Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Yeah I doubted that you were that fast, a bloke in his late 20's at my club with some of the best pace bowling figures in the clubs history bowled in the nets in the winter and was going for it and was only recording 65mph and that looked fast!

it makes you wonder how fast 100mph must be!!!

guys at my club say theyve batted in the nets against the bowling machine with it set at 65mph, and even that is hard to play. 75mph is apparently near enough unplayable for them. there was a kid at my old club who tried 90mph just to see how fast it was, and he said that he literally didnt see the ball. the first he knew about it being bowled was when he heard it thud into the wall behind him!!

which all makes me feel 100 times better about my own bowling speed! when i said to a few guys yesterday that my net speeds are up over 40mph they were all very impressed. apparently that is faster than some of the medium pacers have been clocked at!!! my stock match deliveries are below that, but your average pie chucker is probably bowling at about 25mph, and im significantly quicker than that.

 

[shrek]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i also desperately need a wrong'un. not really for taking wickets, but just for a mental advantage. if i could get one to turn back in early on then it would plant that seed of doubt in the batsmans mind. id probably only use it once just for that purpose. il have to work on it a bit more i think.

Jim a suggestion from what I've seen of the club batsmen so far. The googly doesn't actually get you as many wickets by itself but is helpful like you said in sowing seeds of doubt in batsmen's mind. For most leggies, the legbreak is enough to get the wickets, all you need is for the batsmen to believe that there is something else coming.

As a really crappy bowler last year I got one over when we were not getting any wickets - There was a leftie on strike and I threw a halftracker of a googly that was a really bad delivery. But the reverence in the non striker asking the batsman to watch out for the "other one" almost had me laugh out loud. I bowled another such half tracker which the batsman ended up lobbing to short midwicket in a tame attempt of a pull as the ball kept getting away from him.

Did you try bowling a stock offspinner or even a seamup delivery for a change ? And you seem to be talking about overspun leg breaks, but do you have a a pure topspinner -that goes straight? If you do, you can simply use the width of the crease to make it appear to the batsmen as if it is turning in. Enough to create doubts.

About the speed - this is what I've read on other forums about speed

" "Naturally, the best thing possible to use would be a radar gun - however they're not generally widely available to clubs and schools - but there is a simple way that needs just a stopwatch and a calculator (or maths geek) to provide approximate results. Start the stopwatch when the ball is released, and then stop it again when either the batsman hits (or misses) it, then divide 45 (or 72) by your answer to get your answer in miles per hour (or kilometres). For example, a delivery timed at 1 second has travelled at about 45mph (72kph). To break the magical 100mph (160kph) barrier, the clock must register at 0.45 seconds. Once you get used to working the timer, you will get surprisingly consistent results. I've found that standing at the back of the net, either directly behind or just to the side, gets the best results."

A genuinely quick 14 year old is around 70mph."

I have faced a bowler who was clocked at 118 kmph with the speed gun about 5 years ago. He seemed quick at that time.

But now, there are two guys at our club who are faster than most in the league. According to this measure, they seem to be bowling at 115-120kmph, but I find it hard to believe as I can negotiate them fairly well.

I believe you will get an odd bowler in the club cricket who can bowl at 75mph at least for a couple of overs.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

it makes you wonder how fast 100mph must be!!!

guys at my club say theyve batted in the nets against the bowling machine with it set at 65mph, and even that is hard to play. 75mph is apparently near enough unplayable for them. there was a kid at my old club who tried 90mph just to see how fast it was, and he said that he literally didnt see the ball. the first he knew about it being bowled was when he heard it thud into the wall behind him!!

which all makes me feel 100 times better about my own bowling speed! when i said to a few guys yesterday that my net speeds are up over 40mph they were all very impressed. apparently that is faster than some of the medium pacers have been clocked at!!! my stock match deliveries are below that, but your average pie chucker is probably bowling at about 25mph, and im significantly quicker than that.

I think I've said this before but the Basildon blokes set their new bowling machine up at 100mph on thier wicket and a bloke at the edge of the field behind the stumps waited to field the ball as it came through and he broke his fingers/hand in some way and it bounced once! You can see when Tait bowls in excess of 95mph it is seriously fast.

