Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

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Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

3 - 0 - 9 - 1; today, which makes me feel a bit better after the horrific previous two games. The difference seems to be going back to the way I normally bowl. I think recently I've been watching other international leg-spinners and noticed that they have a bowling action that isn't so pronounced with regards the rotation around the pivot foot, the 'around aspect' looks more 'Through' similar to a fast bowlers and more of a 'Front on' bowling action rather than my natural 'Side on'. I think I've been moving towards this kind of action in an attempt to limit my rotation , because as many of your know I over-rotate. The outcome of the change seemed to be that I bowled flatter and with less turn. Recently a few of your said to look back at the Beau Casson/David Freedman youtube clip YouTube - David Freedman legspin coaching video and go back over the standing start drills. So that night I think I went over to our paddock and tried it returning to the over exaggerated leg lift and didn't worry about the rotation and guess what it, the ball turned lovely and I could spin again. Another very short practice also made me aware of the fact that I'd also gone very 'Front on' and again by simply thinking in terms of the approach being side on combined with the exaggerated leg lift and I had something that approximated my old bowling action. So today far more relaxed and not worrying about the potential for over-rotation I came up with todays figures before the game was called off after my 3rd over because of rain. Further more I batted at No.11 and hit a 4 down to fine leg and a single through point and had 5 not out and me and the other bloke batted out the remainder of the overs without being dismissed.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i had another stonker today, the best ive ever bowled in any situation, including nets.

6-1-19-2 were the official figures, which are pretty good, but i think i bowled better than that, on another day it could easily have been a five-fer.

my first over i was trying to find my rhythm to begin with. first ball was down the leg side and got tucked for a single. second ball was leg side and a bit short and went for 4 at deep square leg (the captain only let me half set my own field. after the 4 i changed it to something close to my stock field). after that they only managed 1 single off the next 4 balls. i had them well contained but was bowling my aggressive line outside leg stump. i had a ridiculous LBW shout turned down, it hit the guy well outside leg stump, but i gave it a shout anyway lol. the umpire pretty much laughed in my face.

the pitch was super green, reasonably soft compared to how hard it was at the end of last season. and i was turning the ball round corners. plus i had a breeze from gully which helped with the drift, which i was getting a lot of. i was bowling my stock ball, pitched right up in the blockhole, and it was causing problems EVERY ball. one delivery pitched at the guys feet, which ordinarily would have been smashed. but it drifted so much that the batsman almost didnt get his bat on it!! i wanted to throw up some variations, but the leg break was doing so much that i didnt want to spoil my figures! i went completely against what i preach on here all the time, and bowled a lot for pressure and containment, but still attacking leg stump and getting the ball to turn a lot. in hindsight i could have mixed things up a bit more and maybe got another couple of wickets. but my economy wouldnt have been as good (which i shouldnt really care about!).

second over i came alive. i went for 2 wides off my first ball, then a single. then 5 dots. threatening a wicket with every dot ball. i had them turning past edges and all sorts. i was mostly bowling at the other leg spinner at the club.

third over i got my deserved breakthrough. i bowled on leg stump, it drifted about a foot outside leg. the batsman pranced forwards and across to the leg side and opened himself up for a sort of drive to mid wicket. it deceived him in flight, then turned back through the gate (ball of the century style, but wider) and missed his leg stump by an inch. i was "oooh-ing" the delivery for how close it was to hitting the stumps, whilst the keeper took a sharp stumping! and the best part about it is that the wicket came about entirely from the pressure i had built up with the 6 dot balls prior to that. its the first time ive ever had THAT much control over the batsman! i was very pleased with that one.

the new batsman in was a guy i have caused some fairly major problems in nets. i fancied my chances, and i was chirping away about that fact. 3 dots, then he nicked a single to a ball that strayed leg side. by now everyone was complimenting the bowling, and my confidence was high. had i not bowled that loose final delivery id have had a wicket maiden!

the new batsman managed to get himself back on strike for my next over. which was a first for me - a maiden!! i almost had him out at least 3 times. it kept narrowly missing his edge. i think i had another LBW shout as well. again it wasnt a very good one. the captain then brought the man in from point to a sort of silly point, but a little bit further back. which is always a sign that youre going well!! i dont think they scored a single run on the off side against me, and if you take out the wides and the 2 boundaries, they scored 7 runs, and all of them were off balls that they managed to tuck onto the leg side (sometimes via the leading edge, or bat onto pad) when i strayed a bit wider than intended! if id managed to bowl my perfect line and length the whole time id have probably only gone for 5 runs lol.

