Batsmen of SEDCB region and how to get them out.

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20/2/19 - 20,350  views        Last Updated 02/1/19 -   18,000 views                     12,561 views;                29.07.18 - 8784 views:      

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Keval Suchak Hutton CC 4th XI (July 2018) 

Kevals wagon wheel and analysis has been moved to here








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John Hearn   Benfleet 3rd XI (June 2018).

John Hearn has been moved to here

William Dale RHB 
Billericay 4th XI (June 2018)

William Dale has been moved to Here


Check him out there as well as a load of other blokes.

Geoff Davison RHB - Opening batsman for Hadleigh and Thundersley CC

Below - Davison's primary scoring area...

On the day we played, the strip that had been prepared was the one closest to the artificial wicket and therefore one of the shortest boundaries. I bowled from the Graveyard end, but could have asked for the Estate End? The only thing is, dependent on how long the grass is, or how wet it is, the opposite end provides a slope for the ball to run down, but on balance it may have been the better option?

Geoff Davision if you look him up on Play Cricket, you'll see that in the past he's been no slouch with the bat over his career and this year (2017) he was captain of the 4th XI and this game he was one of the openers. For us this was a season at our new Ground at Holy Cross in Basildon. Davison was out of for 23 trapped LBW to Ryan Davies who swings the ball. Perhaps one of his weaknesses is swing bowling?

In the first 12 overs, where he faced medium and medium/fast bowling the run-rate was 2 an over, all of the balls on or around the off-stump line seemed to cause him a problem - he erred towards caution with these. His strongest shots were leg-side, where had the advantage of a short boundary and most of his - if not all of his 4's were through that region... square-leg and through fine-leg (See illustration above). We were at a big disadvantage as we were at least a fielder down through-out their innings. 

Against me, despite bowling poorly because of an injury picked up in the first game of the season - he again, chose to play with a high level of caution looking to get off strike to allow the more aggressive John Newman (See below) to play his attacking role. On an extremely bad day for me he managed to score one run off of me in 3 overs looking to hand the strike to the other bloke who was looking to ruin me. Whether his approach is usual or not is speculation, maybe it was down to the fact that it was one of the earliest games in the season? But, the overall sense was that he massively favoured leg-side shots and appeared to be weak on the off-side - looking to leave the ball when possible. 

Historically he looks a good player - last year he scored 279 averaging 17.44 with a high score of 37. Looking at his data over the last 3 or 4 years it appears that as a batsman he is on the wane and progressively scored less runs year on year. The data on play cricket is as follows...

Bowled - 28.8%
Caught 40.76%
LBW - 14.13%
Stumped 1.63%
Not out 7.6%

This is his all-time data and takes into account his good years 2004 and 2005. Other info of interest is that in 75% of his games he scores 0-9 runs and the last time he had a good innings was 2015 where he scored 78 against Belhus cc. 

I have to reiterate that he almost exclusively scored his runs in our game through the regions as illustrated, clipping the ball off his legs. As with most batsmen at this level, you're going to starve him of runs if you can keep the ball off the leg-side and pads. Anything leg-side for this bloke is obviously playing to his strength. 

Cautious approach - plan #1

Players 1 and 8 - make sure these are on the boundary at the start and use your players who are going to be quick off the mark and willing to put in the dive to save a boundary. Keep these blokes there until you're sure you're bowling a half decent line - look to bowl as I and our openers did - on or outside of the off-stump. I don't recall the ball being in the air much for his leg-side shots, but the stats would suggest otherwise (40% of his dismissals historically being down to catches) so have your blokes on the leg-side agile, with the ability to take catches. 

For Davison look to try and get him to hit the ball through the area 'Zone A' and have your fielders ready for the catches (40% of his dismissals are from catches). When I bowled at him he was happy to not play the ball, just watch it and see if it turned. At the start of the season I was already injured and was bowling poorly and slowly, so he had plenty of time to see what the ball was doing. If you are bowling well, after your first over, bring up 1 and 8 onto the edge of the ring and mid off (9) close in as well. Given that he goes for so high a percentage to catches, it kind of indicates that he doesn't time the ball that well, so variations in speed might be a tactic along with bowling with more over-spin intermittently. In this instance he was happy to sit back and watch the ball, so a straighter ball (Top-spinner if bowled sparingly) may have been a good ball, as would a surprise straight ball like a Flipper or if you've got one a Googly. 

If the ball is turning as it was on this occasion, another approach would be to bowl at him from a position close to the wickets stump to stump with your stock ball, especially if he's sitting back watching it turn away from the off-stump. Remember though he's looking for the loose ball to put away down the leg-side, so try and bowl consistently - vary these deliveries in speed, but keep them spinning and turning away, then come wider on the crease and then try pitch one angled across the stumps that might then straighten up and get him LBW or bowled. 