But a speed gun would be interesting to use just see how your basic deliveries are with regards speed and your faster balls. I've had my fast flippers measured and they were 42 mph, it may be the case that my bowling has improved since then and my out the front of the hand flippers and top-spinning flippers might be coming out at 40 -ish with a lot less effort than my old back-spinning flipper. But I reckon my basic deliveries range from 32-36 mph and some a lot slower - my wrong un would be under 30 mph. But it would be nice to check these things out.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim would you consider potentially sacrificing your leg break in the short term to learn the wrong un? I reckon if you've got the years in front of you and you're patient it may be an approach you could take to learn it? I know I spent the best part of 2 months bowling wrong uns constantly to get them sussed, but I have got a spectacular wrong un when it comes out right and it doesn't take much practice to ressurect it from its slumber. I'd also add my leg breaks having re-learnt them after the Googly syndrome are better than they have ever been. What do you reckon - are you that desperate? Start bowling the wrong un at the end of August - Spend all of Sept and October bowling Top-spinners, trying to turn the hand upside down for the wrong un and eventually it'll come. You'll probably cause all sorts of shoulder issues - stress on the rotator cuff and a sense that you're almost disloacting your shoulder as you bowl because your arm is twisted too get the wrist turned over so much! Do that get it all together by November and then re-learn the Leg-Break for the new season in April?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim a suggestion from what I've seen of the club batsmen so far. The googly doesn't actually get you as many wickets by itself but is helpful like you said in sowing seeds of doubt in batsmen's mind. For most leggies, the legbreak is enough to get the wickets, all you need is for the batsmen to believe that there is something else coming.

As a really crappy bowler last year I got one over when we were not getting any wickets - There was a leftie on strike and I threw a halftracker of a googly that was a really bad delivery. But the reverence in the non striker asking the batsman to watch out for the "other one" almost had me laugh out loud. I bowled another such half tracker which the batsman ended up lobbing to short midwicket in a tame attempt of a pull as the ball kept getting away from him.

Did you try bowling a stock offspinner or even a seamup delivery for a change ? And you seem to be talking about overspun leg breaks, but do you have a a pure topspinner -that goes straight? If you do, you can simply use the width of the crease to make it appear to the batsmen as if it is turning in. Enough to create doubts.

About the speed - this is what I've read on other forums about speed



I have faced a bowler who was clocked at 118 kmph with the speed gun about 5 years ago. He seemed quick at that time.

But now, there are two guys at our club who are faster than most in the league. According to this measure, they seem to be bowling at 115-120kmph, but I find it hard to believe as I can negotiate them fairly well.

I believe you will get an odd bowler in the club cricket who can bowl at 75mph at least for a couple of overs.

ive sort of got a top spinner. i perceive it as a top spinner, and it goes straight with extra bounce, but ive never actually verified the seam position. my off spinning flipper turns in slightly, so i have a delivery that i can plant a seed of doubt with in that regard. the problem is that small turn doesnt really worry batsmen, they can play it like its straight and cope just fine. what i want to have is a googly that turns at least a foot. it doesnt need to be accurate, just landing it once and having it turn in big will be enough. a few choice words to the batsman about watching out for the googly and he will be panicking.

im usually reluctant to use a variation if either my leg break is working well, or im not landing the ball consistently. if the leg break is working then i have a tendancy to just stick with it. unless i can see a specific weakness in the batsman that i want to exploit, then i just plug away. my leg break troubles 99% of batsmen anyway when i land it where i want it. and if my consistency is poor then i just want to try and find rhythm, and changing my delivery isnt going to help that.

with regards the stopwatch method, i replied in that thread on cricketweb. if you average the speed of enough deliveries then it should work within about 10%, but there is a high potential for error. personally i have my slow motion camera so i have no need for that method, its within 2-3% of the accuracy of a speed gun anyway. im going to use it to speed check the fast bowler at my club at some point because he only managed 65mph into a headwind on the speed gun the other week, and i reckon hes much faster than that.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim would you consider potentially sacrificing your leg break in the short term to learn the wrong un? I reckon if you've got the years in front of you and you're patient it may be an approach you could take to learn it? I know I spent the best part of 2 months bowling wrong uns constantly to get them sussed, but I have got a spectacular wrong un when it comes out right and it doesn't take much practice to ressurect it from its slumber. I'd also add my leg breaks having re-learnt them after the Googly syndrome are better than they have ever been. What do you reckon - are you that desperate? Start bowling the wrong un at the end of August - Spend all of Sept and October bowling Top-spinners, trying to turn the hand upside down for the wrong un and eventually it'll come. You'll probably cause all sorts of shoulder issues - stress on the rotator cuff and a sense that you're almost disloacting your shoulder as you bowl because your arm is twisted too get the wrist turned over so much! Do that get it all together by November and then re-learn the Leg-Break for the new season in April?