5th over went for a pair of singles. then the 6th over was a little more exciting. first ball i was adamant i had an LBW. it pitched on leg, i reckon inline but the umpire reckoned just outside, and then turned back in and hit him in front of middle and off. i gave it a huge shout, the umpire said no and my team mates were all saying "you cant appeal those when youre turning it round corners". but the umpire then said "its pitching on leg, you cant have that". to which i sharply replied "on leg? so that was out then? if it pitches on leg then its inline with the stumps". which it should have been IMO. but then he changed his mind to outside leg. it was a close call, and i didnt really expect to get it. but it was definitely close. and well worth the shout, regardless of the complete lack of support from my team mates!

next ball i was a little bit riled up and bowled a stray one leg side that went for 4. i followed it up with a dot though. the next ball i bowled a fairly loose one to the off side. it wasnt actually an intentional plan, although i wish it was, but it was a result of the pressure i had built in my spell that i got the wicket. the batsman had a swing at it, thinking "full and wide on the off side, il smash this square for 4 off the back foot". but it turned huge on him as he swung at it, and he ended up toeing it to short extra cover! the slip fielder piped up with "what a sh*t delivery that was, awful wicket". which i think was a little disrespectful, because whilst it was off line, it still drifted, dipped and turned, and because of the pressure i had built it forced a shot that the batsman would have left had i been going at 8 an over. so im taking that as a pretty decent wicket, against one of the best younger batsmen at the club. it looked scruffy to the unassuming spectator, but when you looked at what had gone before it, and what the ball itself did, it was actually a very good one! the batsman said as much to me during tea. he said he saw it there to smash, and then it turned and bounced on him at the last second and there was nothing he could do.

then i managed a dot, 2 wides, and another dot to finish my spell. i think i deserved a couple more overs really, but it was a practice match so i think the captain was keen to give some other guys a go. plus i think he realised that i probably would have finished the match off with another couple of overs lol, so he let someone else have a go.

an excellent days bowling really. very encouraging. if i can keep this up all year and i get matches regularly then i should think il be somewhere near the top of the wicket charts come the finish. and going by todays performance (against mostly first (and a few second) XI league players) i might even have decent economy if i can pin batsmen down!

the other leggie at the club went for 8-1-57-0 bowling from the same end in the same conditions. and apparently he was hardly turning it. so it just goes to show that net practice is fairly useless as an indicator for what youll do in the middle. i was pretty poor in winter nets against batsmen (whilst other bowlers were looking amazing), but i absolutely dominated them today. and even if i do say so myself, i was probably also the pick of the bowlers. only 2 were more economical, and only one took more wickets (3, but at a much higher economy rate). one was a left arm spinner who came on towards the end of my spell at the other end, and we complimented each other by pinning batsmen down. id bowled 4 overs for 10 runs prior to him coming on which helped him out. and the other was the opening fast bowler for the other side, facing batsmen who werent in.

ive definitely not done myself any harm for future selection! we shall see what side im playing in next week. im hoping 2nd XI may come calling. although in fairness i think todays performance was easily worthy of first XI.

2 good matches and ive got the leg spinner arrogance already!! but its an important thing to have. batsmen are scared sh*tless by it. there were a few deliveries that in nets they would have been swinging at. but today they were just playing shaky forward defences and barely getting bat on ball.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

someblokecalleddave;398935 said:
3 - 0 - 9 - 1; today, which makes me feel a bit better after the horrific previous two games. The difference seems to be going back to the way I normally bowl. I think recently I've been watching other international leg-spinners and noticed that they have a bowling action that isn't so pronounced with regards the rotation around the pivot foot, the 'around aspect' looks more 'Through' similar to a fast bowlers and more of a 'Front on' bowling action rather than my natural 'Side on'. I think I've been moving towards this kind of action in an attempt to limit my rotation , because as many of your know I over-rotate. The outcome of the change seemed to be that I bowled flatter and with less turn. Recently a few of your said to look back at the Beau Casson/David Freedman youtube clip YouTube - David Freedman legspin coaching video and go back over the standing start drills. So that night I think I went over to our paddock and tried it returning to the over exaggerated leg lift and didn't worry about the rotation and guess what it, the ball turned lovely and I could spin again. Another very short practice also made me aware of the fact that I'd also gone very 'Front on' and again by simply thinking in terms of the approach being side on combined with the exaggerated leg lift and I had something that approximated my old bowling action. So today far more relaxed and not worrying about the potential for over-rotation I came up with todays figures before the game was called off after my 3rd over because of rain. Further more I batted at No.11 and hit a 4 down to fine leg and a single through point and had 5 not out and me and the other bloke batted out the remainder of the overs without being dismissed.
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much better figures than last game. fairly similar figures to mine, just with less overs. luckily our game didnt have any rain. it threatened a few times, but just about held out. we got fairly lucky. it was raining all the way home after the match.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Yeah let's hope that last Sunday was the last of the horrors? I've potentially got a match next Sunday at a beautiful ground in Kent at Horton Kirby. I played there 2 years ago as a Googly Bowler and did okay, I kind of feel that if the current form continues I might be looking at taking some wickets?
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

