Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

Top Contributors
I guess i should add this as this is what's going through my mind, am I forever going to be the loose, fanciful, apparently carefree leg spinner? no matter how hard i do practice, i mean i've been doing this since 2007, will i always be prone to bowling some rubbish and letting the batsman off? and is this okay in the scheme of things as long as i do produce some occasional slices of magic? Part of me understands a captains reticence to someone who lives on the edge like this, always one ball away from both brilliance and disaster, but the other bemoans the lack of opportunity i may be afforded as a knock on effect from one or two bad performances, i want to reach my full potential as a bowler but if i'm not given overs because i'm seen as a risk will i ever be able to?
 
GA, there is nothing wrong with being carefree. Different captains / coaches look for different things, so ultimately you have to be true to yourself and be who you are - if you approach your cricket in a relaxed manner then embrace that, for me that is a pretty good quality for a leggie as you are bound to have days when you get well and truly carted and it takes a certain personality to both know this and then come back for more!

One word of caution, don't let 'carefree' appear 'lax' when it comes to training, put the hours in and you will gain more consistency (and probably respect from teammates/captains) to go with your matchday personality
 
8-1-3-36 That's not bad at all, just short of 5 an over, but with three wickets, a maiden, you've gotta come away from a game so early in the season feeling pretty pleased about that!
 
someblokecalleddave said:
8-1-3-36 That's not bad at all, just short of 5 an over, but with three wickets, a maiden, you've gotta come away from a game so early in the season feeling pretty pleased about that!
Click to expand...

Yeah that was a good day out for goldenarm. Gee that was a beautiful setting where you played dave. I was checking out your blog.

Jim really got the rough end of the stick on the week-end though. I mean small ground, wrong end, dropped catch, crazy field settings and an unsympathetic captain. I suppose all you can do is protest before your spell and say look mate, the wind will most likely blow any drift off the ball from this end and i cant bowl effectively with this field you have given me. I 'll have a go but but it's gonna to be like pushin shit up a hill with a stick.
 
I'm playing for the 2nd XI in the league on Saturday, and then Sunday friendly again this week. So I guess my efforts and lack of luck haven't gone completely unnoticed.

Hopefully I'll get a bowl on Saturday, but knowing the captain and having played a game for him last year, I imagine it will be 2 or 3 overs if he gets absolutely desperate and no wickets are falling, somewhere around the 30th over with about 200-2 on the scoreboard and 2 batsmen on 50. I can't imagine for a second I'll be thrown in first change to attack the upper order early in their innings. But we will see. The first XI have a new captain (and have lost some regular players, plus not many people are making themselves available at the start of this season) and he has been looking to poach a couple of the better 2nd XI players. So there might well be shortages in either the bowling or batting (or both), so that could work in my favour either way. I don't mind not getting a proper bowl if I get to have a bat instead and the wicket is nice. If the wicket is awful for batting then I'll be annoyed if I don't get a bowl because its zero fun batting on an uneven track.

Whatever happens Saturday I'll get a proper bowl on Sunday, and this time I'm setting my field. The only potential problem is that my back is really playing up after I somehow injured it practicing last week, and it is still hurting occasionally, and I think 2 matches might really flare it up. It hurts right at the base of my spin when I bend over or really exert myself, but I have absolutely no idea how I did it. Also last week I noticed a little lower leg pain starting to rear its ugly head again in my left leg. Whilst my right ankle has been really stiff and painful since the latter part of the winter indoor season. Not a particularly good start to the season injury wise, I might be having to rest before its even started haha.
 
macca said:
Yeah that was a good day out for goldenarm. Gee that was a beautiful setting where you played dave. I was checking out your blog.