the thing is, i genuinely dont think i would lose my leg break even if i really go for the googly. its hard to know for sure until i try it, but i pretty much have control of my wrist position for all of the deliveries from full backspin to full top spin now. most people that learn the googly try and learn it at the same time as they first take up the leg break, and maybe dont have as broad an understanding of what can potentially happen. because you have suffered the googly syndrome and documented it so well, i reckon i might have enough acquired wisdom to avoid it.

the problem i have at present is that every other delivery ive learnt, ive been able to bowl to some degree instantly. it took me about 10 mins to figure out how to get my wrist into position for a zooter for example. but with the wrong'un, i cant even get it out of my hand at super slow speed across 5 yards. i cant even do it with a tennis ball! once i figure out how to do it i think it will click into place reasonably quickly, and then it will just be a question of practice to get it consistent and accurate. but that could take years anyway. its taken me a year of leg breaks and im still not even close to where i want to be, maybe 20-30% consistency, but it doesnt help that i try to bowl fast and flat all the time, ive finally realised that instead of trying to be Shane Warne straight away, i need to build up to it gradually.

im definitely going to integrate the wrong'un into my practice regularly. ive got my white ball so i will tape the seam again so its clear to see, and then every time i bowl that ball, il make it an attempted wrong'un. i can see the seam in flight, so il be able to judge how well its going. once i get the spin in the right direction then i can worry about line, length, turn, etc. i also need to see if my full top spin deliveries are actually full top spin or just leggies that dont turn. ive never actually taken a slow motion shot of one because i bowl them so rarely.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

the problem i have at present is that every other delivery ive learnt, ive been able to bowl to some degree instantly. it took me about 10 mins to figure out how to get my wrist into position for a zooter for example. but with the wrong'un, i cant even get it out of my hand at super slow speed across 5 yards. i cant even do it with a tennis ball! once i figure out how to do it i think it will click into place reasonably quickly, and then it will just be a question of practice to get it consistent and accurate. .

Neither can I! I think to do it you've literally got to throw yourself into the action with a lot of physical exertion, I would say that as far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as a gently bowled wrong un, it has to rip out of the fingers and hands with a fairly violent snap and learning it I had all the problems mentioned earlier with the rotator cuff.

With your action I'd imagine that your top-spinner bowled with a vertical arm and a bit more emphasis with the wrist twisted the wrong way and the violent rip out of the hand you'll get it relatively easy, but gentle is not the way to go in my experience. So work with the Top-Spinner first and get that ripping out of the hand with the vertical seam and the straighter arm through the delivery?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Neither can I! I think to do it you've literally got to throw yourself into the action with a lot of physical exertion, I would say that as far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as a gently bowled wrong un, it has to rip out of the fingers and hands with a fairly violent snap and learning it I had all the problems mentioned earlier with the rotator cuff.

With your action I'd imagine that your top-spinner bowled with a vertical arm and a bit more emphasis with the wrist twisted the wrong way and the violent rip out of the hand you'll get it relatively easy, but gentle is not the way to go in my experience. So work with the Top-Spinner first and get that ripping out of the hand with the vertical seam and the straighter arm through the delivery?

il keep trying it at full speed then. the hard thing there is that you cant break the action down. it either works or it doesnt. i think il have to make better use of my camcorder in learning this. i also need to try the Richie Benaud method of learning it as i havent tried that yet.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i went for a practice down my clubs nets. i was down there about 2 hours, it took me a while to find my rhythm but when i did i bowled probably the best spell ive ever managed. so its getting better.

i decided that aiming at a piece of rope isnt a good enough reference, and my club has these big chunks of wood sitting around that are literally the size of a set of stumps, and 8" thick. so i stuck one of them where the batsmans front pad would be for a drive, then i laid my rope across the wicket on the shortest acceptable length (about 2 yards from the batsman). then i bowled, with the intention of bowling the batsman behind his legs, or finding his edge. it worked perfectly, and i reckon its the most useful practice ive ever had. i definitely recommend it.