Jonathan Newman.
Looking at the data on Play Cricket he's been playing since 2005 and plays across all the teams from 1st XI up to the 4th XI where I've had to bowl against him. In the game I came up against him in, he scored 54, eventually bowled by Sam Good and caught by younger sonJoe. In 2017 he was ranked the 10th highest batsmen in the club. He averaged 31.56 in 2017. His all time average in 19.75.

Historically he's usually bowled - 47.83% of his dismissals.

Caught 37.2%

Stumped 0.48%

LBW 2.9%

2017 

Caught 70%

Bowled 20%

Not out 10%

In our game back in May he opened along with Geoff Davison (See above) and struggled with the bowling of my Younger son Joe and Tim Edmonds. Both bowlers bowling a good line just on or outside of the off-stump. In the first 10 overs the run rate was kept very low at 2.3 and over. The fours as I recall were all off of loose leg-side balls and like Davison, Newman didn't seem to have any shots through the off-side and looked to be struggling against both of the openers in that region. Again, as with Davison, the balls on the leg-side were put away for four easily.

Admittedly when I came on the I got off to a poor start - bowling leg-side and was hit through the on-side for a 4 and a six by Newman in my first over (See diagram below). 

I don't recall any decent off-side shots and where I went for dots against him these were balls outside of the off-stump.

The image above shows Newnham's primary scoring areas. The 4's and 6's against me were all hit on-side in the zone indicated - between mid-wicket and mid-on.

Newnham was dismissed on 54 by Sam Good, Sam's a good bowler - seam bowler, accurate and pacy and Newham got under the ball and lofted it straight to my son Joe at Mid-on half-way. Possibly a slightly slower ball being his un-doing.

Goes well against poor leg-spin (Very poor leg-spin in this instance!) I reckon on a different day I'd have had him, Any balls on and around the off-stump are going to cause this bloke problems. He seemed to be very reluctant to play any shots on the offside and left anything that was not threatening the stumps.

If you're accurate and you can target that area you're going to offer a threat it would seem? It may be that as the season goes on he gets better? If, you've got a couple of variations, it may only take a change of pace and you're going to be in the game. Other options to consider would be to subtly move around the wicket, especially with your stock ball, bowl from close in to the stumps, so that the ball goes away from him and load up your field on the off-side. Then creep wider still turning the ball, just don't get it on his legs. A top-spinner if you've got it will be useful, especially if he's still looking to be aggressive and starts to get to the ball, just put a load of top-spin on one of your small leg-breaks or bowl a one with just over-spin and he should be a candidate for one that'll just go straight-up, If you do this move you field so you've got a deep mid off and on. Needless to say a Wrong-un, is going to be an asset if bowled sparingly.

 If I meet him again I'll be looking at using a field along the lines of the illustration below...

I'd start with this field pitching it on a length to induce the drive,  He didn't seem comfortable with driving on the off-side or have any shots for the off-side especially for the quicks. With me, even though I was bowling really badly he waited for the balls on the legs and wide of the legs and these were dealt with aggressively. Towards the end of my 3 over spell he was dancing down the wicket hitting 4's and a 6. I'd already surrendered at this point and was happy to be taken out of the attack.

If he was timing the ball well and coming down the wicket and I wasn't injured, I'd go for the top-spinner and an over-spun leg-break and put 8 and 7 in the deep at mid-on and mid-off.

Please note you set these fields at your own risk, the owner of the blog is in no way responsible for you getting carted around the park for 4's and sixes. Seek professional guidance if in doubt.

Paul Howlett - Orsett & Thurrock cc 

I've faced this bloke before and Dutton our captain has too and we knew that he was half decent. If you check him out on Playcricket the data for last year is as follows...

In 12 innings he scored 326, his high score was 104 and he had two innings of 50+.

It seems that there's a collective sense amongst their team that Wrist-spin is their nemesis? This info came about from having a conversation with one of their players.

The analysis here is somewhat flawed in that we only had 8 players, so he was able to play with a degree of freedom and scored 74 not out on what was a pretty good wicket. The observations that I made (See the illustration below) was that he had two dominant scoring areas. Primarily leg-side between mid-wicket and mid-on, so this is where you want your fastest and most agile fielders, The shots in this area were either along the ground for 4 or big 6's.

The other shot that I saw was really nice late cut, not hit aggressively, but deftly between point and slips, so a man in at Gully would negate this shot. The key thing though is that he doesn't have a good off-side shot to any bowling - spin or pace given the evidence I saw in our first match of the season against Orsett and Thurrock, with only one strong shot being played through that region that I cut off and kept to a single fielding at Mid-off about 1/2 way out.

Update August 2017.