First league game of the season yesterday and it was an absolute shocker. I'm writing this purely to vent my anger! We only had 7 players thanks to an enormous balls up by the captain and the bloke who's supposed to share the ringing around duties. we only had 3 first teamers including me and i was promoted to number 3 in the order which is somewhere I truly hate batting, me and the new ball do not mix. As ably demonstrated when i left an inswinger which somehow popped off the wicket and hit my bat, then onto the stumps. i expect everyone found the wickets yesterday had tennis ball bounce what with the long period of dry weather followed by rain. but onto the bowling, we somehow managed to score 108 despite missing practically everyone bar me and the captain who are both spinners. he decided to open the bowling with me and him as we had no seamers at all and 3 wicket keepers (jokes). This was a chastening experience. New ball, occasionally getting wet, out the back of wrist? Impossible you might say? Somehow i managed to bowl reasonably well, even slipping in a perfect wrong un which the batsman almost chopped on. I only bowled one rank long hop and a couple of shorter ones. But the complete and utter killer was only having five people in the field. it didn't really matter where i put them because the batsman had so much open field to choose from. Even perfect deliveries were going for four when usually they'd be a dot. There must have been 4 or 5 catch opportunities but of course not a soul was anywhere near them and thanks to the slowness of the pitch the chances of clean bowling anyone was practically zero, bar bowling a gatting ball which was not going to happen. Eventually they cruised to a win without losing a single wicket. I finished up with 6-0-41-0. which i think under the circumstances isn't a bad effort! I totally took one for the team yesterday, wrecking my stats before the season has got underway. Has anyone else ever had to deal with a situation as nightmarish as this?!
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

GoldenArm;398971 said:
First league game of the season yesterday and it was an absolute shocker. I'm writing this purely to vent my anger! We only had 7 players thanks to an enormous balls up by the captain and the bloke who's supposed to share the ringing around duties. we only had 3 first teamers including me and i was promoted to number 3 in the order which is somewhere I truly hate batting, me and the new ball do not mix. As ably demonstrated when i left an inswinger which somehow popped off the wicket and hit my bat, then onto the stumps. i expect everyone found the wickets yesterday had tennis ball bounce what with the long period of dry weather followed by rain. but onto the bowling, we somehow managed to score 108 despite missing practically everyone bar me and the captain who are both spinners. he decided to open the bowling with me and him as we had no seamers at all and 3 wicket keepers (jokes). This was a chastening experience. New ball, occasionally getting wet, out the back of wrist? Impossible you might say? Somehow i managed to bowl reasonably well, even slipping in a perfect wrong un which the batsman almost chopped on. I only bowled one rank long hop and a couple of shorter ones. But the complete and utter killer was only having five people in the field. it didn't really matter where i put them because the batsman had so much open field to choose from. Even perfect deliveries were going for four when usually they'd be a dot. There must have been 4 or 5 catch opportunities but of course not a soul was anywhere near them and thanks to the slowness of the pitch the chances of clean bowling anyone was practically zero, bar bowling a gatting ball which was not going to happen. Eventually they cruised to a win without losing a single wicket. I finished up with 6-0-41-0. which i think under the circumstances isn't a bad effort! I totally took one for the team yesterday, wrecking my stats before the season has got underway. Has anyone else ever had to deal with a situation as nightmarish as this?!
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Not as bad as that, normally the key members of the club muster up a few 'Decoys' people's Dads, old club members from the local infirmary, the tea lady with her hair tied back and the obligatory fake moustache, passers by and if it gets to the same situation you were in the we borrow blokes from the oppo. But if it was that bad I don't think it would get to the point where people would be turning up, the game would have been called off.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim's game looked pretty good - average of 3.16 and a strike rate of 18. He's putting me and Golden arm to shame so far this season. It's rained all day here in Essex so I feel pretty okay about saying no to my usual Sunday team mates as the game wouldn't have happened today.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