i bowled a couple of awesome cherries that turned in from well outside leg stump (far enough out that no decent batsman would have played a shot at them) and hit leg stump off a very good length. i must have bowled 60-70 deliveries that were 95% on the money! i bowled a top spinner with every set using my white ball, i can bowl a genuine top spinner, but thats as far around the loop as i can go. il just have to keep working on it and hopefully the wrong'un will come.

then some guys showed up for a friendly game between a couple of local companies, and they were short of players, so they asked if i wanted a game. so i played a T20 match! they figured that if i play club cricket and have my own kit that i must be able to bat, and stuck me in at 4 (foolishly). i went in with about 10 overs gone, and played out to the finish for 18 runs!!! in fairness, i was off strike quite a lot, i got my runs off about 24 balls, but i wasnt great. some of the bowling was so slow and low in bounce that i literally couldnt play it. i hit a few 4's and some singles. it was my best batting performance of the season (worryingly).

then i got to bowl 2 overs. it had been about 2 hours by then since i was practicing in the nets though, so id lost my rhythm mostly. i didnt bowl badly, but i only landed one really good ball. the first batsman i was bowling at plays southern premier league cricket!! he was a proper batsman and played some awesome shots. i was bowling a tad short outside leg stump, so even though it was turning well he was just tucking me off his pads every ball for singles and waiting for bad ones to dispatch to the ropes. he hit me for a couple of 4's and a 6, but when i only got about 6 balls at him i just didnt have a chance to get myself going. i reckon if id faced him over 5 overs i might have caused him some problems once i found my line and length. i asked him after the game for some advice and he was very helpful. i pretty much knew id bowled too short at him though, and he said that hes a strong backfoot player anyway so i bowled to his strength. i got a wicket when i finally landed one right, clean bowled. but the rules in this game were that batsmen couldnt be out first ball, so it didnt officially count (im counting it anyway though). so my figures were 2-0-19-1 which isnt bad considering the standard of batsman i was up against, the premier league player hit 16 of those runs i think! and more importantly, there were zero extras, and i was bowling at pretty much full effort!!!

i should be playing in a T20 cup final tomorrow evening (although im going to be knackered, 3 matches in 4 days), and then ive got no cricket for a couple of weeks. plenty of time to improve on my consistency

 

[shrek]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Neither can I! I think to do it you've literally got to throw yourself into the action with a lot of physical exertion, I would say that as far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as a gently bowled wrong un, it has to rip out of the fingers and hands with a fairly violent snap and learning it I had all the problems mentioned earlier with the rotator cuff.

With your action I'd imagine that your top-spinner bowled with a vertical arm and a bit more emphasis with the wrist twisted the wrong way and the violent rip out of the hand you'll get it relatively easy, but gentle is not the way to go in my experience. So work with the Top-Spinner first and get that ripping out of the hand with the vertical seam and the straighter arm through the delivery?

I think that is a personal thing. I can bowl the googly very gently and without any effort at all. Infact my googlies tend to be loopier than the normal leg breaks. Might be the result of the googly syndrome, but usually I had better control and got greater turn from the googlies.

About a month ago, when I finally got over my googly syndrome, my googly sort of lost its bite. I can still bowl it, but it tends to gently slope in, in stead of violently turning in like it used to. Perhaps, I should heed your advice and throw myself into the action entirely. But, I'm still worried about losing my leg break so I don't put too much effort into it nor do I throw a googly more often than once every 8 balls that I bowl.

Jim,
One suggestion for bowling an easy wrong-un is to open yourself up. If you are more open chested than side on and the hand is turning over, you will notice that the ball will be released from the back of your hand automatically, if it is to go towards the batsman.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

I think that is a personal thing. I can bowl the googly very gently and without any effort at all. Infact my googlies tend to be loopier than the normal leg breaks. Might be the result of the googly syndrome, but usually I had better control and got greater turn from the googlies.

About a month ago, when I finally got over my googly syndrome, my googly sort of lost its bite. I can still bowl it, but it tends to gently slope in, in stead of violently turning in like it used to. Perhaps, I should heed your advice and throw myself into the action entirely. But, I'm still worried about losing my leg break so I don't put too much effort into it nor do I throw a googly more often than once every 8 balls that I bowl.