Jim really got the rough end of the stick on the week-end though. I mean small ground, wrong end, dropped catch, crazy field settings and an unsympathetic captain. I suppose all you can do is protest before your spell and say look mate, the wind will most likely blow any drift off the ball from this end and i cant bowl effectively with this field you have given me. I 'll have a go but but it's gonna to be like pushin shit up a hill with a stick.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's a lovely pitch other than the fact that it runs from East to West and the pitch (Outfield) is on a pretty steep slope. I've got a match this Sunday at another nice looking pitch that I've not played at, but yeah England in the late Spring/Early summer what with the rain and climate means that this time of year everything looks lush and green and when it's sunny and warm it probably is a contender for one of places you must see/visit in your life. A mate of mine who I used to surf with lives out your way (Sydney) and he saw the pic's on Facebook and said that seeing it makes him want to be back home.
 
Just had a quick 100 balls on the paddock, went pretty well, quite happy with the line length and the amount of turn I'm getting off the wicket. Also sounding like the ball was humming through the air as I was bowling, which I rarely noticed, but it was so still and quite tonight I heard it. The stillness indicates a change in the weather, big storms are brewing and it looks like rain tomorrow and Saturday, good for all the cricket pitches and the paddock, may get to roll it soon which will be good. News tonight showing all the fires in the forests and Moors here in the UK - dryest April for over 100 years!
 
Had a bit of a bowl tonight a bucket of 40 balls back and forth 5 times (200 balls) and it went amazingly well, bowling beautifully at the minute, exceptional accuracy hitting a 30cm x 30cm mat a lot and turning it from way outside off leg over the top of the stumps or wide of off stump frequently. My Flippers are coming out well - very accurate and much faster and still gradually bringing in the bound, but at the moment the 3 or 4 step walk in is serving me very well.
 
Not a good start to the season proper here in the UK after what feels like weeks of sunshine and months of no rain, it's rained over night and scheduled to rain again this afternoon when the matches start and rain tomorrow morning when the kids matches are due to start. My own match on Sunday afternoon which was cancelled because of a lack of players looks like it's going to be okay as the rain would have passed by 10.00 am. Watching the weather reports closely and keeping fingers crossed.

Practiced to day and had a knock about with my kids in the paddock. Very warm and cloudy, the kind of conditions that lead to thunderstorms over night. No rain as yet at 21.30 hrs, still keeping fingers crossed for the boys game tomorrow.
 
I just thought you'd like to know - I took my first EVER wicket today, and I really want to thank EVERYONE on the leg-spinners' forum for the support I've had from you all, it is much appreciated.

I only bowled 1.3 overs today, and they weren't the best I've ever bowled, slow and loopy and generally not too impressive, but the situation was perfect - No.11 at the crease, loads of runs to get and they were just looking for the draw. My first over was OK-ish but my second (i.e. my last three balls) started with one of the best balls I've ever bowled, pitching well outside leg stump, turning miles, going between bat and pad and missing off by a few inches. Good to show the batsman I can turn it, got him thinking! Second ball was poor, outside off but cut straight to the fielder, then third ball I gave the him a top-spinner which turned a little but bounced nicely and he spooned it to backward square leg, where a good mate of mine (and an even better mate after today) took the catch to win the game. I let out a huge shout then made a bee-line to him to say "thanks very much buddy!"

Final figures: O 1.3 M 0 W 1 R 4. Oh, and I got a silver duck, but sod that!
 
I had a crap game yesterday. The wicket was a sponge, at first glance it looked like there would be no bounce whatsoever, but there was more than expected when it came to playing. It was still an extremely slow and low wicket, but playable. An odd one kept low or jagged off the surface, but very few really. It could have done with being rolled though, it was covered in grass and looked more like a council prepared wicket than a league wicket.

We batted first (having lost the toss, it seemed like a bowling first kind of wicket, with overcast and muggy conditions for swing) and went well. One guy was playing his first game of outdoor cricket for something like 9 years, and hit 140 not out!! Makes you sick lol, especially when his bowling figures were 4-10 off of 10 overs as well!!!! We ended up with 243 I think, I was next in to bat and never got in. About the 3rd or 4th game in a row where I've been padded up and not got a go.

