Interesting night at Nets

 Nets tonight and a chance to put some of the recent practice into action against batters. 

Yesterday I bowled a lot of balls 160-200? In that session I mixed up Top-Spinners with the Flippers and it went pretty well. I've struggled to get the ball to over-spin so that it doesn't turn and yesterday I worked it out. Rather than have the ball tucked in the palm of my hand like my Leg-Breaks, the Top-Spinner needs to be much higher in the hand in the fingers. It worked well, relatively accurate and loads of bounce, almost certainly too much bounce if bowled on the right length. But with the extra bounce, top edges and off the gloves become a potential method of dismissal. The other thing is the over-spin means the ball dips and anyone dancing down the wicket can be caught out by it. 

Just a note, this is exactly where I was last year at the end of the season, but for some reason as the summer arrived this year, I kind of lost the top-spinner having for a while been able to bowl it with the same action as my Leg-Break. It kind of feels I just need to accept that if I'm going to be bowling Top-Spinners I need to do so with the fingery grip? 

Other recent observations that lead to the practice session yesterday was that I bowled OK in the game on Saturday against Benfleet other than the opening over. Anecdotally it definitely feels that my first overs are always a bit messy and in the game Saturday it felt like I was hit for 3 x fours in the first over. On checking I didn't... it was two, but that feels typical. So reflecting on what happened in that first over and then what happened later in the spell, the majority of the batters are looking to go Leg-Side, but they don't do so with any real assuredness and if the ball is turning mistakes seem inevitable? 

A mate of mine who used play with me at Grays & Chadwell (Alex McClellan) always bowled around the wicket with pretty much a ring field on the leg-side and used take shed loads of wickets. So, am I missing a trick here? 

I know there's one bloke at the club who's a massive hitter of the ball, but if you bowl around the wicket to him he's a walking wicket. How many others are the same? So I tried this against 3 different batters tonight who all had a really good off-side game and it worked, all of them completely befuddled by the ball picthed wide of leg coming in to the stumps. 

The balls they did hit went straight pasts me for a straight hit, or the usual square leg, fine leg or mid-wicket. Might it be worth a punt when the batter comes to the crease and for the first over? I guess it depends if the ball is turning? 

The other thing I tried was the fingery Top-Spinner and it worked well. The Flippers not so well, which were fired at the stumps or just outside off. These work OK as a rare surprise delivery, but not as part of a consistent approach.