See match report here http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/orsett-thurrock-cc-v-basildon-pitsea-cc.html

This time around thing were more weighted on our side, we had a full team and a helpful wicket and one that was offering some turn off the wicket if you spun it enough. Unlike J.Hart especially who batted well Howlett was in a rush, as mentioned before he's quite aggressive and is looking to go big leg-side. In this game almost every shot was legside in the region indicated. No sixes were scored - the ball falling just short of the boundary. I nearly had him caught at conventional square leg (Covered up in this diagram) in my first over with a ball that didn't turn much and cramped him up and looped up in the air, but the ball was put down. The ball that got him was on the off stump line and he was looking to get it over the leg-side as usual. The ball was easily taken by one of our younger players Josh Debond. 

Plan A I'd set the field as below. (Bowler is No.1). The observations that I've made this season would indicate that he sees himself as an aggressive player that looks to get on with it - especially against spin. He sees his strength as being able to go big on the leg side through the zone indicated by the darker shade in the diagram (A). So a key point for me or anyone bowling at him is to starve him of these leg-side shots, try and get him to play through the off-side, which he seems to be reluctant to do. As in the game on the 19th, he'll then try and sit back in the crease, see where the ball is spinning and attempt to hit it through the leg-side - playing it late.

Bowl over the stumps using your stock delivery. If you playing against him at home, the wicket is good for spinners with variable bounce and it turns if you're putting revs on the ball. I'd start wide on the crease angling it in at the off-stump, varying the amount of over-spin with side-spin. I'd then move across the crease bowling in from a position tighter to the stumps, so that the ball turns away from the bat more and the straighter variation threatens the stumps. This should then frustrate him if you're drying up the runs and he might then go looking for his leg-side shots. With this off-side line he then struggles and the ball starts to get hit in the air all over the place and anyone close in on the bat has a chance.

Warne would take this a step further and would leave the bloke at deep mid-wicket (9) out of the equation leaving a gaping great hole on the leg-side - begging him to have a go. It's definitely an idea if you're able to bowl a tight off-side line, because he really struggles with fetching it from outside of off and getting it away - massive potential for miss-hitting it. Other factors that play into your hands are the state of the game - if he walks out needing to get runs, he'll try and go big, he doesn't seem to be the kind of bloke that's ready and willing to build an innings - he's looking to make a big impact quick.

My preferred option though would be to get him driving and get him edged to the keeper or slips.

Currently working on these blokes...

Horndon on the Hill Batsmen

Lee Kooyman – Primarily their opener. Experienced player been around since 1999, played for Orsett previously. At the time of writing had played 141 games and had 2249 runs to his name and an average of 24.18. His high score is 90 and has accrued 11 x 50’s. Aggressive player with 49 fours recorded.
Dismissals - 9% bowled, 60% caught, LBW 6%, Stumped 1%, Run-out 5% and 16% Not outs.

His weakness looking at this is that he is primarily dismissed being caught, this might be in part down to the fact that he looks to be aggressive with a lot of 50's to his credit. Looks as though he may be a solid player against spin and isn't easily drawn out of his wicket for a stumping?

Keith Hawkes

Another one of those players that they spread around the teams, sometimes plays 2nd XI, so is obviously considered a half decent player. But in comparison to Kooyman nowhere near the same calibre. Hawkes has played 40 games and accrued 550 runs. Has only ever scored 50 runs twice and has an average of 16.67. The records indicate that he's a more cautious player as he has never hit a 6 and has only ever hit 1 four in his career which spans only 4 seasons.
Dismissals - 16% bowled, 66% caught, LBW 5%, Stumped 2% and 8% not outs.

Keith Klein - Batsman Hadleigh and Thundersley cc 4th XI


Our game with Hadleigh and Thundersley was a miserable affair and was abandoned because of the rain. But off the back of it and digging around looking at the players on Play Cricket it's highlighted an obvious reason for it being so bloody miserable!

 Because the game was abandoned, the only real positive to come out of it was the research into the batsman who totally dominated the game. 

Anyway the bloke this week was good...

 Keith Klein

Keith Klein Hadleigh and Thundersley 4th XI batsman

Arrived at the game in humid sunshine with the promise of rain later via the internet weather reports. Looking around at the team with the exception of Jai and Tony we had no seam bowlers and definitely no-one of the kind of speed that Joe bowls at (This was written the first week that Joe moved up from the 4th XI to the 3rd XI). I was optimistic initially. The toss was had and we fielded first, which was a relief because of not having a lot in the bowling dept. we also had very little in the way of batting.

It didn’t go that well, 30 overs in and with the score at 190 for 5. The rain saved us and the match was abandoned. The only thing useful to come out of it was that we all got to see what their man Keith Klein could do with the bat. Initially, he looked a bit susceptible to being weak on the leg-side and that might be worth exploring when he first gets to the crease, but a couple of overs in and Klein having had a look and with me bowling, he moved up 3 gears. Looking at the diagram below - off of my bowling (this was generally true of everyone), he hit down the ground mostly on the on-side. Nothing massive – he didn’t seem to be looking to hit sixes, just nice tidy fours, hit hard and mostly along the ground – straight drives. With the other bowlers, he seemed to hit them through the 7% area (Covers) where I fielded later in the game and we were able to slow his progress by spreading the field out and allowing the single and getting him off-strike.