So then on to bowling. There was the occasional light shower throughout the game, but it never stopped play. We needed to rush through 20 overs so that there would be a definite result, and we had set a huge score for the wicket so it was always going to be a win really unless they had some special players. They didn't, and our opening medium pacers kept things very tight, one of them taking 2 wickets in his first over to collapse their top order.We got to drinks at 21 overs with only 3 wickets though I think, and the captain said "we need a couple of quick wickets here" to me, I think implying that if we did I would get a bowl. My fielding was absolutely spot on upto that point, I had covered a ridiculous amount of distance chasing down boundary balls on a very soft and slow outfield. Anyway, we got a few quick wickets, and I got the nod after about 30 overs with them 6 wickets down and with no realistic chance of getting anywhere near our total (I don't think they were even past 100 runs at that stage).

I had a kid at one end who's only shot was an awful mowed pull shot across the line. And a fat bloke at the other end who obviously fancied himself as a big hitter but didn't have much technique. Not really the kind of players I wanted to be bowling at when I'm bowling a spell that basically sets the captains opinion of me for the rest of this season. At least he let me set my own field, but without me noticing he didn't put mid wicket deep, he kept him close. I didn't even realise until a 4 went there later.

My first over was crap. 3 no balls in it, the first was a full toss that wasn't above waist height, but the umpire called it anyway. The second was a front foot no ball and unforgivable really, especially as it was the only good ball I bowled and pitched on middle and turned a mile off a length. The kid was above to dab at it and it looked very likely to find the edge, but he pulled away at the no ball call. Then I bowled another full toss that was again below waist height, but still got called. Both no balls were at the fat old bloke. The other balls in the over were all short, but nothing went for any runs really, just the no balls and maybe 3 singles (2 off the no balls). Not a horrendous start, I wasn't too bothered.

Second over started in the worse possible way though. Another full toss, this time it actually was marginally over waist high, and again got called. The fat batsman took a single and as he ran to the umpire he said "this bloke shouldn't even be bowling, thats 3 no balls, get him off". The umpire was a nice guy and said "can he see out this over?" and it was agreed I could. How generous. He turned to me and said "sorry about that, its not like you're causing any danger with it", which I agreed with and pointed out that the batsman was scoring runs off every one of those balls, so I didn't really see what the problem was. I still can't make sense of it really. The guy that replaced me was bowling at about 60mph, back of a length, getting balls to rear up at rib cages, and taking wickets. I was bowling well within myself, serving up short balls and full tosses, and never hugely threatening them. Why he would want me taken off is beyond me, I'd like to pretend its because he felt threatened by my bowling, but theres no way that was true with the way I bowled. Only 2 or 3 balls were anything close to decent. All I can think is that he preferred to face medium pace?!

So having that first or 2nd ball of the over, which seriously wound me up (I had to refrain from just bowling him the fastest beamer I could muster when he next got on strike just as an F-you), and knowing I had about 5 balls to do something brilliant to justify a place in the team next week, and it was only ever going one way. I didn't bowl another full toss, but I dropped too much short. The next ball went for 4 runs through the captains legs when he should have stopped it. Then another 4 runs to deep mid wicket, where I asked for (and thought I had) a fielder. Then just some singles. No idea what my figures were because I didn't look, probably about 0-22 or something like that. Most of those runs can be disregarded because they wouldn't have happened if I hadn't got annoyed by being disqualified from the attack. The best thing is that the fat idiot that got me taken off was out caught 3 balls later from the bowler at the other end. My celebration from point as I ran straight past him to congratulate the catcher was rather louder than normal, but I refrained from saying anything, which took quite a lot of constraint.

My entire performance went downhill for about 5 overs whilst I cooled off, and I dropped a catch for their 8th wicket. It wasn't easy, it dropped short of me so I was running forwards taking it on the forward dive sort of, I caught it about an inch off the ground, but it just popped up off my fingers and I almost took it at the second attempt but it just grounded. Gutted. I kept my wits about me though and shyed at the stumps and only missed a run out by 6" as well.

