gundalf's cricket blog

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You make it sound easy! (Drift) I understand the theory I'll just have to see if I can see the way the ball is spinning in the air next time. I know quite often I get a scrambled seam as I tend to notice them when it's all going wrong!
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

unfortunately since my last post my bowling has been going downhill consistently and considerably.
Nets for the last couple of weeks have been very average after getting over my groin strain, I had a few decent sessions at home with the bowling inconsistent between sessions some good some bad, sunday nets was a mix of both, bowling some really magic balls but lacking in accuracy and my batting again, no footwork and being bowled by nearly every full ball, and getting a few bruises after going up against our quickest bowlers.

With the snow this week I haven't had the chance to practice or video to see if I can work out what is going wrong though I suspect it may be my head not being still.

Friday indoor practice, another session of catching and fielding, and it seems i'm not too shabby at the moment though could do with more power in my throws. Had really bad grip problems with our indoor game at the end, finger slipping of the ball and such like, one of the balls bounced 3 times before it reached the other end and accuracy was awful. Still got our best batsman with a brute of a topspinner on the glove at the end though.

Today- doesn't look good for me, looks like my grip problems last night may have put strain on the wrong places on my finger, had a bit of pain this morning but by the time I got home from work my knuckle and joint at the bottom of my middle(spinning) finger are nearly twice the size and there is some pain, unfortuantely it is in the exact same place where I dislocated my finger last year that caused me a massive sprain that took 6 weeks to heal and it feels nearly as bad as it did then :(. So doesn't look good for me bowling much in the near future, even though i'm finally able to go to my local club nets next sunday morning for the first time due to work, just hope the injury is not as bad as I fear. For the moment i've iced it to reduce the swelling and its now buddy taped to stop strain on the joint and watching england be humbled by an innings just rounds of a depressing day
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

Gundalf. Take a good few weeks out mate and give that finger a rest. Go on the forum or email Liz Wizard and see what she reckons, but I reckon if it's a dislocation injury you're better off not bowling for at least a couple of months? The rest my work out being a good idea. If I leave things for a while and then come back to them sometimes there's an unexpected improvement.

Hope it gets better what ever it is you decide to do.
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

well i ended up resting it for a week and it certainly seems to have healed as I was spinning it more than ever on sunday. Rhythm seemed to be back which is a plus as well, all in all some pretty decent goings on atm though i'm a little under the weather atm. Though we may have an indoor game on monday against another uni, and i'm hoping to play, indoor practice later today to :(

for more detail check out my new blog on
An Aspiring Spinner's Blog
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

Basically my bowling has fallen over completely due to my grip, sunday nets was awful, mondays indoor game was an abberation, the worse I can ever remember bowling, my batting seems to be getting worse and to top things off i've had to be to hospital to have an xray after taking a full blooded drive on the inside of the wrist(luckily its just tendon bruising) and now i've got my wrist strapped up. So i've decided to get my grip back by bowling alot and surely it can't get worse from here.

Wednesday
Well with the embarrasment of monday i've decided to try and get my grip back and i've decided the way to do it is to practice- alot. My grip just feels wrong initially my middle finger had been slipping under the ball but this stopped and I got it to waht looked like normal but it doesn't feel "right", even my googly is really slipping out weak at the moment so it is definitely at least partly something to do with my spinning finger being wrong. This ended up being a 3 hour bowling session as I kept pushing myself and was absolutely exhausted by the end having bowled about 60 odd overs of basically just leg breaks and most of it still being complete and utter s**t without a break(apart from trying to find the balls after disappearing into the depths of my garage). There was some improvement but nothing to write home about was well below my normal standard even by the end and it was rare to see the ball turn about once every 5 overs for the first 30 or so :(.