With my slow leg-spin he was coming  down the wicket and hitting me through the 90% area – he hit me for at least five fours through those areas. Needless to say, I was taken off after 3 overs having gone for 10 an over, but in the last over, my 4^th ball was one of my off-spinning Flippers and I almost got him, the ball clipping the inside edge of his bat I think and almost hitting the off-stump. The bloke looked up and acknowledged it… “Good ball” he conceded.

I came on again later for the last over - just as the rain came when Klein was still there with another bloke K.Jenkinson, who’d seemingly gone up the order. Again, this bloke Jenkinson played with real intent looking to come after me, not quite as adept as Klein, but still looking to score runs and get on top of me.

Coming away from this and reflecting on it, the ball that made the difference was that off-spinning delivery which I’d pretty much given up on in recent games, partly because it doesn’t often turn that much, but on this occasion, it was spot on and it’s a delivery that I bowl a little faster. I’ve been looking at which deliveries to work on aside from the leg-break and this may be worth looking at along with a more top-spinning leg-break?

Post Match Trauma

To be honest I was feeling really down about this game and the fact that I was so ineffective and went for so many runs off of this one bloke. But, I’ve been able to console myself with the fact that this bloke is pretty good… Up until recently he’s generally played 2^nd XI cricket, last year he played 5 or 6 games and at least half of those were 2^nd and 3^rd XI games. He’s got records that go back to 1988, so he’s got experience. Furthermore, in his recorded games he’s scored 7 x 100’s and 19 x 50’s. His all-time average is 32.02 and historically he’s contributed to 16% of the teams runs. His high score of 162 was in the 2^nd XI. One of the things I noticed was that he was very low risk player – his fours were all pretty much played late and along the ground and this is further evidenced in that in his career, despite scoring almost 4000 runs the Play Cricket records suggest that he’s only ever hit three sixes, whereas he’s recorded as having scored 95 x 4’s. So I feel a lot better now in that he’s a really good batsman and I nearly had him with my off-spinning Flipper!

I kept digging further to see how good he was in comparison to our blokes. Our best batsman as far as I can make out is Paul Singleton AKA Elvis, he’s not played as long as this bloke, but Paul’s records go back to 1999, but Klein still runs rings round Paul so this bloke is really good, you kind of have to ask why the hell is he playing in the 4^th XI? Our match was so miserable – no-one enjoyed it, because the bloke was so obviously playing on a different planet than us, strikes me as one of the easiest ways of losing kids from the game and adults too?

Anyway a bit of a plan if I ever face the nightmare that is Keith Klein...

Defensive plan for Keith Klein (Bowler is '1').

The key is variation. I was bowling stock leg-breaks and they were turning a little, he seemed to prefer playing off the front foot and he was prepared to come out of the crease to a lot of my balls and hit me through the area indicated by the diagram above. Having now seen how good he is I would be cautious about trying to attack via a wide ball outside of leg. Admittedly I bowl very slow, so if you bowl in the 40-45mph speed range and get the ball to turn you could use the Shane Warne approach where you try different lines of attack and move around the crease for your release point.

He's probably of a level where he watches the ball for the direction of spin and may be able to pick your variation from the hand. For this field bowl on the stumps - kind of middle and leg - force him to play. Don't show your hand early with your variation, save it for about the 3rd over in and then try it, because he is watchful and he admitted that I nearly got him because he wasn't concentrating and watching the ball.

The field above is primarily defensive, the idea being that you absorb the favoured shot through the 90% area allowing the single as we did eventually and then look to keep him off strike.

Attacking plan for Keith Klein (Theoretically).

 Some of the other bowlers including one of our younger players (No.5)  did a lot better than me (No.3) with really inconsistent bowling, especially outside the off-stump. Incidentally bowler No.2 was Tony Keep who bowls at the stumps - medium pace, varying the speed and length and uses swing and movement off the seam. He did really well.

So, it may be that you might fair better hiding the ball outside of off - as a 'Bob each way' approach. If you bowl consistently it might be a different story, so varying what you do could be key to any success, as I mentioned earlier I nearly got him with my variation.

Clive Franklin - Hutton cc has now been moved to the new blog... http://www.bowlingplans.blogspot.com




Double click on the image below for the analysis of this bloke - Taylor Wood - Harlow Town CC

Looking for Clive Franklins analysis? Double click on Clive's image below...

Looking for Joe Owen of Benfleet cc - click on the picture below...