someblokecalleddave;398987 said:
Jim's game looked pretty good - average of 3.16 and a strike rate of 18. He's putting me and Golden arm to shame so far this season. It's rained all day here in Essex so I feel pretty okay about saying no to my usual Sunday team mates as the game wouldn't have happened today.
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Goldenarm has had a good spell already in another game this season 4-21, he mentions it in the finger injury post.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

macca;398988 said:
Goldenarm has had a good spell already in another game this season 4-21, he mentions it in the finger injury post.
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Thanks for mentioning that Macca! in fact some of my bowling in yesterdays game was superior to the previous where i took 4-21. there just wasn't anyone there to catch the bloody thing at slip and they'd simply scamper off for a thoroughly undeserved two. the batsman were a lot better as well. One of them I played with at school and he regularly scored double tons at a high standard, would have had him caught at extra cover 3rd ball off a leading edge, had I the extravagence of an extra cover....

@Dave, If we 7 hadn't turned up and played we would have forfeited the game and gone into minus points. couldn't have that. Thank god the rest of first team will be back next week. And in the mean time i will be raising hell trying to find out why we were left in the mire!
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

GoldenArm;398991 said:
Thanks for mentioning that Macca! in fact some of my bowling in yesterdays game was superior to the previous where i took 4-21. there just wasn't anyone there to catch the bloody thing at slip and they'd simply scamper off for a thoroughly undeserved two. the batsman were a lot better as well. One of them I played with at school and he regularly scored double tons at a high standard, would have had him caught at extra cover 3rd ball off a leading edge, had I the extravagence of an extra cover....

@Dave, If we 7 hadn't turned up and played we would have forfeited the game and gone into minus points. couldn't have that. Thank god the rest of first team will be back next week. And in the mean time i will be raising hell trying to find out why we were left in the mire!
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Strewth! You mean it was a league game?!!! That's a really bad turnout and a poor bit of organisation by your captain/selectors or whoever it is that does all that!
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

GA, I totally understand your frustation at the situation. Last season, we had people turning up without trying in a few matches that really got my goat.
But, even then, I wouldn't look at it as "taking one for the team". After all, a few stats aren't going to be affected much in the course of an entire season. If you had got a couple of them stumped or so, it would have been definitely worth it.

I was practicing the big gun today and felt that for those trying to overcome the googly syndrome, Biggun should be the place to start. As you know for sure the wrist position you are aiming at when you go with big gun. For the leg break, the wrist position is not perfectly defined, so when the arm is rotating over, its position tends to go awry and we end up with top spinners or googlies most of the time.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

legspinner_don;399103 said:
The 3 golden rules of captaining leg spin | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips
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this is a pretty good article, i find myself agreeing with pretty much every point. club captains need to read it and take note!!

the first point is very true, and probably the major failing point of most club captains. no 2 leg spinners are the same, and thus setting them identical fields is pointless, yet i see it all the time. this is why it is crucial for a leg spin bowler to understand field placements and set their own field, or at least have an input with the captain. some captains realise that they dont understand leg spin and just let the bowler do as he pleases. the problem here though is that if you get smashed for 10 off your first over, they panic and take you off because they dont have any idea how to improve you, so if you cant get it right yourself then they just wont bowl you.

the better captains are the ones that either fully understand, or at least partially understand leg spin, set the field but welcome some bowler input, and then will adjust the field to the bowler. asking the bowler to adjust his deliveries to suit an incorrect field is pointless and never ends well. i prefer a captain that is strong enough to want to set the field himself, but will listen to suggestions. then i just talk him around what he wants to do so that he does exactly what i want, but thinks it was his idea!