Jim,
One suggestion for bowling an easy wrong-un is to open yourself up. If you are more open chested than side on and the hand is turning over, you will notice that the ball will be released from the back of your hand automatically, if it is to go towards the batsman.

im already a front-on bowler, so that doesnt really help me. my wrist already compensates for this by starting from a position where it would normally release the ball from the back of the hand, but then flicks across to bowl a leg break. so for me to then try and get it to follow its "natural" path is hard because its done the complete opposite about 20,000 times in the past lol. from bowling top spinners yesterday i can kind of see and feel where my arm needs to be and how il achieve that, i think i just need to keep bowling top spinners for a few weeks and gradually try and get my arm around that little bit further.

i want a googly as a fear weapon, so ideally i want one that turns 2 feet without any specific requirement for accuracy in line or length. however if i end up with a subtle wrong'un that only turns 6" but lands similarly to my leg break then it might actually be a wicket weapon. im happy either way really.

ultimately it wont matter unless i can start landing my leg breaks with 95% consistency. last night in the match i got every one to turn, but none of them turned big. the problem was that line and length changed every ball. on proper wickets i get a lot more turn, my clubs pitch is soft in nature, and with all the dry weather its really breaking up. if you throw a ball in the outfield and it hits the ground hard it breaks the surface and dies on the spot and a cloud of dust flies out!! the wickets are a little better, but still extremely soft. theres nothing for the ball to grip onto. playing on that professional standard pitch at the weekend was like bowling in concrete nets, which is where im most at home! this summer has been unusually hot and dry so far though for England. normally we always get some rain in summer even if its hot, and we havent had any proper rain in forever. last week i heard that Essex is officially a desert because of the lack of rainfall!!!

one other positive from my recent practices - i now have complete control of the seam angle around the loop from full overspinner to full backspinner, and everywhere in between. when i found my rhythm in practice yesterday i could bowl any of the angle variations at will. i was even pretending like the block of wood representing the batsman was playing specific shots and bowling to plans i cant stress enough how useful that was as practice, i definitely recommend giving it a go.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Yeah I posted on my blog last night Wrist Spin Bowling: The big heat continues about how and dry it's been for the last 6-8 weeks, this is like the summers we used to have when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's. The only thing is as you say, wickets are drying up and crumbling and becoming dust bowls. Our paddock is only any good for target practice, anything with spin on it turns like Shane Warnes bigger brothers bowling!

Your block of wood sounds like my drill here - http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/2010/05/bowling-drill-for-legspin.html I just noticed going back through the blog that the last time we had any substantial rain was June 6th.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

I think that is a personal thing. I can bowl the googly very gently and without any effort at all. Infact my googlies tend to be loopier than the normal leg breaks. Might be the result of the googly syndrome, but usually I had better control and got greater turn from the googlies.

About a month ago, when I finally got over my googly syndrome, my googly sort of lost its bite. I can still bowl it, but it tends to gently slope in, in stead of violently turning in like it used to. Perhaps, I should heed your advice and throw myself into the action entirely. But, I'm still worried about losing my leg break so I don't put too much effort into it nor do I throw a googly more often than once every 8 balls that I bowl.

Jim,
One suggestion for bowling an easy wrong-un is to open yourself up. If you are more open chested than side on and the hand is turning over, you will notice that the ball will be released from the back of your hand automatically, if it is to go towards the batsman.

I think that once you've sussed the Wrong Un - it's like either Grimmett or Mallett say about Tiger O'Reilly, the delivery is far more natural to bowl as opposed to the Leg Break and therefore it's potentially a ball that you can bowl much faster, I think Collingwood when he bowls his 'Off-cutters' uses the Wrong Un principle sometimes to get the ball to turn to off. Anyway I think once you're there and you've got it, you're able to bowl it with less violence and it comes easier. I just think as part of the process of learning it you have to really over-exaggerate what it is you think you need to do in order to make it happen. I seem to remember when I was learning - realising that it felt like a whole body experience, right through from requiring full grip at ground level, right through the body to a whip lash feeling involving the hips, back, shoulders, arms, elbow, wrist and fingers - more so than any of the other deliveries I was bowling at the time (Leg Break, Top-Spinner and Flipper). These days as Shrek says, the whole thing feels smoother, but to get it to turn I do need to really give a rip.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i didnt get to play in my T20 cup final on Wednesday. i started playing for this pub team because one of my friends did and they were a few players short first game of the season. so i stepped in and helped them out, played well, and then kept getting invited back. i played every single game this season for them, and there were only 2 of us who did. in my first game (first round of the cup) i took 2 wickets at a crucial time that won us the game from the jaws of defeat (they needed almost no runs, and we had to bowl them out to win, and did).

