Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

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Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Anyone play today - or did the weather screw up your matches? I've got a game tomorrow at Horton Kirby in Kent, which is a lovely ground in some really stunning countryside considering its close proximity to London and Industrial Essex. So I'm looking forward to that. My lads have got a game tomorrow morning, their game starts at 10.00 and I go straight from there to my own match. This is their first game and we've been practicing, their bowling looks pretty good, but their both still a bit ropey with the bat - same as me!
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim2109;399265 said:
i played again last night in a midweek T20 league. i bowled ok, but not all that well. my final figure.............
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What could have been eh ? Figures dont tell the full story and when you detail what happened you gotta think you bowled really well except for those wides.

If they thought you bowled him with a wrongun you should have said it was or said nothing and let them believe it was your googly. That way they think you have got one.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

didn't play yesterday, however got called at around 10pm asking if i'd play today, so i'm off for my first match with the new club today. Apparently a Cup Match and I have no idea whether i'm expected to bowl or just field as I think its a case of short of numbers rather than a selection! (Its a 1st XI afaik) (shrug)
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i dont have a game this weekend, as i didnt get selected again. absolute joke in my opinion. how can you have an intra-club friendly match, with the sole purpose of evaluating players and giving everyone a practice, and then overlook probably the best bowler on display? (as arrogant as it may be to claim it myself lol). especially when the players included pretty much all of the 1st and 2nd XI starting line ups. there are 5 teams, 3 on saturday and 2 on sunday, and i made myself available for all days. theres no way that all the players in the 3rd XI and 2 sunday XI's will perform better than i did last week. so the only conclusion to draw is that the teams arent picked based on performances, they are picked based on who is friends with the captain.

however it chucked it down with rain all day yesterday, so i doubt they played. and its raining again this morning. so it doesnt look like anyone else is playing either.

im going to get in touch with a couple of my more local teams this week and see if they need a leg spinner. im 25 and not getting any younger, and whilst its probably completely unrealistic, im not going to give up on the possibility of progressing further than club cricket, especially given how quickly i have progressed thus far. if i can continue at this rate then i still think there is a tiny possibility given the right amount of luck. but that isnt going to happen if im not playing. and that isnt going to happen if im not playing 1st XI cricket in the top club leagues. i cant be doing with not getting played when ive given 100% effort, and put in a first rate performance at the first opportunity to do so. it would be different if there were 5 other spinners (one for each team) at the club, all of whom were better than me. but in reality there are only really 3 or 4 of us that are any good full stop (the rest are just batsmen that turn their arm over). and i was the best of the 3 last weekend by some margin.

rant over :D
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim2109;399519 said:
i dont have a game this weekend, as i didnt get selected again. absolute joke in my opinion. how can you have an intra-club friendly match, with the sole purpose of evaluating players and giving everyone a practice, and then overlook probably the best bowler on display? (as arrogant as it may be to claim it myself lol). especially when the players included pretty much all of the 1st and 2nd XI starting line ups. there are 5 teams, 3 on saturday and 2 on sunday, and i made myself available for all days. theres no way that all the players in the 3rd XI and 2 sunday XI's will perform better than i did last week. so the only conclusion to draw is that the teams arent picked based on performances, they are picked based on who is friends with the captain.

however it chucked it down with rain all day yesterday, so i doubt they played. and its raining again this morning. so it doesnt look like anyone else is playing either.

im going to get in touch with a couple of my more local teams this week and see if they need a leg spinner. im 25 and not getting any younger, and whilst its probably completely unrealistic, im not going to give up on the possibility of progressing further than club cricket, especially given how quickly i have progressed thus far. if i can continue at this rate then i still think there is a tiny possibility given the right amount of luck. but that isnt going to happen if im not playing. and that isnt going to happen if im not playing 1st XI cricket in the top club leagues. i cant be doing with not getting played when ive given 100% effort, and put in a first rate performance at the first opportunity to do so. it would be different if there were 5 other spinners (one for each team) at the club, all of whom were better than me. but in reality there are only really 3 or 4 of us that are any good full stop (the rest are just batsmen that turn their arm over). and i was the best of the 3 last weekend by some margin.

rant over :D
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what standard are you playing at Jim? Club/ League/Division.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