the 2nd point is also very true. i hate it when captains just use the leg spinner "somewhere in the middle", with no purpose. every captain at my club seems to be like this. at the weekend we had a temporary captain at the start of the innings as the captain was running late. he was figuring out what bowlers he had so he could decide on his openers, so i put myself forwards with the comment of "i bowl leg spin". his response was a very blunt "well youre definitely not opening then". why not? what possible reasoning is there behind that? he made the instant assumption that id be expensive (when in reality i was far more economical than any of the seamers), and completely lacks the understanding that leg spinners go out to take wickets. they arent there to restrict runs, thats what off spinners and medium pacers do. had he bowled me first up, i reckon id have taken more wickets than i did in the middle of the innings. the steady older opening batsmen would have struggled to play me a lot more than the aggressive quick-footed younger batsmen in the middle order. when the proper captain arrived i still only got a "somewhere in the middle" spell, and only then because i went up and asked him when i was going to get a bowl. i wanted to bowl first change (against the old boys that play textbook shots against seam all day long, but cant move their feet to a leggie), and would have been most effective there, but ended up 3rd change with a pair of youngsters at the crease who both play spin extremely well. fortunately for me i bowled the best i ever have, if id had a slightly off day id have been creamed all over the place. i only bowled 3 or 4 bad balls, and 2 of them went for 4, the other 2 got stopped for singles.

and on the final point - the T20 game i played midweek last week i was bowling towards the end. the other team needed something like 12 runs or so from the last 3 overs with 3 wickets in hand, and i was going for lots of wides. some captains would have played with the mentality that they needed to shut up shop and brought one of the seamers back on to bowl yorkers. fortunately my captain decided he needed 3 wickets instead, and i looked likely to get one. so i got my last over and took 2 wickets! which basically won the match, as i reckon theyd have got the runs easily otherwise. too many captains lack the bottle to stick with a leg spinner when things get tight. they also lack the patience to see a leggie through the dodgy spell at the start of their bowling (sometimes its just the first couple of balls, sometimes it takes 3-4 overs!) whilst they figure out the batsmen, and then they take them off having gone at 8 an over for 3-4 overs, despite at least 2 or 3 deliveries per over almost taking a wicket. if they were to stick with the bowler for another couple of overs then chances are theyd get their reward, but instead they just make those leaked runs a complete waste by pulling the bowler before hes had a chance to make amends. this was the story of last season for me, id never get more than 3-4 overs because id get smashed around, but every time i was probably only one more over away from getting the breakthrough.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Yeah I've got to come in here with some comment around the assumption that if you bowl wrist spin you're destined to either bowl in the middle or towards the end of the game. On Saturday I played as a 'Guest player' as such with my sons team Basildon and Pitsea cc. The game was a inter-team match betweeen the 3rds and 2nds and not knowing who the players were I don't really have any clue as to how good they were. The captain put on 2 quick bowlers against an older bloke and a young player. The young player soon lost his wicket and another joined the older bloke. The older bloke looked like he knew what he was up to and survived another wicket and was the only one that was making runs. An offie came on fairly early and dried up the runs and then I came on around about the 10th over and took his wicket.

It's not always the case but as I've said before openers surely are not used to playing spin, so to put one of your spinners up early in tandem with a fast bowler potentially means the batsmen cant settle and there's an increased chance of getting a wicket?
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim2109;399135 said:
this is a pretty good article, i find myself agreeing with pretty much every point. club captains need to read it and take note!!

the first point is very true, and probably the major failing point of most club captains. no 2 leg spinners are the same, and thus setting them identical fields is pointless, yet i see it all the time. this is why it is crucial for a leg spin bowler to understand field placements and set their own field, or at least have an input with the captain. some captains realise that they dont understand leg spin and just let the bowler do as he pleases. the problem here though is that if you get smashed for 10 off your first over, they panic and take you off because they dont have any idea how to improve you, so if you cant get it right yourself then they just wont bowl you.

the better captains are the ones that either fully understand, or at least partially understand leg spin, set the field but welcome some bowler input, and then will adjust the field to the bowler. asking the bowler to adjust his deliveries to suit an incorrect field is pointless and never ends well. i prefer a captain that is strong enough to want to set the field himself, but will listen to suggestions. then i just talk him around what he wants to do so that he does exactly what i want, but thinks it was his idea!