so come the cup final, as it always the case with these things, all of the players that couldnt be bothered to show up on cold rainy days for the important fixtures decide that they fancy some glory in the cup final. so there was a team and a half worth of players all available to play, and only 11 spots up for grabs. a few players were noble enough to remove themselves from contention because they hadnt played that often, or were carrying injuries, etc. so it came down to 12 players for 11 places, and since im the "outsider" in the team, e.g. i dont live locally or drink in their pub, i was the 12th man.

very disappointing given the performances ive put in. i think i ended up 2nd highest wicket taker, including some very important wickets at important times. i showed up every week without fail and put in 100%. and then i dont get to participate in the biggest game of the season. nice. i dont know if they won or not.

on the upside, im playing 1st XI league cricket on Saturday!! im away on Sunday so couldnt play, and the league sides are short on players. im not going to kid myself, im pretty sure im only playing 1st XI because they didnt want to steal a top player from the 2nd's, so im probably only there to make up numbers in the field.

however, id like to think ive been picked on fielding performance at the very least. which is a huge turn around from the start of the season where i was awful in the field, but im now probably one of the best fielders. and if it gets me league games then its worthwhile, because i might get a bowl at some point, and a chance to impress.

i wont be too downbeat if i dont get a bowl or a bat at the weekend, im fully expecting not to. so anything i do get is a bonus.

ive also batted fairly well in my last 2 innings, in front of first XI players. so maybe theyve recognised the few decent shots i pulled off in amongst the poor ones and picked me for that! i also bowled a few excellent overs at the end of my spell on Sunday, and im improving all the time in matches. at this rate i might be a genuine all-rounder by next season!!

 

[macca]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

very disappointing given the performances ive put in. i think i ended up 2nd highest wicket taker, including some very important wickets at important times. i showed up every week without fail and put in 100%. and then i dont get to participate in the biggest game of the season. nice. i dont know if they won or not.

on the upside, im playing 1st XI league cricket on Saturday!!

Maybe they didn't pick you because you are a legspinner and they thought they were playing safe by not using you. Which is crap.

Hope they got wiped like a dirty arse in the final. Fancy after you putting in every week and being one of the top actual wicket takers they treat you like that.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i dont think ability or bowling method even came into it on this occasion. it was literally a personal decision, based on the fact that the manager of the team runs the pub, and he wouldnt want to upset his regular customers who wanted a game. i can appreciate it from his point of view, it was a no brainer. its just disappointing from my end because ive worked hard as part of the team i every single game to get them to the final, and undoubtedly there will have been people who played the final without playing a single cup game prior to that.

the midweek season has finished now, so its weekend cricket or nothing. but school holidays have just begun so there will be lots of people going on holidays with their kids over the next 6 weeks, so theres a very good chance of me getting Saturday league games to fill in for people. like this weekend.

 

[shrek]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Maybe they didn't pick you because you are a legspinner and they thought they were playing safe by not using you. Which is crap.

Hope they got wiped like a dirty arse in the final. Fancy after you putting in every week and being one of the top actual wicket takers they treat you like that.

Tough luck Jim. On the other hand, a positive spin to look at things would be - you got to bowl so many overs that you might not have got if you didn't play with them. I hope you went to take a look at the game being the 12th man and all so that come the next time around, you might not be the "outsider" anymore.