Overall, my fielding was flawless apart from that 1 dropped catch, but I saved plenty of runs prior to that. My bowling was more unlucky than poor because I set myself high standards, and most people probably would have been reasonably pleased with the balls I bowled in that first over apart from the no balls, but I know I'm capable of better. Yet the captain didn't speak to me after the game, or ask availability for next week. So I guess my league season is done already. Not too fussed if I'm honest, Sunday cricket is more enjoyable, and I'm not ready to bowl in competitive situations yet, I'm not really match-ready at all. The umpire was very complimentary at the end, as they so often are, saying how big I was turning the ball and how impressive it was. But as always, my response was yeh, but there is always at least 1 bad ball an over, and it happens every week. Until I can lose the bad ball (or 3), the 1 or 2 really good ones are useless.

If the weather holds out today then I'm playing against my former club. I'm going to ask for a proper bowling spell, and I'm setting my own field. Hopefully I can put a performance together for the first time. I can't play for the next 2 weekends due to work and social commitments, so if today goes badly I at least have time to get some practice in. Even if today goes well, I might consider not playing any matches (or at least not as a bowler) until I can find consistency in the nets. I'm not learning anything from it, and my action in the middle has strayed again from my action in the nets.
 
Had a practice match yesterday where the entire club was divided into two teams and played against each other. There was only one keeper available for the match, so I kept wickets for one team. We have a leg spinner(other than myself) in the club and I put him in my team (as he was low on confidence). After a decent start to the season, he's been having trouble getting the release right, with full tosses headhigh and short pitches that bounce twice etc.

As soon as first wicket fell, I had him bowl to the no:3 who is a cautious player. Unfortunately, the leggies bad form meant no:3 got away with a few pulls off full tosses etc. First over 13 runs. Then a wicket fell at the other end, and the ex-captain of our team - also the best player of spin in our club came in to bat. I knew he would want to go after the leggie so I gave him
long on, long off, deep midwicket, deep square leg, deep cover, short extra cover, short midwicket, deep gully, point. and lo, he holed out to long off. That gave the leggie some confidence and the next two overs were decent - 5 and 6 runs each(a couple of wides in each over). At that time, I brought the sweeper cover and square leg in to cut off singles. In his third over he got another wicket caught a little outside the circle in the cover region. But then a leftie came into bat and he took 14 runs off his over so I had to take him off.
He bowled 4-0-38-2 and I kept telling him that I don't want him to lob legrollers and that I want him to get me wickets. I guess, at the end of the innings he might have felt a little better than before, but still a long way to go.

I took off my keeping pads to come on to bowl with the leftie batting - For most of my spell, it was the leftie on strike and I thought that I wouldn't bowl short and started off with a long on, deep midwicket, short midwicket, square leg, short fine leg, short extra cover, cover, point and long off. Unfortunately, I dropped one short in teh first over that was pulled for a 4. I realized I didn't have the control yet so, put the square leg back and brought in a wide leg gully to stop the single. Almost worked as the leftie hit out to deep midwicket but the catch was misjudged and went over the head of the fielder. But both of them played me cautiously, trying to pick off singles. Unfortunately, the infield didn't put any pressure on them, with a few misfields. So, I ended up leaking 3-4 runs an over easily. A couple of no-balls (balls heading fulltoss over the shoulder) included my analysis read 4-0-23-0. Not entirely satisfying, but not too bad either.

For the right hander, my field was mid on, mid off, deep midwicket (midway in from boundary), square leg, gully, short midwicket, cover, short extra cover, point. I know this was an overly aggressive field I could set only because I knew the batsman (no:3) wasn't confident of going over the top, but would have liked the fielders to actually stop the singles instead of letting the ball go through their hands.
 
Spiderlounge said:
I just thought you'd like to know - I took my first EVER wicket today, and I really want to thank EVERYONE on the leg-spinners' forum for the support I've had from you all, it is much appreciated.