GoldenArm;399563 said:
what standard are you playing at Jim? Club/ League/Division.
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technically im not, since im not actually playing lol. but my club plays in a regional league. i think their first XI is in division 4b (7th highest division in the league, out of 17). if you get to division 1 and then get promoted then the next level is the home counties premier leagues (of which there are 2), and those are at the highest level of amateur cricket. beyond that is county cricket. there are ECB premier leagues all over the country, where i live is kind of in the middle of 3 of them (home counties, southern, and surrey championship).

i have a friend of a friend who plays for a 1st division southern premier league side, and there are at least half a dozen clubs within the same distance as the club i currently play for that have sides in the various premier leagues, as well as 2nd/3rd/4th XI's in regional leagues as well.

so it might be worth my while to find a club that has a side at a higher level and then aim to get into their regional league sides. and if i can impress and move up then il reach a much higher level. at the moment, even if i make first XI, its still at a very low level. and thus far im not even getting a look in. the more serious the level of cricket, hopefully the more the selection process will be based on performance. at least then if i dont get picked, i know its because im not good enough :D i can live with that, i just get annoyed when im playing well and still getting overlooked. i genuinely believe i could bowl at county level and hold my own against the young leg spinners ive watched on TV. im sure everyone says the same about their own sporting performances, i remember when i used to think i would be a professional footballer (aged about 5, before i realised i sucked at it). all i want to do this season is get regular matches at the highest standard i can get them, develop some consistency, hone my craft, and see where i end up. realistically im about 5 years too old to make it pro, and maybe not even good enough. but that wont stop me just yet. ive gone from never bowling a leg break in my life to where im at now in about 10 months. i just wish id taken up cricket 10 years earlier instead of just seeing it as something to do at school for 6 weeks once the football season finished.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

just been clearing out my attic and came across the double video pack that accompanies the 1994 MCC Masterclass! so as soon as is humanly possible i will get it tranferred to DVD and rip the leg spin section out on imovie and post it on YouTube. just watching it now and when i pressed play it was bang on the leggie section, looks like it was the last thing i was watching the last time i watched it...which was probably when i was ten!
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

I've just had an hour and a bit bowling Leg Breaks round the wicket to the Leg-Side. I placed another set of stumps forward of the crease so that the 'forward stumps' had there off-stump in line with the middle stump of the 'target stumps' when viewed from my bowling line coming round the stumps at the other end. So in effect the Leg stump of the target stump was obscured from view. I then put 12" square mat another 12" wide of the forward stumps and bowled onto that turning the ball into the 'Target stumps' so it was a 'Round the back of the legs' drill.

Most of the time I wasn't able to get the ball across enough to hit the stumps, but in the hour I did do it 3 times and twice it was the off-stump that was hit and this was earlier in the session rather than later. But the best thing was the amount of times I hit the mat, I reckon that I must have been hitting the mat 20% of the time and 60% time maybe more it was bloody close to the mat. All in all it was probably one of the best bowling practices I've ever had and I was able to get the wrong un working and both my flippers. I thought about taking the camera but didn't expect to bowl so well and all this is due to going back to my old bowling technique and being relaxed.

This all came about from doing a similar thing last night but putting my cricket bag in front of the stumps in the position of a batsman taking a middle stump defensive line at the crease. Again the Leg Stump was well covered with at least 12" of cover provided by the bag and last night I was turning the ball round the back of the bag and hitting the stumps a lot. Okay I have to admit the ground into which I was bowling was assisting the spin because it is so dry and rough, but the people who were watching including some first team bats were most impressed. Om my own wicket I have to spin the ball against a slope and it is pretty flat - so in a way it was more of an effort tonight so was very satisfying. I want to film it now and get it on video! It's a good drill - I'll have to get some digrams and photo's on my blogs.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

great idea for a drill. i watched the Shane Warne vs Andrew Strauss monster turning ball that bowled him in front of his defending pad in 2005. the famous delivery that theres loads of versions of on YouTube.

and i was primarily observing the way he releases the ball off his fingers to impart that massive spin with such a clean seam. i spin the ball very hard, but ive never really felt like i spin it quite as hard as Warne in that one delivery, and ive never achieved that much turn at will. ive done it on occasion, but i almost always aim for maximum turn, so a couple of times out of 100,000 deliveries or something silly is pretty poor consistency lol.