About going it safe- I do agree that is a perspective many seem to be taking. I've been bowling very very consistently for the last 3 weeks in the nets(2 sessions each week) . with rarely a short ball and never a wide. Despite that, I've not been given even one over to bowl in all of the matches- part to do with the memory of me bowling all over the shop when I started bowling - part to do with the belief that offspinners are more accurate than legspinners, hence more effective - so now we have three off spinners (all top order batsmen) who get the ball before I do. Being a No.3, 4 batsman keeps me in the team always, so i'm waiting for the time I get a bowl.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i played a first XI league game on Saturday. i found out that had i preferred i could have asked to play 2nd XI instead, in which case i might have got a bowl. but i was chosen for first XI based on my strength in the field, which is still quite cool. and i was solid in the field and made a few good stops to justify the choice.

we batted first and i came in at 11. our opening bat hit a ton, i went in with about 8 overs left and the score above 200 on a wicket that was creating all sorts of uneven bounce and seam movement, and we already felt we had more than enough runs to win. i basically just looked to block out the ball and try and build an innings. i played some very good forward defensives, a couple of nice straight drives, and a couple of attempted pull shots. i got dropped off one sketchy shot, but was mostly solid. and ended up 0 not out after the other batsman got bowled. zero runs is never a good performance, but i felt like i could have had a solid innings with more time. this was against a fairly high standard of bowling as well, the highest standard ive faced. my batting is coming along massively, i think i could be a genuine all rounder by next season. had i gone in swinging i might have got some quick runs, but im purposely trying to build innings of late. i want to be able to hit big scores, rather than fast double figures and not stay around for long.

i didnt get to bowl, given the pitch condition seamers were favoured. there wasnt a single over of spin bowled in the entire match. we only used 4 bowlers, they all took regular wickets. and we won by over 100 runs with 9 overs to spare. had we bowled first and been that commanding there was a chance i might have got a few overs towards the end, but possibly not. the rules of the league are that you have to bowl the other team all out to win, and the captain didnt want to risk using bowlers that he wasnt certain would take wickets quickly (and the 4 seamers were getting the job done just fine). there were a couple of regular first XI seam bowlers that didnt get a go either.

its all experience though. next week i want to be back in the sunday XI, or saturday 2's at best. league cricket is nice, but id rather play at a lower standard and get my 5-8 bowling overs because that experience is more useful to me this season. next season il attempt to work my way into the league sides as a regular bowler, for now i just need all the overs i can get to improve my game, and hopefully impress the relevant people in order to push for league cricket next season.

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

just been watching the England vs Pakistan test, just as Kaneria came on to bowl. and its given me some reassurances about my own lack of consistency and my struggles to find my feet in my first few overs of a match.

his first ball was miles outside off stump and turned big, borderline wide. the next ball wasnt much better. he only really landed one or 2 balls in the first over anywhere close to a decent line and length.

second over wasnt much better, and included an awful full toss delivery. he landed 1 or 2 cherries that beat Trotts outside edge though.

then 3rd over got better, and his 4th over better again. still not amazing, but somewhere close to what you would expect from Kaneria. he probably needs 10 overs to get fully going, but today they took him off after 4 overs for some reason and brought on their off spinner (even though Pietersen was on strike and hates leg spin recently).

but when arguably the best current leg spinner in test cricket starts his spell in that manner, despite the fact that hes been playing a LONG time and practices all day everyday, it makes me feel a lot better about struggling to find any rhythm in my first 2-3 overs.

Kaneria was turning the ball pretty big today as well, but fairly inconsistently, and mostly dropping it short. again, something else that gives me reassurance.

maybe there is hope yet. i think Shane Warnes ability to put the ball on the money from the outset has set the bar so high that no leg spinner is ever going to be able to live up to it again. with the way captains are treating leg spin i wouldnt be surprised if the Warne hype wears off over the next decade and leg spin disappears for another 30 years. if no-one is bowling it well then it will lose favour. you have to wonder if that isnt what happened post-Grimmett and Benaud, in those years when leg spin was almost extinct at the highest level. right now there are lots of kids that want to be leggies, but after a few years of struggling and failing to get selected you can bet theyll switch to seam bowling or off spin.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Do they though? (Practice every day for hours on end) I've asked a few people this and as yet still haven't had a definitive answer, there was an article in one of the free newspapers a couple of days ago 'A day in the life of Stuart Broad' and it didn't sound that intensive, all though he was talking about a day during a test match. The only practice he seemed to do was for about 3/4 of an hour before breakfast - batting and then prior to the match in the nets on one of the squares in the middle for 15 minutes. But then all he does is bowl straight so maybe it's not so much of an issue for the quicks?