the 2nd point is also very true. i hate it when captains just use the leg spinner "somewhere in the middle", with no purpose. every captain at my club seems to be like this. at the weekend we had a temporary captain at the start of the innings as the captain was running late. he was figuring out what bowlers he had so he could decide on his openers, so i put myself forwards with the comment of "i bowl leg spin". his response was a very blunt "well youre definitely not opening then". why not? what possible reasoning is there behind that? he made the instant assumption that id be expensive (when in reality i was far more economical than any of the seamers), and completely lacks the understanding that leg spinners go out to take wickets. they arent there to restrict runs, thats what off spinners and medium pacers do. had he bowled me first up, i reckon id have taken more wickets than i did in the middle of the innings. the steady older opening batsmen would have struggled to play me a lot more than the aggressive quick-footed younger batsmen in the middle order. when the proper captain arrived i still only got a "somewhere in the middle" spell, and only then because i went up and asked him when i was going to get a bowl. i wanted to bowl first change (against the old boys that play textbook shots against seam all day long, but cant move their feet to a leggie), and would have been most effective there, but ended up 3rd change with a pair of youngsters at the crease who both play spin extremely well. fortunately for me i bowled the best i ever have, if id had a slightly off day id have been creamed all over the place. i only bowled 3 or 4 bad balls, and 2 of them went for 4, the other 2 got stopped for singles.

and on the final point - the T20 game i played midweek last week i was bowling towards the end. the other team needed something like 12 runs or so from the last 3 overs with 3 wickets in hand, and i was going for lots of wides. some captains would have played with the mentality that they needed to shut up shop and brought one of the seamers back on to bowl yorkers. fortunately my captain decided he needed 3 wickets instead, and i looked likely to get one. so i got my last over and took 2 wickets! which basically won the match, as i reckon theyd have got the runs easily otherwise. too many captains lack the bottle to stick with a leg spinner when things get tight. they also lack the patience to see a leggie through the dodgy spell at the start of their bowling (sometimes its just the first couple of balls, sometimes it takes 3-4 overs!) whilst they figure out the batsmen, and then they take them off having gone at 8 an over for 3-4 overs, despite at least 2 or 3 deliveries per over almost taking a wicket. if they were to stick with the bowler for another couple of overs then chances are theyd get their reward, but instead they just make those leaked runs a complete waste by pulling the bowler before hes had a chance to make amends. this was the story of last season for me, id never get more than 3-4 overs because id get smashed around, but every time i was probably only one more over away from getting the breakthrough.
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Your bowling style would allow you to open the bowling with faster legbreaks as well as coming on later and bowling slower, I would imagine?
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

for some reason in matches ive managed to find the happy medium between pace and flight. in nets i have been bowling a bit too fast and flat recently, and ive been dragging down a lot and dropping deliveries short. in matches, for whatever reason, i seem to be much more able to pitch the ball up under the batsmans nose. i think its because they are less willing to attack the legside ball when they are actually in the middle, whereas in the nets they will go after it all day long. but its a high risk shot against the spin. so i can relax more and not have to worry about trying to fire the ball in at 50mph, 40mph gets the job done. however i still have the effort ball on hand when i want to use it. accuracy is problematic with it, whereas my slightly more flighted ball is a lot more consistent (i reckon i could land it within a 12" circle 5 times out of 6 based on performances thus far). my slower delivery is still fairly quick though by club standards.

with regards opening the attack - personally id back myself to do it based solely on how much i spin the ball. i get a lot of drift, even more so in the middle with the open wind (nets are more closed off in the corner with a house and trees next to them). and thus far the pitches have been excellent for spin. i dont think my seam consistency has suddenly gone from 20% to 90% overnight, in fact im absolutely certain that it hasnt, but the early season pitches (contrary to general opinion) have been extremely grippy. seamers are hating it, but im absolutely loving it, because it means even my bad balls deviate!! whilst the good ones absolutely rip, its only a matter of time before i bowl someone behind their legs, ive had 2 miss by less than an inch so far.

so with fresh batsmen, with good straight-bat technique, id back myself to take their wicket early doors without even altering my "natural" delivery. there are very few openers that come out looking to dominate the bowling in 40/45 over games. in T20 perhaps, but at the same time aggressive is easier to get out. so i dont see the risk in using a leg spinner as the opening bowler in terms of runs. the only potential issue is if the batsmen play a good defence and the bowler wastes his overs plugging away without a plan and without getting a break through. as it is undeniable that the leg spinner is typically the most useful bowler at middle-lower order club players. so if they waste their overs against the openers without taking any wickets, then irrespective of runs, that is arguably a waste of bowling.

in the match i played at the weekend, the other side (it was a club 1's vs club 2's friendly) used the other full time leggie at the club as the 2nd opening bowler. he started well, his first over went for almost no runs and he had a couple of missed edges. but then one of the batsmen retired after a few overs because he got bored of not hitting anything, and in came a massive hitter. and he took the leggie to the cleaners on the first few balls, and then his confidence dropped and he did nothing. he ended up bowling about 4 or 5 overs in that spell for no wickets. and then he came back on later on and still had no joy. in that situation he would have been better utilised against the middle order as both the openers were SUPER defensive, wouldnt hit anything, and just saw him off.

