Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

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Vignesh Ekanathan said:
Sorry for the late reply Cleanprophet. Been a while since I've been online.

Quick update on my season so far. Getting plenty of turn and on a good day, get some wickets as well. The problem lies in consistency.

I bowl very good in the nets. My line, length, follow through, shoulder will be in a perfect position and I get lot of spin in the nets. However, once I put the whites on and go to the middle, I am not consistent. Follow through is good, but line and length is not. There are atleast 1 or 2 bad deliveries in an over. :(

Not sure what I should work on. Any thoughts?
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Just bowl until you think you´ve bowled enough and then bowl some more.
 
Vignesh Ekanathan said:
Sorry for the late reply Cleanprophet. Been a while since I've been online.

Quick update on my season so far. Getting plenty of turn and on a good day, get some wickets as well. The problem lies in consistency.

I bowl very good in the nets. My line, length, follow through, shoulder will be in a perfect position and I get lot of spin in the nets. However, once I put the whites on and go to the middle, I am not consistent. Follow through is good, but line and length is not. There are atleast 1 or 2 bad deliveries in an over. :(

Not sure what I should work on. Any thoughts?
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Well, if it is bowling to batsmen out in the middle that you struggle with, then that is what you should practice. Ultimately, everything else is irrelevent.
 
Quick update : So far, I've been bowling very well in the nets. However, I started thinking about too much (i.e getting side on, follow through, spin etc) and started bowling crap. Trying to spin the ball too much and ended up bowling short and wide.
 
Vignesh Ekanathan said:
Quick update : So far, I've been bowling very well in the nets. However, I started thinking about too much (i.e getting side on, follow through, spin etc) and started bowling crap. Trying to spin the ball too much and ended up bowling short and wide.
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Thinking about anything while your bowling is like trying to throw water high up in the air and catching every drop in one hand. Physically impossible. Every motion and part of your action must flow rhythmically...

You can always practice doing this, go to an open space and have a friend stand behind a pair of stumps to catch all your deliveries. Mark your run-up and decide what your rhythm should be like, put a blindfold on and bowl away! When you first start most of your deliveries will land 10 meters from the target, but as you get a feel for it you'll start landing more balls on the right spot.

Don't think, feel. If you can feel your whole mind and body becoming one with your bowling action you'll get more and more accurate, until you are so accurate that you can run-up with your eyes closed and spin the ball as hard as possible, and still land it on the right spot:)
 
Yeah if it's getting like that step back a bit from the thinking and just do instead and try and relax. Maybe go with just one objective? Last year I made some big leaps by just going and bowling 40 - 50 deliveries with the intention that I bowled well within the first over, so I just trusted myself to do it, didn't over-think - just thought... Relax and bowl. It worked for me.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Yeah if it's getting like that step back a bit from the thinking and just do instead and try and relax. Maybe go with just one objective? Last year I made some big leaps by just going and bowling 40 - 50 deliveries with the intention that I bowled well within the first over, so I just trusted myself to do it, didn't over-think - just thought... Relax and bowl. It worked for me.
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Works for me to. And I don't think Warne was thinking anything when he bowled. You have to do all the thinking before the delivery, and then bowl what you planned to bowl. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but the more you practice the less things go wrong. Every ball this season that I bowled which took a wicket had one thing in common: I just relaxed, breathed in, breathed out, knew exactly what I wanted to bowl, bowled it, and that's the end of that:D...

Other deliveries were hit for four, but that's just cricket, things don't always work out, and when they work out, you have to make sure you enjoy every second of it and just love it.
 
Over the last couple of months I've been the only person using my club's nets. As a result, the footmarks for my run up are very clear to see. As soon as I started thinking about my approach to the crease I started to mess it up. Really, you need to keep what you are thinking about to an absolute minimum.

For me, I bowled for such a long time without cocking my wrist as much as I should, so when I bowl I have to focus on cocking wrist plenty. Otherwise, I don't think about anything else to do with my bowling action. It's all about taking a wicket or setting a batter up. My approach to the crease, position at the crease and rotation all happen without any thought at all. That's how it should be and that is attained one way and one way only, by repetition. It's also why I have to think about cocking my wrist every time I bowl. I've bowled so many balls with a straight-ish wrist that I now have to retrain that side of things.

That's what Vigneshhas has to do. All the business of getting side on, rotating and following through is to be worked on in the nets. If you do it often enough, it will be there for you out in the middle.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

I bowled 7 overs and got 2 wickets in the game today. Both of them were right handers and were clean bowled. I didn't think about too much while bowling to them. However, there was a leftie to whom I was either bowling short and down leg side or full toss on the off side.