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Pragash Ganeshalingham - Eastwood cc click on the picture below.

Thanks to everyone that is viewing this post and blog, the amount of views it's getting is pretty impressive. 

The bowling-action - Spin Bowling

work in progress (06/01/19)

There's some useful professional/academic written analysis on-line if you dig around using the correct search prompts looking at and explaining the action of bowling, this is my version of it taking it several steps further.

Too many of the video's on-line focus on the hand and the variations, they're fine if you can bowl your leg-break perfect, but first and foremost you need to be able to do the very basics e.g. bowl a good leg-break. Part of this process includes establishing a consistent and repeatable run-up and it's this part of the process I'm adding to the standard phases 1 through to 6.

(a). The Plan This advice comes from Warne and Macgill. At the top of your run, you need to have a plan Warne says before you've even been given the nod to bowl you should have already been looking at the batsmen trying to figure out where their weaknesses are... Do they move their feet, have they got a weak side that they struggle to hit the ball through, is there a gaping great gap between bat and pads, do the tend to play straight or with a cross bat action; do they seem to struggle with figuring out the length of the ball? When you're learning these are pretty tricky things to figure out, but try as much as you can to learn about batting and ways that batsman get out, think about your own batting against spin - in what areas do you struggle.

Warne also suggests that you start your first over bowling different lines with your leg-break and bowling from different positions on the crease e.g. close to the stumps, midway between the stumps and the return crease and close to the return crease. If you have observed that the batsman is weak on the leg-side try a few balls in from the leg-side too, but re-arrange your field in accordance.

The important thing though is to have some kind of a plan and fundamental to that is when you're fielding watch the batsman try and figure out where they are weak, talk to your captain too, normally the captain is more knowledgeable on these things and will have ideas you may not have thought about.

(b). Start point In relation to the 'Consistent and repeatable action' which is essential, it's important that your stock ball is consistent and repeatable and part of this process is your run-up, this too has to be exactly the same each time for the most part (95% or more). The only time you might change it would be as some form of tactical approach e.g. your might start further back and bowl off of a point deeper in the crease to furtively change the length. But almost all of the time you start out from the exact same point. Some people score dirty great lines in the grass with their spikes others have run-up markers that you tend to forget about and leave...

For what they are these things are expensive so I use bottle tops off of Lucozade bottles either red or orange and press them into the ground with my heel. They do exactly the same thing and are free. In fact they tend to stay there and I use them the next time the strip is used in a game. When I arrive at a game and find out what strip we're playing on, I usually go out and measure my run-up before the game starts and put a marker in at both ends ready for when I bowl.

Once you've got your mark you can set off from the same length every time and this should negate any chance of your bowling a no-ball. 

(c). Relax; Stuart MacGill and Warne both make the point that you need to relax, bowling with any tension will affect your bowling. Warne makes some good point about being relaxed all the way through to the grip, the grip should be loose. MacGill in his Wrist Spin video explains the grip should be loose and relaxed and advocates shaking your arm and wrist to ensure that you have a floppy flexible wrist. Being relaxed is a massive part of spin bowling and one of the most demanding aspects of this is to remain relaxed even though you may have been hit for 4 or 6 or worse still a series of 4's and 6's. Similarly when you're learning and bowl wides, short balls or no-balls, being able to brush that off and not worry and to back to your game plan is one of the key parts of being a Wrist Spin Bowler. I can tell you now, it is not easy, you tend to feel like you're letting the side down and you're losing the team the game. It's in these situations where you need the support of your captain and to be able to dismiss the situation and get on with bowling your stock ball in a relaxed state. It comes with time and experience.

(d). Delivery choice; You've got your plan, you need to make a choice about where you're going to put the ball. Don't run in and just bowl, have an intention based on your observations of the batsman. Again if you're learning keep it simple, bowl at the off-stump so that the player has to play the ball, if the ball spins and goes away from the bat, you've executed a good ball if you land it on a good length for that batsman and his style of playing. The important thing is not to just bowl, try and get it in the area you feel is going to be effective.

(e). Setting off; MacGill says and I totally agree - always set off of on the same foot. The only adjustment you might make at this point is the width from which you start off, start from the same length, but maybe stand a step wider or closer of your basic run-up. Warne would say that doing this gives the batsman something to think about, try and get the batsman thinking about what you're doing rather than what he's doing. Then MacGill says to exhale and then set off.

(f). Phase 1. At this point we're into the phases of the bowling action - PDS Pre-delivery stride.

I feel that the run-up is one of the more neglected aspects of spin-bowling. You need to establish as soon as you can a way in which you can execute your run-up, otherwise you'll have to return to this at some point and correct it and establish it later. A lot of people will advocate spinning the ball hard first and complete neglect the run-up, but I feel they go hand in hand. Spinning the ball hard is something you should be doing constantly at every moment, you should have balls around your house which you pick up and give a flick. But when you're out and bowling the full 22 yards in practice, you must have an established run-up, one that is consistent and repeatable. Otherwise all of the following information is virtually irrelevant. Look here for some guidance with regards to the Run-Up.