one of the openers is the guy that ive mentioned before who plays so far back in his crease that hes almost behind the stumps, and then plays everything off the back foot. last week apparently it took him 40 dot balls before he even scored a run! i lose it if i havent scored a run within the first FOUR balls, let alone 40!! if i dont score a run in my first over then i just go for it, all or nothing. batting to stay in is so boring that id rather just get out lol.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

I think one of your key advantages is your supreme confidence due to the fact that you can vary the amount of turn you get off the wicket. As you say your normal leg break is enough to work with, but then if you want to gain some control over the situation being able to throw up a ball at will that turns at right angles must be increadibly useful and confidence inspiring?
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i played again last night in a midweek T20 league. i bowled ok, but not all that well. my final figures were 2-0-15-1 of which 7 were extras!! i didnt go for any boundaries again.

the pitch is council maintained and thus not covered at all, and we had heavy rain for the past few days. so it was pretty damp and soft. i still had the ball turning a lot, but the pitch sucked all of the pace out of it so it was just sitting up to be hit.

i got the nod first change, which was good as i got to bowl at some actual batsmen. the side we were playing werent very good, their openers wouldnt even get into the sunday 2nd XI at my normal club in the middle order! but they had this one old guy who was a leftie and one of those really old guys who cant move around that fast, but theyve got the wisdom that they dont need to. they just watch the ball onto the bat and nurdle it around.

so first ball, wide down the leg side. but it turned quite a lot and the batsman must have seen that. 2nd ball pitched on middle stump with a bit of drift in from off stump. it proceeded not to turn off the pitch and went straight, and clean bowled middle stump. off to a flying start! the batsman and my keeper reckoned id bowled a googly (i wish), but i think the fact it drifted in a bit and then went straight compared to the normal massive turn i get meant that they both misjudged it. it was supposed to be a leg break, but the seam scrambled off my fingers.

i then proceeded to bowl a 10 ball over with wides down the leg side (they genuinely were this time as well! i even managed one to a left hander outside his off stump!!) but looked threatening with every ball.

second over, first ball i think, the batsman completely misjudged the bounce and top edged it skywards right above me. i called it early, did a horrendous job of getting myself into position and missed the catch by a foot! i was absolutely furious, it was a dolly. i should have been 2-9 at that point, they also ran a single whilst the ball was in the air to add insult to injury.

next ball i was angry, bowled a slightly faster one at the leftie with top spin, it bounced huge and he edged it straight up. the keeper should have taken it easily but he wasnt very good and missed it. however i got called for a no ball!!! i have no idea how, i dont normally even get close to the line. but with a decent keeper and control of my feet, id have now been 3-10. now i was even more angry!

next ball, even more anger behind it, another absolute belter. outside leg, turned back in to the left hander, he tried to drive it and failed, holing out to very short extra cover. the guy fielding there has a bad back and couldnt really run or bend down or anything. he made a solid effort diving for the catch. it wasnt that hard, but given his medical condition it was always a tall ask. he didnt get a palm on it and bounced out off his forearm for a dropped catch. at this point i should have been 4-11.

and then i bowled another dot, a wide, and then a single and a 2 i think. ending up with 2-0-15-1

the figures look pretty crap, although a wicket in 2 overs is a good strike rate, and the average isnt bad either. and given that it was T20 a 7.50 economy is nothing out of the ordinary. if i could get control of the wides situation then id have only gone for 6 actual runs! also, the captain set the field with everyone on the 2 or boundary, nobody stopping singles. i wanted it so everyone was on the one to stop them rotating strike! but it was getting dark and everyone just wanted to hurry things up, not change field settings.

it was a frustrating day. made worse by being given out LBW whilst batting by my own captain at umpire. the ball hit me inline for sure, but im 6'2" and it hit me in the thigh, and i was fully upright playing off the back foot!! i couldnt believe it, it was miles over the stumps. i asked the captain after the innings how he gave me out for that, and he said he thought it hit me in the shin!!!! so i got given out, for about 3 runs off 5 balls, to a decision based on the ball hitting me somewhere that it wasnt even close to lol. just one of those days!
 
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