Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

Top Contributors
someblokecalleddave said:
Bit by bit, It'll get there. When does your season finish?
Click to expand...

We play the last day of the home and away season tomorrow. Last week we got them all out for 240, and we are 2/20. So we have 70 overs to get the runs. We had them 7/130 at one stage but their tail wagged and a few sitters were dropped. We should get the runs if we are patient and sensible. We have been top all year but one team caught up with us last game. We are on the same points but they have a better run rate. We have a 4 team finals series but finishing top means you get the benefit of advancing if it rains or you can bat out a draw.
I got 3 wickets last week to put me on 35 wickets for the season. One other bloke is on 34 wickets so fingers crossed he doesn't get any this round and I'll get most wickets for the league. I doubt it though. One of those wickets was legspin too so it would be fantastic if I got most wickets by one wicket.
 
Good to hear your team is going good chippyben. My son's team won the minor premiership last week
And play the semi final on saturday.
He was made captain a few weeks back, great gesture from a great coach.
Keeping it simple with his bowling, give the batsman a full length and no width is a given, then mess with their minds is what he tells me he does.
Hope goes good tomorrow for your mob and mine chippyben
 
Great to see you back posting Macca, and really pleased to hear your lad has managed to keep his cricket going. Best of luck with the semi tomorrow
 
macca said:
Good to hear your team is going good chippyben. My son's team won the minor premiership last week
And play the semi final on saturday.
He was made captain a few weeks back, great gesture from a great coach.
Keeping it simple with his bowling, give the batsman a full length and no width is a given, then mess with their minds is what he tells me he does.
Hope goes good tomorrow for your mob and mine chippyben
Click to expand...

You're gonna have to expand on the mind games aspect of Jimmy's bowling Macca and let's hope whatever they are they produce some results.
 
He didn't have time for much mind games today because the quicks had the game in the bag before drinks but he had to bowl 5 overs on the trot in fast motion to help avert some time penalty the ump warned the team for.

Big win in the end and grand final next week.
 
macca said:
Good to hear your team is going good chippyben. My son's team won the minor premiership last week
And play the semi final on saturday.
He was made captain a few weeks back, great gesture from a great coach.
Keeping it simple with his bowling, give the batsman a full length and no width is a given, then mess with their minds is what he tells me he does.
Hope goes good tomorrow for your mob and mine chippyben
Click to expand...

Thanks Macca, good to see you back.
Unfortunately we fizzled yesterday, losing to the bottom team in the comp, who are surprisingly good and had their tails up, keen to finish their season on a high. Depending on results we either finish 2nd or 3rd but we know who we are playing in the semis. A team that scored over 400 last week with their top batsman getting 200. He has punished us the last 2 times we have played them getting 70 and 80 in about 40 balls. So its going to be tough.
Congratulations on your lad becoming captain and good luck for the semi final.
 
Yeah I didn't say it before, but it's good to see you back Macca, we've been a bit lost on here without you. Well done too to Jimmy, I suppose that eliminates any captaincy issues with regards whether the teams wrist spinner gets to have a spell!

I've shot a load of video today of the new bowling action with the proper bound, shot it from the side, back and front so I'll be working on getting the videos ready for youtube and as they're put up I'll notify you all so you can comment on the new action.
 
So here we go, here's the first one, this is shot from a distance so that you can see the action from the side and the length of the pitch 'Stump to stump'.

What I have noticed already with this new approach is that I'm massively over rotating again, which you'll see in the following videos, so that'll be something I'll need to address early on as a matter of urgency.
 
Here's the next one, this is shot from behind quite close up coming round the wicket. The first thing I noticed straight away was the over-rotation and also ironically, it doesn't look that different from my skip!!!
 
And another, these few balls from the front, I think in these you can see that there's more energy than all my other previous approaches (Skip and walk in), so the longer term prognosis looks pretty good I'd say. These are all 'Rollers' rather than flicks and with hockey balls, so there's no seam.
 
Here's the last one I'll post up here. I may add another one from behind the stumps and just post it on youtube, so check out my Youtube channel. That one will be a bunch of Wrong Uns. This is a close look from the side at the new action.
 
