get them out within 23 balls - trying to improve on my strike rate of 23.10 from last year.
Once in the nets I'll bowl as I would in a game - Leg-Break variations and Top-Spinners till I get them out and then I'll focus on bowling Flippers at them and see how that pans out.
On top of that I'm doing general fitness and agility stuff starting today. Will probably do a run on Wednesday night on the way home as the sun sets at 17.45hrs. Ran today as well 4K