Captain screaming at me after each ball didn't help either. ;)

Only problem for me is that I train on astro wicket and play on turf. The length and pace varies on turf and sometimes I find it hard to bowl on it. Even though I get a lot of turn, it's the control that I have problem with. During this x'mas break, I've decided to go nearby ground, set the stumps and cones in the middle of the ground and bowl 20 overs of leg spin. Once I can get the control, then I guess I will be more relaxed during the game.

FYI - I play for 2nd grade - Curtin Victoria park based in western australia. :)
 
Vignesh Ekanathan said:
Thanks for the feedback guys.

I bowled 7 overs and got 2 wickets in the game today. Both of them were right handers and were clean bowled. I didn't think about too much while bowling to them. However, there was a leftie to whom I was either bowling short and down leg side or full toss on the off side.

Captain screaming at me after each ball didn't help either. ;)

Only problem for me is that I train on astro wicket and play on turf. The length and pace varies on turf and sometimes I find it hard to bowl on it. Even though I get a lot of turn, it's the control that I have problem with. During this x'mas break, I've decided to go nearby ground, set the stumps and cones in the middle of the ground and bowl 20 overs of leg spin. Once I can get the control, then I guess I will be more relaxed during the game.

FYI - I play for 2nd grade - Curtin Victoria park based in western australia. :)
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You have to practice bowling to left handers more than practicing your bowling to right handers. Left handers can be an incredible nuisance and any bowler that can remove irritating left handers swiftly deserves a spot in any team!
 
Been asked... What length from the batsman is a good length for a leg spin bowler ?

A batsman explained this - stand with your back foot on the popping crease and then reach out with the bat and draw an arc on the ground. He suggested just inside that arc would be difficult to play. The good thing with this (I thought) was that it accounted for the height and reach of individual batsmen as opposed to saying 5 foot in front of the popping crease.
 
Good to see some South Africans on here, 45 degrees along with Jacques seem to have plenty to say, keep it up lads, the forums are dead unless there's people commenting and chipping in with advice. When does your season start and end?
 
I've actually got out few left handers before. Sometimes it gets hard for me to adjust the line and length when bowling to left/right handers continuously. Have to go back to basics again.

Also, as a leg spinner or any other bowler, where do you look before you bowl? Do you look at the spot where you want to pitch the ball or the wickets or the batsman?
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Good to see some South Africans on here, 45 degrees along with Jacques seem to have plenty to say, keep it up lads, the forums are dead unless there's people commenting and chipping in with advice. When does your season start and end?
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Our season just ended. Next year January it starts again. Our year is divided in terms, our season is during the first and 4th term of the year.
 
Vignesh Ekanathan said:
I've actually got out few left handers before. Sometimes it gets hard for me to adjust the line and length when bowling to left/right handers continuously. Have to go back to basics again.

Also, as a leg spinner or any other bowler, where do you look before you bowl? Do you look at the spot where you want to pitch the ball or the wickets or the batsman?
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No use asking other people what they look for when they bowl, you have to find you individual preference. I look at the batsman's head, Glenn Mcgrath didn't look at a spot, Warne just thought about the shot the batsman has to play for his tactic to work, and Richie Benaud looked at a spot on the pitch. All different methods, each of them credible.
 
I think I look at the off stump, but I'm not sure a few of people comment on the fact that I also close my eyes as I bowl. (Like a shark as it goes in for the attack)!
 
someblokecalleddave said:
I think I look at the off stump, but I'm not sure a few of people comment on the fact that I also close my eyes as I bowl. (Like a shark as it goes in for the attack)!
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The best place to look (in my mind) would be to look at the spot in the air where you want the ball to be. Determine which trajectory you want to bowl, look at the spot in the air where the ball is at it's highest and try to bowl the ball in that direction. That's why I look at the batsman's head, I want to bowl the ball just above his head and make it drift from his eyes to outside the off stump. It's a very unusual method though, but anything that works can be used.
 
I struggle to give the ball more flight without slowing down my arm action.

How do I go about giving the ball a touch more air without slowing down my arm, to make sure I maintain revolutions, drift and dip?
 
copthat1 said:
I struggle to give the ball more flight without slowing down my arm action.

How do I go about giving the ball a touch more air without slowing down my arm, to make sure I maintain revolutions, drift and dip?
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Try not using your leading arm at all. That's what I do sometimes. Put your leading arm in your pocket, it really works! :D

Or you could try bracing your front leg a bit more, that always slows me down even though it's supposed to increase speed.
 
Jacques Voigt said:
Try not using your leading arm at all. That's what I do sometimes. Put your leading arm in your pocket, it really works! :D

Or you could try bracing your front leg a bit more, that always slows me down even though it's supposed to increase speed.
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This would be too inconsistent and far too easy to pick.

I'm thinking more things to do with wrist positioning, arm angles etc.
 
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