Dave, i think youve got a little bit of seperation between your upper and lower body. the shoulders move through the action whilst the lower body struggles to catch up a bit, but im not 100% sure if it is or not really, it could just be deceptive on the video as its at full speed. if you drive your hips through then youll solve this, youll also solve the over-rotation with it i think as the extra drive through the action will force you to follow through harder and youll naturally be moving towards the target more. as it is you sort of stop on the spot and pivot, after the pivot you dont move forwards very much. i end up 5 or 6 strides down the pitch after ive released the ball, even if i dont run in. the momentum just carries you there naturally and makes major over-rotation pretty much impossible. although your over-rotation doesnt look that bad from some angles. i think maybe the videos are deceiving from certain angles.

the action is looking good though. i think you just need to try and drive the hips through more. its looking the best ive ever seen it though.
 
Nice one. I thought the hip thing or rather the lack of unison was happening as it just feels that way and the balls not turning that much. Liz also noticed it and I'm working with a little drill she's set me to do over the next few days/Weeks? With regards moving forwards, I'd say looking at the follow through I'm possibly going forwards more than I've ever done, but perhaps you mean something else?
 
in terms of the follow through, you do take a few gentle steps, but im talking about having several really hard strides after the action where youve really exploded through the crease and the momentum just carries you through. when im really going for it my follow through off of 3 steps is about the same length as my follow through when i bowl my fast medium pace off of a 12 stride sprint run up! i think my leg spin is probably only 5-10mph slower now as well, ive found loads more pace from last season.

my club had their first indoor net of the season last night. its just at a school sports hall on mats, but surprisingly they offer more realistic bounce than the expensive indoor cricket centre, and also replicate minor uneven bounce very well (which pretty much all club wickets have) and its not too forgiving for turn, it only turns if you hit the seam!

i started out bowling to the clubs star batsman. he smashed loads of records last season, i think he averaged over a 100 or something mad, Bradman eat your heart out haha. anyway, in the 15 mins i bowled at him he only hit me once, and i maybe got him out once. mostly he was just using his feet and smothering the ball before it had a chance to turn on him. if i dropped shorter he would just wait on it instead, so it was hard to get his wicket. 2 or 3 deliveries caught him out and found the edge, but he was getting to the pitch so well that the edges were very low and wouldnt have carried. still though, extremely reassuring considering i didnt find any rhythm at all last night. i was hitting good lines and lengths a lot early on.

then i had my usual spell of no rhythm whatsoever against the next couple of batsman (one a leftie, which is what lost me my rhythm to begin with), and sending ball after ball down the leg side, or long hops. unlike last year though i managed to drag it back. having bowled about 10 rank balls in a row, the first one i landed on middle stump on a good length turned past the outside edge and clipped the top of off stump for a cracking wicket. i had him out a couple more times, once stumped off a ball that turned a mile and missed off stump by millimetres, and once edged to slip.

towards the end i found my rhythm again, and had my friend batting that i practice with all the time. had him out a few times to outside edges and almost clean bowled him. i really found my line and length from then on.

the best moment of the night was when i tried an off spinning flipper. i bowled it fast and flat outside off stump, and for once i landed it where i wanted it!! normally they end up flying down the leg side. it pitched a yard too short unfortunately, but it turned back in big and stayed low, and he had to scramble to get bat on ball and dig it out. its a genuine alternative to a googly. because its a bit faster and flatter and stays so low batsmen have an even harder time defending it if they arent expecting it. if id landed it a yard fuller im fairly confident id have clean bowled him as he just wouldnt have got his bat there in time. he was expecting a short wide leg break and was looking to flay it through point or cover off the back foot. so it worked perfectly really.

need to get down the gym hard in the next 6 weeks as the season is fast approaching. get my fitness levels back up, get my strength up, get loads of bowling practice in, and i reckon il get a flying start to the season with rusty batsmen giving their wickets away :D
 
Ah, the Off-spinning Flipper.... A lovely delivery. One that I would recommend for all lairy batsmen. With my follow through and further increases in speed, I'll have to see how this new action comes together over the coming months.
 
