Batsmen of SEDCB region and how to get them out.

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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. 

Reflective practice

Update 26/1/19 287

In some professional fields of work practice - teaching and nursing are two that come to mind, there's a necessity to reflect on what you do in order to adopt new strategies and approaches to your work, in order to keep on top of what you're doing and maintain professional standards.

If you're old enough you may remember 2013 and the Australia teams "Homeworkgate" incident after a lost series in India...

After Australia's humiliating defeat to India in the second test at Hyderabad - where they became the first side in test history to declare in the first innings but then lose by an innings - players were asked to identify three areas of possible improvement.

To me, this sounds as though they were asked to reflect on what they'd done in a more formal manner rather than simply chat about it and sleep on it, which to me coming from a educational background seems like a reasonable request. At the same time I can see why in a sports scenario such as the Australian cricket team this might not have gone down that well.

That aside, I reckon there's a place for it in cricket in both the informal manner and the more formal written way which I'm going to explain. It's evident that some cricket players do it in their own personal way as a part of their development and practice and I write about this in one of the other posts  - see here

Needless to say a lot of people will think this is total nonsense and an utter waste of time, but others might see it differently and see some merit in it. So, what does it involve?

Gibbs Reflective model

In Peter Philpotts book The Art of Wrist Spin bowling one of the things that he tries to get across to the reader is the need to take all aspects of your training, practice and development seriously. Grimmett too, wasn't one to take practice lightly and practiced pretty much in isolation, never bowling in nets to a batsman because he wanted no-one to know his tricks. If you take your bowling seriously an extension of the committed practice might also include reflecting on what you do in the form of a written response?

So, it works like this... You have a practice and you get nowhere. But, rather than get on the XBOX and start playing PUBG or spend the next 5 hours looking at memes on your phone you use this illustration of the Gibbs reflective cycle to reflect on what went wrong and devise a plan to for the next session.

(1). Description (What happened)? You clarify what it was that you went out to practice on. Again, referencing Philpott, there is no point on going out without an aim or an objective, so this first question gets you to look at whether that was the case. What happened did you really go out there with a clear intent and did you stick to it? Briefly you write down what you did - a paragraph or two.

(2). Feelings (What were you thinking and feeling)?  Again, this requires a brutally honest appraisal of your emotional response. Were you up for it? Was your state of mind correct, or did you practice with your head somewhere else or did you go and practice to take your mind off of something else. Again a brief written response of a paragraph or two.

(3). Evaluation (What was good and bad about the experience)? This is fairly self-explanatory and again should be kept to a few paragraphs, I try not to dwell too much on the negatives and look for the positives and try and use an approach where I use two positives where possible and one negative aspect. This usually relates to what you actually did - the physical aspects of the practice.

(4). Analysis (What sense can you make of the situation)? This is the important bit and when I teach this, I tell students this is the bit that should contain the most detail. In order for it to be analytical there needs to be a questioning aspect to the process - ask the question what if and explore what the outcome would be if something was done differently - why might it make a difference.

(5). Conclusion (What else could you have done)? You might find that you draw conclusions in the analysis section, so pick out the main conclusion and reiterate it or skip this section and go straight to the action plan.

(6). Action Plan (if it arose again what would you do)? Well, it is going to arise again, because you're going to have play or practice again in the future. So, plan what you're going to do, how will you implement a plan or strategy? What are you going to do next time you practice that is going to enable some form of improvement, what are you looking to improve - how are you going to do it and when?

As I said it wont suit everyone, but some people will find that by writing stuff down and being brutally honest with yourself like this in black and white does actually help.

Here's some examples from my old blog...

http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/2013/05/reflective-practice-spin-bowling.html
http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/2015/05/leg-spin-bowling-practice-gibbs.html
http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/2013/04/homework-gibbs-reflective-practice.html
http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/2014/05/gibbs-reflective-practice-used-in.html

If you're not convinced and need more evidence of it's potential see here https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/reflective-practice/

Field settings and tactics for Wrist Spin Bowlers

There's a whole blog dedicated to this aspect of the game that you can find by following this link here
https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

It features In game analysis of the batsman that I bowl against as well as observations of how the batsman plays the other bowlers. Usually you'll have some sense of when you'll be expected to bowl. I always seem to be used around the 20-24th over against either well set opening batsmen or middle-order batsmen. In which case, prior to starting my spell I ensure I watch the batsmen and see how they play. I look for their strongest scoring areas, whether they're cautious or willing to come out of the crease and play the ball on the full, whether they bat with a big gap between the bat and their body, how frequently they're looking to drive the ball with a straight bat of whether they have a preference for cross bat shots. Over and above anything else I look to ascertain whether they are strong leg-side players and which shots they deploy if they do prefer to play leg-side. Then I try and bowl with these observations in mind.

