Wicket Keeping

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SteveyD

SteveyD

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Well, I have been asked to wicket keep for the midweek match this week, (ok I semi volunteered as I 'm not getting to bowl or bat in the midweek games ever and felt it could be a good experience)

Just wondering if anyone has any useful tips, I'm a reasonable slip fielder, and have the agility to dive. I also have the footwork to move around and follow the ball, however having never kept before, I'm interested in how one goes about getting into it part time?

From what I have learnt so far;
Fingers always perpendicular to ball, simple that (especially after I broke a nail diving for a catch at cover yesterday....)
Sideways steps, body always perpendicular to the ball. Same as soccer really, always keep shoulders/chest at a 90 ° angle to ball.
The one thing i'm not sure on is about legs. Many keepers I see often end up having to use their legs to stop the ball, especially on club wickets. Is this because of hte wicket, or because of poor technique/distance judging for the bowler?




(Yes I would rather be bowling, but we have so many good bowlers I am getting rarely 1 or2 overs in a 20-20. I'm also batting at 3 in our saturday team now so am not really getting the chance to focus on my bowling ever....)
 
SteveyD said:
Well, I have been asked to wicket keep for the midweek match this week, (ok I semi volunteered as I 'm not getting to bowl or bat in the midweek games ever and felt it could be a good experience)

Just wondering if anyone has any useful tips, I'm a reasonable slip fielder, and have the agility to dive. I also have the footwork to move around and follow the ball, however having never kept before, I'm interested in how one goes about getting into it part time?

From what I have learnt so far;
Fingers always perpendicular to ball, simple that (especially after I broke a nail diving for a catch at cover yesterday....)
Sideways steps, body always perpendicular to the ball. Same as soccer really, always keep shoulders/chest at a 90 ° angle to ball.
The one thing i'm not sure on is about legs. Many keepers I see often end up having to use their legs to stop the ball, especially on club wickets. Is this because of hte wicket, or because of poor technique/distance judging for the bowler?




(Yes I would rather be bowling, but we have so many good bowlers I am getting rarely 1 or2 overs in a 20-20. I'm also batting at 3 in our saturday team now so am not really getting the chance to focus on my bowling ever....)
Click to expand...

Given that you don't have much time (so the 'get plenty of practice before playing in a game' isn't going to help) here goes. As you have said footwork is one of the keys, look to get your head in line with the ball, I like keepers who move their feet first and dive last if that makes sense

The legs bit may be one of a number of things
- hopefully its poor throws from fielders, continually being around the keepers ankles hence stopping the ball is the priority and very few keepers will back themselves to always pickup on the half volley
- if its behind the stumps from balls bowled, I would question both their positioning and particularly their footwork. If in doubt stand closer rather than further away, this may soung counter-intuative but a couple of extra yards isnt going to help your reflexes that much but catching a ball at waist height is a darn sight easier that one at shin height (having fielded in the slips may help you with this judgement)
- the 'tradition' is to stay as low as possible and 'come up with the ball' - this sounds easy, but is actually a difficult thing to do straight off, but it is much easier to adjust upwards than it is to go back down to a ball that has died on you

If you take it on full time, there are lots of other things to worry about, but for now, good luck:)
 
TonyM said:
- if its behind the stumps from balls bowled, I would question both their positioning and particularly their footwork. If in doubt stand closer rather than further away, this may soung counter-intuative but a couple of extra yards isnt going to help your reflexes that much but catching a ball at waist height is a darn sight easier that one at shin height (having fielded in the slips may help you with this judgement)

If you take it on full time, there are lots of other things to worry about, but for now, good luck:)
Click to expand...
Yeah, balls bowled. I always wondered if its in part due to the two faced nature of wickets at this level or if it was just crap positioning! (Its my boss who keeps normally.... so I have to be careful about being critical :p)

If i take it on full time, I will be upset because I am a bowler primarily :p
But my batting has come on a lot this season and my bowling has not really had much time to work on so It wouldn't be too bad.
 
Oh. The other thing I've never been sure about. When a keeper does a stumping. Does the ball have to hit the stumps or is it the hand that the ball is In too ?
 
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