Thursday
Decided I hadn't had enough practice yesterday and after watching the aussie struggle this morning decided to do a bit of batting practice. I practice cut shots and leg glances for about half an hour, but it still seemed pointless as I ended up missing or top edging at least half the cut shots and keep hitting my front leg in the leg glance as it refuses to get out the way. I can tell i'm still not keeping my eyes at the ball but i'm at a loss as how to solve this problem as I just seem to naturally not follow the ball especially when it naturally goes to where i'd have to look down to see it.

Anyway there was a fair improvement in the leg break today and I ended up bowling another 25 overs or so before my spinning finger started bleeding as it looks like my nail has split and gone into my finger. I was really ripping the ball today like I was the other monday but as my grip still seems to be off I was getting towards the same sort of turn as normal though the accuracy was not so great, though the action really felt as if it was going through really great so it looks like long bowling practice can help me get my rhythm just need to figure out what is wrong with my grip, to me looking at a pic of my grip compared to now it looks the same but it definitely doesn't feel it, I really am at a loss how to solve this, maybe bowling off breaks as a contingency if all else fails like monday isn't such a bad idea.

Anyway my finger feels fine and if the weather stays dry i'll probablly try and get in another hour of bowling practice at a proper net this afternoon as I know indoor practice today will be fielding practice after last weeks display and I'm feeling a bit rusty on that too.
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

That sounds pretty bad. That's a lot of unproductive bowling you're doing there and then the bleeding finger! I don't know what to suggest, but it certainly sounds like you're gripping the ball too hard maybe - but then you're saying that this works for you? I had a bad day in the nets yesterday, but mine was just due to bowling too long a length and in a similar vein to you I was concluding that it's the grip that's at issue possibly combined with releasing too early fearful of dragging it down?
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

unfortunately my finger has been giving me problems lately and not allowing me to bowl properly though its healing I still seem to be suffering from my increasingly annoying grip problem.

here's the latest update from my blog at: http://aspiringspinner.blogspot.coml

Well its been a pretty dull week with me giving leg spin a rest to let my finger heal.

fridays practice I bowled sort of leg spin but really not ripping it. i had patched up my bad finger with superglue and attempted to bowl but it isn't to effectice as you lose all feeling of the ball of the finger. Seemed like I was beginning to get a bit of googly syndrome as well as my wrist wanted to spin the ball the other way with my thumb pointing for a googly after every ball. So the best thing was to give it a break. In the indoor practice game I got a bat and lasted all of a few balls, the first one seemed harshly in to me and I was fairly lucky to get bat on it. Next ball I hit a beautiful on drive straight along the ground to a fielder but it was hit well, so looks like my new grip is working. Last ball I managed to hit a wonderful upper cut that would have gone for 4 in a match outside, instead it looped back off the wall for a simple catch, but basically I couldn't care as if i'm naturally cutting like that i'll be scoring runs there in the season, all the indoors is is a practice. Bowled an over with my patched up finger, wasn't getting any turn apart from my googly and I bowled a good over for only one hit to the back wall and got a run out even though I mixed up it tons more than normal and still was accurate so things with the variations look good.

Sunday
Had been suffering cramps in my right leg all day for some reason, including one very painful attack. Still went to practice and decided to bowl seam to give the finger a rest. It was average to say the least and gradually got worse as the cramp seemed to get worse and my leg was buckling under me a few times so I switched to bowling "spin" which consisted to arm balls at different speed and flights to the amusement of some of the lads saying he's doing an ashley giles. Didn't bat as I was having trouble even running in to bowl so I better make sure I have a net next week.