The blog features a profile of the batsman/woman with a basic description of their approach. Then that's followed by the in-game analysis with scoring zones and the positions of the fielders during the game. The final illustration is a pitch map with a plan for the next encounter with a suggested approach to get this particular batsman out. This includes a revised field to counter their best shots and then a plan to exploit their potential weaknesses.

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

Starting a spell - wrist spinners and left-arm Orthodox bowling

26/1/19 work in progress (46 views).

We all play in leagues where its normal to play the opposition at home and then away at some point in the same season, for all I know your league may be really small and you play the same team more than twice a season? Therefore, over your cricketing life, you're likely to bowl against the same blokes year after year in the same way as the professionals do. Similarly, you'd play at the same grounds year in year out and you'd have favorite grounds - ones that you prefer to play at?

Surely then, if you're taking your cricket seriously you'd adopt some of the strategies you hear professional teams using, one of which is analysis of the players you face and the wickets you play on?

In the last year (2018) during the series here in England when England played India there were the usual series of interviews on Sky cricket and two stuck out with regards individuals approaches to their bowling plans and strategies. Ravi Ashwin and Darren Gough both spoke about the fact that immediately after games they make extensive notes about the batsmen and the way they play, so that they can modify their bowling in the next encounter. Both of them spoke about it being a key part of their practice and Darren Gough in particular alluded to the fact that he was almost obsessive with regards making these notes and enjoyed this part of his game strategy. We all know too that within professional teams they now have staff that focus on data and information collating, right down to the fact that some of the teams if not all of them play with body monitoring equipment on that records their organ functions - heart rates, body temperature and more with regards to fine tuning them as athletes to get the most out of them.

Look at the video here Double click on the video to open it

Listen to what Warne Says about plans relating to batsmen at the start of the video.

Whilst I'm not suggesting that we do anything near as complex as this, but analysis of some aspects of the game are within our reach and might be useful to us when we play? My suggestion is that as a wrist-spinner who plays over a number of years against the same opposition at the same venues, it might be worthwhile analysing and recording some aspects of the game that might be relatively consistent? Whilst I acknowledge this wont be everyone's cup of tea, some of you might enjoy it and it may add another dimension to the game that makes it more enjoyable and you might find it improves your success rates.

Before you start your spell___________________________________________________________

I sometimes visit the ground the day before and have a look at where I'm going to be playing. I look at which of the strips has been cut and where they are in relation to the boundary and the wind direction. Dependent on how you bowl, you might want the bigger boundary on the side where you're most likely to concede runs? If the wind blows in one direction predominantly you may want to consider how that's going to affect the ball in the air, think drift . On one of the wickets that I've played on over the last 10 years the wicket runs east to west, so in the latter stages of the game with the sun setting in the west I you bowl high loopy ball out of the setting sun from the western end of the wicket! Similarly, our home ground, doesn't have screens and if I bowl from my preferred end the ball if looped up comes out of a big Oak tree and batsman have said to me before "I couldn't see the bloody ball"!

Then there's the wicket itself. I'm no expert at this by any stretch of the imagination, but bit by bit when you play on wickets over a number of years you'll remember the properties and characteristics of them. If you're a Shane Warne type with an amazing cricket brain you might be able to remember all these details, but some of us like Ravi Ashwin and Darren Gough have to write it down and keep notes . Dependent on where you live and how affluent the area is, the wickets are going to differ massively. Many of us here in the UK play on municipally owned grounds where local councils maintain the wickets and increasingly the level of expertise available to execute the role of curating the wicket and outfield is being lost. As a result the wickets can be really poor.

