SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
Do you get to set your own fields or do you let your captain do it? What would your optimum field be?
Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)
- Thread starter Richard the Third
- Start date
Darth Spin
Active Member
I've been letting the captain do it, we have some good players on our team and when I'm bowling well the catching chances generally get taken with some drops too, but a good ratio taken. Occasionally I will ask mid on/mid off to come closer to the wicket when I think a batsman is not good at taking me on. I'm not really sure what my optimum field would be, I always like a deep backward square or deep square leg for balls that go astray down the leg side. I'm still quite new to this, I have bowled less than 100 overs in matches as a spinner. 31 wickets from 93 overs at 6 per over.
SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
What format do you play 40 overs? That's a pretty good set of figures too. If your captain was to ask you 'How are you going to get this bloke out'? What's your answer?
Darth Spin
Active Member
Those stats are from a mixture of games mostly 40 overs, 35 overs and some 20/20s.
You know it's funny but I don't usually plan my wickets with any sort of wily plan, I find if I bowl my stock leg break consistently it troubles most batsmen at club level and eventually they will play a false shot and get caught or bowled. 58% of all my wickets are catches.
SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
90% of my wickets would have been catches when I was bowling Leg-Breaks but 85% of them were dropped or never caught. Consequences of having a team with an average age of about 55! Is your team made up mostly younger blokes? My response to my own question would be LBW, bowled, stumped or Caught keeper. I get shed loads of LBW's but the B's don't give em.
. Some of the so called 'Umpires' should be locked up for crimes against bowlers.
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Leggy88
Well-Known Member
I'm the same, although towards the end of last season I've used the plan of 'a couple slower ones and then a faster one for the LBW' or the opposite way. Really awesome when it comes off.
I'm in preseason right now, doing the final prep for the season starting in October. Hoping to get a reliable wrong'un by then and improve my leg spinner, particularly accuracy, dip and spin.
Also, I was training in an indoor net which had a speed gun a couple months ago, and reached a pace of 73kmh on a normal paced delivery. IS this a good pace you reckon?
Darth Spin
Active Member
My team is a range of ages from teens up to old blokes, a few first team players, a bit Bertie Bassett allsorts. Some very good players, one guy who has just taken up cricket, some old timers etc. We also had a woman pro from Warwickshire playing for us the other week. The standard of catching is pretty good, most have been taken including half chances turned into a wicket by a great catch. Some have been dropped, too. That's just the way it goes and I never have a go at a fielder for dropped catches as I've dropped some howlers myself.
Darth Spin
Active Member
That sounds fast to me, I don't think I bowl near that speed. For me the best pace is the one where you get the most revs, whatever pace that may be whether it's quicker or slower.
SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
Do any of you make notes of any sort with regards the batters you end up bowling to on a regular basis, so that when you bowl against them you have some sense of the strengths and weaknesses? Have you heard Ravi Ashwin talking about this at all and how much importance he attaches to it? If you do, what do you do? How do you retain the information in some useful way and do you analyse their data on playcricket.com in conjunction with your up-coming games?
Leggy88
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I do take some notes and that but I should probably do it a bit more. Sometimes I get to games though and the batsman adds something new, like a sweep shot, which makes things more complicated.
SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
Have a look at what I do. Type in 'Bowlers Union' in Google and look at the first option that comes up. Hopefully it'll be my blog.
Leggy88
Well-Known Member
Yep, just had a read and found it very insightful. How do you choose the players to make notes on, or do you just do everyone you can remember?
Darth Spin
Active Member
Well I had a decent session in the nets on Saturday so told the captain I would bowl today if he needed me, I bowled 4 overs 0 maidens 25 runs 2 wickets. A little more pricey than I would have liked but happy with the wickets, both caught at cover from the stock leg break. There were a few other catching chances but none taken. I bowled a couple of flippers to right handers, one took an inside edge and went to square leg for a single. The other one was a bit short but he tried a reverse sweep, missed and it carried through to the keeper outside off stump.
Three matches to go and I'm leading the bowling average at the club, to qualify you need a minimum of 10 wickets. If I finish the season with the best average my name is inscribed on the board in the pavilion, I'll be made up if that happens. My average is 12. 31, the nearest to me has an average of 17.17 but he has bowled way more overs so if I don't have a disastrous last three games I should make it.
Figures for the season:-
Overs 26.2
Maidens 0 (haha I would kill for just one)
Runs 160
Wickets 13
Three matches to go and I'm leading the bowling average at the club, to qualify you need a minimum of 10 wickets. If I finish the season with the best average my name is inscribed on the board in the pavilion, I'll be made up if that happens. My average is 12. 31, the nearest to me has an average of 17.17 but he has bowled way more overs so if I don't have a disastrous last three games I should make it.
Figures for the season:-
Overs 26.2
Maidens 0 (haha I would kill for just one)
Runs 160
Wickets 13
Leggy88
Well-Known Member
That's awesome, good to hear you are back in the game with your leggies. 2 years ago I got a similar award in my first year bowling leg spin, with the name in the pavilion and all that. It's a really cool feeling, just bowl naturally in those games and I'm sure you'll get it too.
Oh and about the maidens - just about the hardest thing to get for a spinner. I only have like 8 maidens out of 200 or so overs bowling as a spinner.
SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
I try and do the first 5 or 6 batters as they're the ones I generally have to bowl at. I make notes in the field - might not be to some captains liking, but being an old bloke they're not likely to say anything and as far as I'm aware only one bloke thought it was an issue and I don't think he liked me anyway. See below - I have pre-photocopied layouts of the field for each bat and then mark on it with a pen where each of the bowlers gets hit and how many runs they go for. I only record scoring strikes. The thing is most people in the team think I'm nuts till the day when the bloke turns up for a return game and I pull up his wagon wheel on my phone and you can see the blokes shoulders sink when he realises we're all looking at it and his game is up. They end up being really useful and having an impact on the game. (The example here is from when I was working out the best way to use them watching BBL game on Youtube).
Darth Spin
Active Member
I love how deeply you think about the game, Dave, it's awe-inspiring stuff. Your blog is what got me into bowling leg spin. I was practicing in the nets with some mates one night, I was in my mid 30s and bowling medium (probably by that age slow medium) pace and it wasn't troubling batsmen much. At the end of that session for some reason I started trying to bowl leg breaks, the batsman in the net at the time said I should bowl spin instead and that night I went home and found Dave's blog and spent the rest of the night reading it. I decided it was definitely for me.
Darth Spin
Active Member
It will be a tense last few games but yeah I will just try to bowl normally. To be honest I wish they hadn't told me until the end of the season, I was looking at the board and wondering how the names got there. Then at tea yesterday one of my team mates started telling me about it and how it was done by best average.
Yeah I suck at maidens, I have 3 from 100 overs, but it's not a big deal. I would like to be more economical but you can't have it all, eh.
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Leggy88
Well-Known Member
Wow, I can see how helpful that would be. I think I might try and get the 12th man from our team to do that when the season starts, I'm sure it will give us a great edge on our teammates.
SomeblokecalledDave.
Some Bloke Called Dave
Yeah that's even better than doing it yourself. If I'm ever injured I sit and do it from the boundary and put in a lot more detail including the shots that runs are not scored off. I'd be impressed if you managed to get the 12th man to do that just on the basis of man management and communication skills - no-one in my team would do that, that's for sure!
Leggy88
Well-Known Member
Yes, it's gonna be very hard to convince the 12th man haha, but I reckon if I explain the benefits to the team they would all be on my side and the 12th man would be happy to do it.