I only bowled 1.3 overs today, and they weren't the best I've ever bowled, slow and loopy and generally not too impressive, but the situation was perfect - No.11 at the crease, loads of runs to get and they were just looking for the draw. My first over was OK-ish but my second (i.e. my last three balls) started with one of the best balls I've ever bowled, pitching well outside leg stump, turning miles, going between bat and pad and missing off by a few inches. Good to show the batsman I can turn it, got him thinking! Second ball was poor, outside off but cut straight to the fielder, then third ball I gave the him a top-spinner which turned a little but bounced nicely and he spooned it to backward square leg, where a good mate of mine (and an even better mate after today) took the catch to win the game. I let out a huge shout then made a bee-line to him to say "thanks very much buddy!"

Final figures: O 1.3 M 0 W 1 R 4. Oh, and I got a silver duck, but sod that!
Click to expand...

Congratulations and may you have many more on your way. And you may scoff at slow loopy leg breaks, but I had a discussion with some of our club members and they classified the slow loopy leggie in our team as more dangerous than I am because apparently they feel more confident against him and therefore more likely to try and hit out against him. Might earn you a bucket load of wickets.
 
Spiderlounge said:
I just thought you'd like to know - I took my first EVER wicket today, and I really want to thank EVERYONE on the leg-spinners' forum for the support I've had from you all, it is much appreciated.

I only bowled 1.3 overs today, and they weren't the best I've ever bowled, slow and loopy and generally not too impressive, but the situation was perfect - No.11 at the crease, loads of runs to get and they were just looking for the draw. My first over was OK-ish but my second (i.e. my last three balls) started with one of the best balls I've ever bowled, pitching well outside leg stump, turning miles, going between bat and pad and missing off by a few inches. Good to show the batsman I can turn it, got him thinking! Second ball was poor, outside off but cut straight to the fielder, then third ball I gave the him a top-spinner which turned a little but bounced nicely and he spooned it to backward square leg, where a good mate of mine (and an even better mate after today) took the catch to win the game. I let out a huge shout then made a bee-line to him to say "thanks very much buddy!"

Final figures: O 1.3 M 0 W 1 R 4. Oh, and I got a silver duck, but sod that!
Click to expand...

Good to see. Slow and loopy did the trick. And you got your wicket in 9 balls. Matchwinner as well.
 
I'm playing T20 league on Wednesday night, first match of the season. I played for a pub team last year and they didn't take their cricket very seriously, it was just a laugh. A couple of club cricketers, but mostly just lads that drank at the pub. This season I'm playing for my club though, so it will be of a bit higher standard, and more competitive.

I feel a lot more comfortable playing T20 cricket at the moment. Whenever I have bowled this season, the batsmen have tried to treat me as if they are playing T20. They see a spinner rock up and start thinking about attacking, and as soon as I drop a few balls legside (irrespective of the fact that at least one of them will turn back big) their specialist slog pull comes out to play. So I go at 5-10 runs per over generally, which in 40 over cricket is unacceptable, and its purely because I'll bowl at least one bad ball per over. But in T20 the batsmen are no more aggressive (they can't be really), and those 5-10 runs an over are actually pretty decent!! :D

This then breeds more confidence as I don't feel like I'm being carted, and often I'll end up being more economical than that, and I generally take more wickets. My best performance ever was in a T20 game last year, on an artificial wicket renowned for not turning at all (I turned it big and made everyones historical sentiments look ridiculous), taking 3-13 off of 2 overs, and I reckon I'd have got my 5-for but the captain took me off to give others a go as we were winning by miles!! I was gutted at the time.

I've decided to ditch either mid-on or mid-off. Not a single run has gone through there this season, I turn the ball too much for anyone to even consider playing me straight, mixed in with the fact that lots of deliveries are short or pitch leg side. Its a waste of a fielder. I think I will set my field to begin with as...