The weather is a factor too, but overall it's a pretty complex art and you've only got to watch professional cricket to see that some captains make catastrophic mistakes based on their analysis of the wicket. I'd be looking to ascertain the following information in different weather conditions, does it bounce, does it offer turn, does it break up easily after hot weather, is the bounce variable, is it kept in good condition, is it covered in weeds and does it drain quickly?

It's just a case of making either mental notes of the characteristics or write it down so that when you step up to your mark you have some idea of what might happen.

The batsman______________________________________________________________________

The more you know about him/her the better, as it means you can potentially make it difficult for them from the outset. Again, over the season/years make notes about the batsman; his/her strengths and weaknesses and look to exploit them as much as possible right from the start of your spell. The more you're able to do this, the more confident you're going to be as you bowl your first over.

With a little knowledge of the batsman and how the wicket plays, you're going to be in a far better position to start your spell in a positive manner.

_________________________________________________________________________________

The first over

From all of my observations with regards to the wickets that I bowl on, the best approach I find currently, is to bowl an off-stump line with a predominantly off-side field when faced with a batsman that you don't know and you're unaware of how much the ball will turn off the wicket and or bounce. The key is to bowl to your field and allow yourself to settle and relax. If you click on the image below, which hopefully will take you to a Youtube video featuring Shane Warne, scroll through to 12 minutes and 30 seconds - listen to what he says about moving your position on the wicket.

Double click on the image
to open the video in Youtube.



Shane Warne's advice; These video's are frequently removed from Youtube, so if the link doesn't work, mention it in the comments below.

This is something that Warne has talked about before. If you're able to bowl a decent line, do as discussed above - bowl an over or a few balls from your normal position on the crease and then look at changing your position on the crease once you sense that the batsman feels he's got the measure of you. Remember, in exactly the way you're trying to work him out, he's doing the same thing with you - trying to figure whether it's turning off the wicket, whether you're varying the speed or flight looking for the opportunity to pounce and hit a four or get off-strike. Whilst we're on the subject of getting off-strike this is one of the things you want to avoid especially when a batsman has just come to the crease. If possible keep him there. In a way it's preferable sometimes for him to run two: (a). The bloke at the other end might be well set and scoring consistently and causing your problems, so you don't want him on strike (b). If the new bloke runs a single he then stands at the bowlers end and gets to watch the ball from a different perspective rather than the perspective of someone just about to lose their wicket.

When you sense that he's feeling more comfortable and may be about to play a run scoring shot - change it up slightly...

Bowl from a different position on the crease. In the video Warne talks about starting in close to the stumps bowling over the wicket from position 6 and then moving wider on the crease still over the wicket for the next 2 balls eventually bowling from 5. He then says, if you are going to look at bowling around the wicket - go straight to position 2 and bowl into the same area. Don't suddenly bowl wide outside of leg - remember you're field is predominantly an off-side field, so continue to bowl into the stumps. As Warne says, this change-up is a difference in your position of more than 8' and is something the batsman has to consider and react to.

In a situation like this, you could potentially have been bowling your stock ball and at this point coming from such a wide and different angle also change up your delivery to a straight ball - top-spinner or one that has some back-spin like a Flipper  or just a nothing ball, like a slow seam-up delivery that goes straight on. There's no right or wrong way with this, these are just suggestions to demonstrate what you could potentially do - you could just bowl leg-breaks and move your position on the crease and that might be more than enough to create problems and get a wicket. The most important thing is to be able to bowl a fairly consistent line and to spin the ball hard.

The other thing people often don't consider is the depth of the crease. if you're bowling a nice length and you struggle to adjust your lengths bowl off a different length if you're looking to drop it shorter e.g. from position (1)? See the article here by Ashley Mallett  where he writes about length and dip in relation to not letting a batsman settle.

Remember always watch what the batsman does with the other bowler in between your overs. Try and figure out what his preferred shots are and where he appears to be targeting to score runs. As I try and bowl at the off-stump in the early overs, I'm always interested in seeing how well the batsman plays leg-side shots and dependent on what happens in the other bowlers over, that helps me make decisions with regards to whether I might bring my line across and start to bowl more of leg-stump line which is a far more attacking approach.

Click on the images below for examples of my analysis of batsman from my previous games.

The truth about the nonsense you all call 'Sliders' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9sifVFMJVc&t=333s

And this one Ian Bell -  "Natural variation" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3VnK2KLRds&t=43s