Thursday
After 10 hours at work(damn people being sick and not turning up), the last couple of hours spent mainly reading philpotts leg spin book again had got me in the mood for some leg spin when I got home. My finger seems to have mostly healed thankfully though the skin is still pretty red and tender so I was meant to take it easy. Despite the darkness it was surprisingly warm compared to what i've practiced though during the winter. After a while of bowling at half pace for a few overs I was getting bored and so switched to bowling properly and it became apparent quite quickly i'm still having some pretty serious grip problems and had balls slipping out though I overcame it a bit to start bowling decent with the windballs. Then I thought I needed to bowl with a seamed ball again to broke out the incrediballs for the first time. These balls are great apart from the initial sharp seam as these ones way the same as a cricket ball allowing me to bowl at home with the right weight and a seamed ball. Initially again I had a fair bit of trouble gripping them and couldn't get any turn at all. As time went on I sort of adapted the release a bit and got the seam to come out in the right place despite the screwed up grip and straight away I got the balls turning again, which is nice to see. It felt great to have the ball turning again and the difference in just the half an hour from being unable to turn the incrediball to the end where they would have been turning enough to beat the bat.Unfortunately had to call it a day after an hour as my finger was feeling pretty sore and I don't want to injure it again while its healing.

I'm confident I should now be able to build on this though and there were some really good positives despite my grip still not being right, I still can't figure out whats wront unfortunately and as so the ball is coming out pretty inconsitently at times and slipping completely at others.
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

thanks virender my finger seems to have all but healed now and my bowling is getting back on track, my latest update to my main blog:

The weather was lovely today so I couldn't resist going to practice an hour early to have a go in the outdoor park nets. In the end our practice ended up being at the nets anyway so I got a good solid 2 hour session. The bowling started out a little better than normal of late as my grip was a bit more steady due to me actually resting the ball on my thumb rather than just have it touching it. My accuracy was fine and I was using an old ball that was slightly mangled and getting some turn. Though going into the second hour I just kept getting better and better and didn't need to use my thumb and the ball was coimg out with a straight seam and turning loads.

Amazingly I was causing loads of problems for one of our lefties and had turn and bounce and even got myself varying the turn on the leg breaks at will. I couldn't believe the improvement as the session went on I was beginning to bowl how I know that I can. The surface of the nets isn't even as good for spin as the grass pitches I played on last year so my hopes are high if I can bowl like this. My follow through still isn't anywhere near as energetic as I want it to be and i'm sure I can add a few mph to the ball which should help as well. The only bad balls were really towards the end as the strain of bowling near non stop was getting me tired. Only cause for concern was my back(yes, again) as when I tried to bowl my quick arm balls with the slightly quicker run up I felt sharp pains in my lower back again so I will be giving seam bowling a miss though thats not a bad things if my leg breaks are looking alright again.

looking forward to having another double net on sunday, and should finally get some batting practice. Only cause for concern is my back, which I may have to get checked out as I fear its worse than a bit of stiffness as its pretty frequent atm.

In the international world it isn't looking great for us leggies though with rashid taking a pounding in last saturdays match which may scupper his odi chances and mcgain finally debuting and getting hammered for 9 and a half an over, krezja got dropped for half that and he took wickets so thats unfortunate.
 
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unfortunately my season is currently up in smoke due to work and uni, in the last 2 weeks i've had only been able to practice for an hour as i've only had one day free and it doesn't look like that will change in the current week. Unfortunately i've had calls from saturday and sundays first teams to play and had to turn them down last weekend and with the short uni season starting this weekend i've had to turn that down too even though the season will finish at the end of may (unless we get far in the cup) due to damn work. Also won't be able to play the wednesday game due to an exam but thats a given. Hoping to get a game wednesday week for the uni but goodness knows when i'll be playing weekend games for my club. Hopefully I hear something about my uni placemtn for next year soon so I can quit work to play cricket for a few months.
 