Deep square leg
Forward square leg
Leg gully
MId wicket
Cow corner
Mid off
Cover
Point
Off side sweeper

See how the first few balls go, and if I've got some control then I'll bring the mid-off fielder to wide mid-on, and mid-wicket in to slip.

I like to cover the leg side heavily because thats where most shots are going to get played. My loose balls are either full or short down the leg side in general, the occasional one wide of off stump is hard to punish as it will tend to turn decently, so most often than not it ends up almost finding the edge anyway. I've noticed players like to step across their stumps to try and cream me leg side, so I've got the backspinners primed and ready to go.

Also I fully plan on bowling some full toss deliveries leg side looking for catches in the deep. All I need to do is make sure I keep it a few inches below waist height to avoid the no ball. Its an easy wicket probably 25% of the time, with an occasional 6 or 4, but worth the gamble sometimes.
 
Jim2109 said:
I'm playing T20 league on Wednesday night, first match of the season. I played for a pub team last year and they didn't take their cricket very seriously, it was just a laugh. A couple of club cricketers, but mostly just lads that drank at the pub. This season I'm playing for my club though, so it will be of a bit higher standard, and more competitive.

I feel a lot more comfortable playing T20 cricket at the moment. Whenever I have bowled this season, the batsmen have tried to treat me as if they are playing T20. They see a spinner rock up and start thinking about attacking, and as soon as I drop a few balls legside (irrespective of the fact that at least one of them will turn back big) their specialist slog pull comes out to play. So I go at 5-10 runs per over generally, which in 40 over cricket is unacceptable, and its purely because I'll bowl at least one bad ball per over. But in T20 the batsmen are no more aggressive (they can't be really), and those 5-10 runs an over are actually pretty decent!! :D

This then breeds more confidence as I don't feel like I'm being carted, and often I'll end up being more economical than that, and I generally take more wickets. My best performance ever was in a T20 game last year, on an artificial wicket renowned for not turning at all (I turned it big and made everyones historical sentiments look ridiculous), taking 3-13 off of 2 overs, and I reckon I'd have got my 5-for but the captain took me off to give others a go as we were winning by miles!! I was gutted at the time.

I've decided to ditch either mid-on or mid-off. Not a single run has gone through there this season, I turn the ball too much for anyone to even consider playing me straight, mixed in with the fact that lots of deliveries are short or pitch leg side. Its a waste of a fielder. I think I will set my field to begin with as...

Deep square leg
Forward square leg
Leg gully
MId wicket
Cow corner
Mid off
Cover
Point
Off side sweeper

See how the first few balls go, and if I've got some control then I'll bring the mid-off fielder to wide mid-on, and mid-wicket in to slip.

I like to cover the leg side heavily because thats where most shots are going to get played. My loose balls are either full or short down the leg side in general, the occasional one wide of off stump is hard to punish as it will tend to turn decently, so most often than not it ends up almost finding the edge anyway. I've noticed players like to step across their stumps to try and cream me leg side, so I've got the backspinners primed and ready to go.

Also I fully plan on bowling some full toss deliveries leg side looking for catches in the deep. All I need to do is make sure I keep it a few inches below waist height to avoid the no ball. Its an easy wicket probably 25% of the time, with an occasional 6 or 4, but worth the gamble sometimes.
Click to expand...


But Jim, a spinner shouldnt be no-balled for a full toss above waist -only for a full toss above shoulder. and in this case, having the short midwicket a little straighter will probably help, if the ball is spinning away, they'll have trouble hitting (flicking, driving) square of wicket on legside.
 
shrek said:
But Jim, a spinner shouldnt be no-balled for a full toss above waist -only for a full toss above shoulder. and in this case, having the short midwicket a little straighter will probably help, if the ball is spinning away, they'll have trouble hitting (flicking, driving) square of wicket on legside.
Click to expand...

Well this is right. Jim should have got away with those waist high full bungers. Even the highest one sounded legit as long as its below the shoulder. You gotta watch these umpires.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top