Don't just look at Warne, look at Kumble, MacGill, Shah, Afridi, Tambe, Rashid, Benaud, Grimmett and Ahmed for examples, look at the different ways that they run-up, which one looks like the one that might suit you, do you feel like a bowler that approaches the crease slowly off of short run-up or do you feel like someone that will run-in with some speed and aggression?

While this is still under construction you might be interested in the following...

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

FFC Front foot contact



















Bibliography http://www.quintic.com/education/case_studies/Cricket%203.htm

Spin bowling - line length and accuracy practice

 25 views 15/4/18 78  views 31/07/18

Accuracy – Line and length; Observations and ideas.

The main dictum when learning how to bowl Wrist Spin is “Spin the ball hard”. Almost all of the advice out there is along the lines of “You’re a spin bowler, so over and above everything else you have to spin the ball”. This article here assumes that you’ve reached that stage e.g. you’re able to spin the ball well and get it to turn off the pitch.

If you are able to spin the ball hard and get it to turn off the pitch the chances are you’ll get wickets even if it’s short, too full, slow, fast, drifting or not drifting, but there’ll be days when you go for loads of runs and will feel as though you’ve let the team down. You’ll probably have games where you’ll reflect on what’s happened and you’ll think we lost that game because of the runs made off my bowling. I reckon this is the reason many kids give up wrist spin bowling and without a really good captain and a supportive team around a player, spells like this are exceptionally hard to come through without internalising the situation and drawing a negative conclusion.

If you are wrist spinner in a higher grade team facing this scenario, you’ll be relegated to a lower level if you’re consistently expensive without taking wickets, but if you’re in a lower level team, the situation is will probably be that you’ll be given less overs. You’ll still be given the opportunity to bowl, but the onus of responsibility is on you to make the changes to justify longer spells. This is where your commitment and determination will be put to the test as well demonstrating that you’re thick-skinned… You can’t internalise such poor performances and dwell on them. Reflect on them – yes, but dwell on the situation and let it eat away at your confidence – no, otherwise you’ll be a gonna! Such poor performances have to be rationalised and put out of your mind.

So what do you do?_________________________

Peter Philpott would say practice, practice and then more practice. But he also makes the point that practice without a specific aim is worthless. So, we’ll assume in this section you can spin the ball, so what can you do in order to address the fact that you’re going for too many runs and you’re not taking wickets?

The issue may be accuracy. As I write I’m watching the test series between England and Bangladesh Oct 2016. The Bangladesh spinners have bowled well, but England’s spinners on Sky TV have been mauled by the pundits primarily for their inaccuracy. Adil Rashid our Wrist Spinner of whom I’m a massive fan, for some reason gets cut some slack saying that everyone expects him to be expensive, but the finger spinners, all of the pundits suggest because it’s so much easier, they should be bowling far more accurately, accumulating maiden’s if not wickets. I must admit I often wonder about how much practice professional bowlers do and how they practice as sometimes their bowling is dog crap bad, particularly Adil as he bowls a lot of short balls. If New Zealand and Warwickshire’s Jeetan Patel is to be believed they don’t do enough practice… English Spinner don’t practice enough

 http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2015/content/story/917767.html

Patel says... "They need to be more specific with their training - it's very easy to say that it's green and therefore it won't spin but you've got to find a way to succeed in the game.
To say that we play too much in April and May? Well too bad, just get on with it. It's just what it is. If you want to succeed, want to be good and get to the next level, then you've got to find ways to do that, whether it's getting bounce, drift, spin - whatever it is you've got to find a way to do that."

Like Philpott, he also makes the point that your stock ball has to be the one that you have full control of, this is the one that you have to practice with, this is the one that you threaten with, that gets you the majority of your wickets.

Specific practice____________________________

        So, we know that as we develop as Wrist Spinners, we’ll be given the chance to move up to better standards of cricket, if you’re a youth player, you’ll be expected to start playing adult cricket from about the age of 14. You’ll be placed in the lesser teams to introduce you to the game at a realistic level and this will be challenging unless you are a Peter Philpott who took 2 for 36 and 3 for 77 at Manly, Sydney when he was 12 years old in an a couple of adult games, but you never know… I’ve seen several youngsters do the same kind of thing ages 13 and 14.
       You might find at this stage or perhaps a little later on, that where you had a great deal of success against kids of your own age, this step up in levels proves to be a lot tougher than you expected. If you’re up for it though, this is where you need to develop as a player. If you’re lucky, you might have a coach that can help and they may give you some suggestions. If not here’s some ideas that I’ve picked up on over the years and use myself. The only thing you need that’s not always readily available is a whole bucket of balls 24-30. Put them on your Christmas or birthday list… just buy cheap ones for practicing with.
Accuracy *Or 6 or 7 balls if you're able to bowl up against a fence or net.