I have had a few sessions at the nets and I have pretty much settled on my action now. There may be a few minor little tweaks but Im pretty happy with the way its going.
Ive decided to limit myself to 3 types of deliveries too. The Leg break spinning towards 2nd slip, the wrong un and the orthodox back spinner or what I call the slider.
In this though I consider I have a topspinner but I don't bowl it deliberatly. It just results from the leg break that I get lazy on and dont get my wrist into the right position or the wrong un that doesnt come fully out the back of the hand.
I think this is more than enough at club level and its better to learn these properly.
I am going to keep working on the square leg break that comes more out the front of the hand occassionally and maybe introduce it in a year or twos time.
This more disciplined and simple approach hopefully allows me to work more on consistancy and accuracy. The last couple of sessions Ive felt more confident in my action and been more worried about what type of delivery to bowl and where rather than worrying about my action. Ive been conciously trying to relax too when bowling against good batsman and not tensing up like normal. Harder said than done.
My wrong un is a real weapon now that I can land it and bowl it flatter and quicker although Ive overdone it far too much to my team mates in the nets and they are all on the look out for it.
All in all I reckon I am at a really exciting stage.
 
Bad news I have strained a stomach muscle at work and can only bowl off a few steps. Not great as I was looking forward to opening the bowling in our semi final, and one of the last times I do it before fully reverting to spin. The other downer was I was pipped by 1 wicket for most wickets in the comp although the guy did bowl 10 more overs than me. Anyway if we go on and win it, it will more than make up for it.
We have to play a two day game over saturday and sunday on a pitch known locally as the WACA because of the bounce, doubly disappointing being injured, fingers crossed we bat the saturday and the extra day allows me to recover enough.
 
chippyben said:
Bad news I have strained a stomach muscle at work and can only bowl off a few steps. Not great as I was looking forward to opening the bowling in our semi final, and one of the last times I do it before fully reverting to spin. The other downer was I was pipped by 1 wicket for most wickets in the comp although the guy did bowl 10 more overs than me. Anyway if we go on and win it, it will more than make up for it.
We have to play a two day game over saturday and sunday on a pitch known locally as the WACA because of the bounce, doubly disappointing being injured, fingers crossed we bat the saturday and the extra day allows me to recover enough.
Click to expand...

Gutted! Let's hope you recover enough to have a bowl and that record sounds as though it's yours really, but on paper it'll always be the other blokes, so that's a bummer as well.
 
Gee that is unlucky chippyben. Being the semis. I don't know how my son will go in tomorrows grand final either, he has been away on camp all week so has not bowled last few days.

Jim 2109 is sooo right about rusty batsman at the start of season, especially against well pitched up legspin. Gotta cash in if you can.

We found the hardest kid to bowl to all year is this tiny backfoot player that uses all the crease. He proved hard to bowl but didn't score much.

Jimmy has 6 for 110 off 40 overs. 6 maidens. Would have liked twice the wickets, at least 10 would have been good but has been fairly unlucky with catches and close stumpings. Plus our pace attack is just too good for most teams this year.

His worst day on paper was 1 for 30 off 5 overs but he bowled maybe the best he has all year that day. It was so hot that day you fry an egg on the wicket but he bowled his heart out that day trying to win the game whilst knowing his mum was close to death. She died later that night.

They play against this superbat kid tomorrow that I mentioned months ago. He has a supposed weakness against slow bowling we have heard lately
 
My son got blisters on his feet so bad on his hiking camp this week he might have to go 12th man for the grand final. He can still bowl a few overs as 12, not sure how many because the finals rules are a bit different.

Even if they don't win today, the team has secured promotion for next season.

The team he plays today is the only team he has been hit for boundaries all season. 5 4,s is all the boundaries he has gone for. We have the best young fieldsman I have seen at square leg when Jimmy bowls. And it has really been a good move by the coach. It also has let jimmy give a single to a good player and get a bunny on strike. That is a favourite move of his lately.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top