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had a pretty nice day today after work popped down to my club ground and watched our team bowl in the nice sunshine we had only set the opposition 159 to win in 40 overs which looked really easy on our ground. They started great and were 100-3 off about 25 overs and then they gradually lost wickets but with 9 overs left they needed 11 to win with 5 wickets remaining but they absolutely collapsed losing 4 wickets for a run and the last batsman absent hurt so we won by 9 runs. It was great to see our team never gave up even with the position the opposition were in and it payed off. I had a couple of hours in the nets while watching, the first long bowl i've had for ages. Was initially very short but once I warmed up it was really coming out well and I troubled our 1st team guys who had come down to watch as our away game had been cancelled, very happy with the way i'm bowling at the moment and hopefully will have a game or 2 or 3 in the next 10 days. Uni are playing next 2 wednesdays and sunday so I should get a game hopefully. We have lost all of our 4 games so far 3 losses and a forfeit between our 1sts and 2nds. Unfortunately I seem to have slipped down the pecking order alot probablly due to having unavoidably being unavailable for the other games so far.

Saturday side lost again unfortunately so we are well down the league though last week our one guy scored 170 odd not out in 40 overs. On the club side of things its looking up a bit as I've been told I am guaranteed a game next sunday if I aren't wanted for the uni side but I have to know by the end of the week so hopefully I should get a game next sunday. On the upside as well the club are really impressed with my bowling and want me to play saturdays and sundays whenever i'm available. So i'm just hoping I can get work sorted out soon and so come june I hope to be playing regularly.
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

Good work with the bowling wish I could say the same about my own teams opinion of my bowling. Incidentally how long have you been bowling for?
 
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lol just wish the uni actually considered by bowling to be any good i've had to pull the 2nd team captains leg to just get a game sunday as the 2nds seems to be more of his mates playing in the team rather than the best 2nd xi we have.

Practiced 3 out of the last 4 days to with a rest on monday, the ball seems to be coming out pretty well. Googlies were coming out right again yesterday but they seem to have reverted to scrambled today. Been working on pace changes and my arm ball all week and they are looking pretty nice. Hopefully I can put in a good performance sunday and I may get another game for the uni then my batting seems to be the main reason why I don't even get a look in over any of the other spinners. Hopefully should have another net tomorrow night now my club have put their outdoor nets up and its only 5 mins drive away and then a rest saturday.

dave i've been bowling probablly a little over 18 months of leg spin with a cricket ball october the year before last was the first time I bowled one with a cricket ball though i'd bowled on and off with a tennis ball in street cricket for a while.
 
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the poor uni organisation again with the game cancelled on sunday meaning i've had to phone the sunday captain and beg him to give me a game, and better yet it worked so i'm still getting a game sunday not sure whether its home or away as yet. Unfortunately weather got the best of my practice this evening. Just hope the uni team can get their act together (2 fixtures cancelled and 1 reorganised out of 4 game!) and actually organise teams properly and then maybe I might get a game wednesday too
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

Gundalf you're doing well then in such a short time. Maybe with me it's that you can't teach old Dog new tricks thing, although I reckon I'm pretty up for learning stuff, I'm not the sort that thinks that they're better than everyone else. I know for certain as far as cricket's concerned I'm a starter with loads to learn.
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

lol dave i'm doing alright, I know I still have loads to learn.

Finally had a game sunday, I got brought on with the opposition needing 9 an over to win with 16 overs left bowling to the opener who already had scored 50 odd. He threw his bat at everything and the team put him down 3 times off me alone plus 2 more catching chances mucked up off me, a missed stumping a turned down plumb lbw to all in 3 overs that ended up conceding 20 runs + 2 byes.

full match report on my blog- An Aspiring Spinner's Blog: Match update 10-5-09

I messed up my apporach to the wicket as I usually just estimate the distance to the wicket and bowl fine, but this day I bowled 2 no balls in my first 4 balls which had me concentrating on my feet instead of my bowling. Slightly 2 full, but the team put down some real sitter off me and it really cost, I didn't bowl to bad the line was really good on every ball and length wasn't awful by any means.

Must measure approach in future and make sure i'm following through so the ball doesn't com out so slow.

In other news the uni game that was meant to be played today was cancelled again and reorganised for friday but the weather looks awful for the next few days and thats if its on at all so I may(not likely) have a game friday.
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

yeah I probablly could promote it more, it only gets updated sporadically or once a week really though, lol
 
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