To start with let’s get going with a positive aspect so as to not get on a real downer. If you read anything by Clarrie Grimmett or Ashley Malletts book on Grimmett you’ll come across the stories of Grimmett practicing every day of his life almost in his back yard right through till his 80’s. The story goes that he wouldn’t allow himself to go back indoors until he’d managed to land the ball on an area the size of a handkerchief 4 or 5 times consecutively. While that’s an aspiration worthy of aiming for we are talking about a man that was known to be one of the most accurate of all Wrist Spinners.

Instead we’ll look at a starting point as suggested by Terry Jenner. In this video here at 2’10” Jenner makes several useful points primarily suggesting that the area that you bowl into is relatively large

Most of the videos you’ll see on-line and the majority of the guidance is aimed at kids and people starting out, so in the case of this video, this is definitely useful as the point that is being made relates to a good general rule providing you’re spinning the ball hard. He goes on to talk about the flight of the ball and the fact that it needs to be above the eyes. There are little details in Jenner’s instructions that are easily missed. He says “it’s dependent on the way the ball arrives towards the batsman”.  Here, he’s alluding to, but not being specific about things such as dip and drift which are essential, especially if you’re going to be bowling into such a large target area. So while such videos are definitely good starting points there are loads of details that are not gone into.

This big target area approach will potentially work in many scenarios especially if you are getting the ball to drift and dip. Additionally, its effectiveness will be dictated by the state of the game, the ability of the batsman and your own tactics. In order to understand these nuances you need to be playing, watching and reading about cricket as much as possible. Watch all formats of cricket, but it's probably useful to watch the one that replicates the format you yourself play in. You can't apply T20 bowling tactics to a game that lasts a number of days!


So what can we do?______________________
We have to have some understanding of what is a good length. An Indian bloke spoke to me about this years ago when I was practicing and had this advice... He said to get your bat and stand with your back foot just inside the popping crease-line and then stretch forwards with the bat as though you’re playing a fully extended slog sweep. Where the bat tip reaches he said “That’s where you bowl”.

The pitch maps above from Sky TV show that the considered good length for a spinner is somewhere between 3 meters from the crease to 5.7 meters which is quite a big distance. When considering this as a guide to your bowling one key factor you need to think about and consider is your speed... Bowling on a length that is almost 6 meters away from the batsman may be fine if you're bowling at speeds in the 50mph + range, but any slower and the batsman is going to have time to play you off the back foot.

The image above is my interpretation of the Sky TV illustration converted into a viewed from above. I've scaled it so that it's in both Meters and Yards. As you can see the light central area is considered to be 'Good', but you have to consider the speed you bowl at and given that I bowl much slower than a professional spinner, this has to be taken into consideration. The area/length that I work with when doing my own personal accuracy drills is indicated by the white rectangle, which is in the area my Indian friend suggested -  which is more in the region of about 3 to 4 meters in front of the batsman's position on the popping crease e.g. slightly fuller than a much faster professional or perhaps younger bowler than me!

How to analyse and check your accuracy.

This is what I do... You need a few balls - 6 or more; A friend who will watch and make notes; A fence or wall; Tape measure; some paper; marker pen; tape; Stumps and a target.

Figure out the length as described above. Or a length that you feel would be your ideal length to bowl considering the speed you bowl at and the level that you play at. Measuring it out and remember it for future reference. 

For the target I use a piece of hardboard that I position on the wicket (Indicated by the white rectangle in the diagram above) it's relatively small 90cm x 28cm (35"x11") and aim to hit the target as frequently as possible with my stock ball. 

I'm not overly concerned with how much the ball turns during my practice sessions because the area I use is nothing like the pitches that I play on and it gives a false impression, but I have to admit it is good fun! If you want to record how much you get the ball to turn as well as how accurate you are - get some paper and write numbers on them and hang these on the wall/fence behind your stumps as in the picture above.

Get a friend with a clipboard or notebook to stand near the target area and make a note of where the ball lands in relation to the target area. My main objective when I do this is to be as accurate as possible and to watch the ball out of my hand so that I can see whether the ball is rotating at 90 degrees or another chosen angle - usually 45 degrees (more over-spin). 

Philpott in his Book "The Art of Wrist-Spin Bowling" writes about the seriousness of fully committing when practicing , he says that if you don't do it with 100% comittment it's pointless. So when you do this try and do so with total focus on accuracy. 

To take the accuracy aspect a stage further the easiest thing to do and I massively recommend this if you're serious - take the stumps away and don't even consider the stumps.

Bowl as many balls as you wish - I reckon that you should bowl about 24 at a time and get your mate to mark on a note pad/piece of paper where the ball lands like this...

 .If you're noting how much turn you get as you bowl each ball shout to your mate the position the ball hits the fence or wall directly behind the stumps and he then will write the number on his note pad where the ball lands.

What I've then done for the use of this article is scan the piece of paper and in Photoshop using layers produce a digitized version of the points at which the ball has landed. This then allows me to produce a detailed analysis of my own accuracy. Obviously it's not essential to record your own results using Photoshop, you could easily just keep a paper drawn version of your results to look at and refer to, to check and analyse whether your own accuracy is improving or otherwise.

I reckon Jeetan Patel would be most impressed!








This is another thing I've done in the past and found useful.

 This is just a piece matting that's a lot bigger than the examples above. I spray painted lines on the matt either side of the bigger area and me and my younger son Joe in the image who bowls occasional Finger Spin used to bowl alternate balls. The mat would be lined up central to the stumps (not as it is here) and he would bowl outside of the off stump aiming to hit the mat on the 'C' strip turning his Off-Breaks into the stumps and I'd bowl leg-breaks trying to hit the 'A' strip doing the same. We have a point system - 1 point for hitting the centre of the mat, 3 points for hitting your strip and 5 points for landing on your strip and hitting the stumps too. This was good because it adds a competitive edge to your practice.

Again this is another really basic and cheap way to create a really focussed drill that improves a specific aspect of your bowling. With kids or if you're doing this yourself and you're only just starting out, don't make this ridiculously hard so that it becomes depressing, give yourself half a chance to succeed.

Of the two drills though I reckon the first one done without the stumps, just focusing on landing the ball on the designated target is the most beneficial.



landing the ball on the designated target is the most beneficial.

Peter Philpott has some advice in his book ‘The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling’ on the subject of practicing. He writes

The longer and more often you can bowl your wrist-spinners, the more likely you are to be successful and certainly the more likely you are to be accurate. With one important proviso! You must expect to practice ‘correctly’.
      You see, ‘Practice does not make perfect’. It is ‘perfect practice that helps to make perfect’. The emphasis must be that you practice correctly. And that needs some explanation.
     Perfect practice does not mean that you have a perfect wicket to practice on. The conditions are not the most important factor at all. More important is that your approach to practice is serious, positive and purposeful.
    Bowling in the back-yard, the street or school playground is valuable practice, whether there is a batsman or not. But in all these circumstances, regardless of the quality of the conditions you must do it seriously and properly.

He then emphasises the need to bowl your stock ball and run-in with your standard approach to the crease and then says…

Above all, concentrate totally, as you would in the most serious match. I put it to you that unless you are concentrating totally during a practice session, you are wasting your time. 

Philpott then goes on to say you shouldn’t muck about or talk to people, you should be in the zone – total focus when you’re practicing…

None of us can get enough practice as wrist-spinners, let alone too much. So none of us can afford to waste practice situations by fooling with them. Do them properly, treat every ball you bowl like a test match. Then every ball you bowl is likely to be improving you as a bowler.

This next bit resonates with me and is something I often do as I find net bowling to be pretty useless, an opinion that I share with Clarrie Grimmett…

As a wrist-spinner you should try to bowl as long as possible at practice. One hour of bowling is only a warm-up. Try and bowl right through the session. If you’re forced to make way for another bowler, you can still bowl meaningfully to another player out of the nets – preferably the wicket-keeper, or simply into a wall or side net. Your aim is to be chalking up ‘Bowling hours’.

Philpott then makes the point that as wrist-spinners and with the need to bowl more than anyone else in matches and in practice, you need to resourceful in your search to come up with solutions to enable you to bowl all the time and he insists on sessions of 1 to 3 hours! He finishes the section reiterating the need to practice intelligently and with purpose, suggesting that you break up the practice into 15 minute sections e.g. 15 minutes on spinning the ball hard - turning it round corners, 15 accuracy, 15 with your leg break and so on.

Peter Philpott, The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling, Crowood Press, Ramsbury, England Pages 53,54.




Smart Targets


With Philpotts advice ringing in your ears, you now have to go out and practice with purpose, set yourself SMART targets. Don't just go to bowl go with an intention...
S - Specific - Target practice/accuracy.
M - Measurable - How many times to you hit your target.
A - Attainable - Initially give yourself a large target to hit, don't make it impossible and demoralising.
R - Realistic - Don't expect to hit your target 90% of the time at the start.
T - Timely - Set yourself a timescale to achieve a particular target e.g. within 3 sessions I want to hit my target x amount of times.


This goal setting is a professional technique used in coaching see here - http://www.yourcoach.be/en/coaching-tools/smart-goal-setting.php

Here's this put into action...

this is an update of the original article from my old blog here