so ive been playing with my spinning method because it has plateaued and im not getting more revs, im basically stuck at around 1500rpm. and yesterday i made a breakthrough by releasing the ball later off the fingers. it kind of hangs onto the ring finger for a split second longer, and then rips out much harder and much faster. and even when i firmly catch the ball in my left palm, it is still spinning!! i need to get it on slow mo, but i reckon its a significant increase in revs. and it actually looks like the Warne delivery as well!

i havent tried bowling it yet, but i reckon if i can get it right with my slower delivery on a rough enough pitch, it should be able to achieve the 4 feet+ turn to replicate the Warne delivery. ive noticed that at T20 level batsmen are very reluctant to go after anything that is a definite wide down the leg side. they just leave it, they dont even offer a defensive bat at it. if i had a monster leg break that i could bowl with 50% consistency, then id be confident to use it early doors and risk the wide. because it if turns back its a guaranteed bowled behind the legs, and il look like a superstar :D

your stumps in front of stumps drill seems like a pretty good way to practice it!!
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

See I can't do that, if I start getting hung up on the revs and watching the ball rotate and looking for the drift it all goes pear-shaped. That's what I've been doing for months and a couple of weeks back after those two poor game - I thought 'sod it go back to what I was doing' and having done so and not worrying about what's happening, i've moved forwards massively. Then, different approaches for different people will be the answer I suppose?

I'll work on trying to get some footage on youtube of me turning one or just practicing the drill. I'm looking at getting one of those Casio Exilim cameras in the next couple of weeks as well.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

someblokecalleddave;399758 said:
See I can't do that, if I start getting hung up on the revs and watching the ball rotate and looking for the drift it all goes pear-shaped. That's what I've been doing for months and a couple of weeks back after those two poor game - I thought 'sod it go back to what I was doing' and having done so and not worrying about what's happening, i've moved forwards massively. Then, different approaches for different people will be the answer I suppose?

I'll work on trying to get some footage on youtube of me turning one or just practicing the drill. I'm looking at getting one of those Casio Exilim cameras in the next couple of weeks as well.
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in matches i just switch off mostly. or at least i have been, last week i was a little more switched on about what exactly i was doing, but my leg side inconsistencies crept back in because of it. at nets last thursday i focussed hard on correcting this and it seems to have worked. i just put artificial pressure on my bowling to try and replicate a match situation.

in net practice though i am fully aware of what i am doing with the ball and what i want to do. i saw one of the youngsters warming up to have a bat in the nets, and he was going through the full range of shots "around the loop", from cut shots to sweep and pull shots, front foot and backfoot, just practicing them swinging at air. it seemed like a sensible drill to get your body and mind focussed on proper shots. so i did the same with my bowling, repeatedly going fully around the loop in consecutive deliveries. it seemed to help a bit.

if the weather holds out (which looks 50/50) then ive got a T20 match tonight again. and im planning to take things completely seriously this time. its not just a practice match to me like ive been treating it upto now, im going to fully plan out my fields and get people to move to where i need them. hopefully the captain will agree lol. then im going to bowl completely to plans. the team i play for are the reigning double champs (league and cup) so i can afford to be aggressive without costing us the match if it goes wayward. and generally speaking the quality of other sides hasnt been that high. but still, theyre the only matches im getting at the moment, so i need to make the most of them.

i want a five-fer, and i see no reason why i shouldnt be able to get one. i almost had 4 last week but for dropped catches and a no ball. the target this week is 3-0-12-5. il probably only get 2 or 3 overs, and if i take too many wickets at once im more likely to get taken off the attack just so someone else gets a go lol.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

someblokecalleddave;399699 said:
I've just had an hour and a bit bowling Leg Breaks round the wicket to the Leg-Side. I placed another set of stumps forward of the crease so that the 'forward stumps' had there off-stump in line with the middle stump of the 'target stumps' when viewed from my bowling line coming round the stumps at the other end. So in effect the Leg stump of the target stump was obscured from view. I then put 12" square mat another 12" wide of the forward stumps and bowled onto that turning the ball into the 'Target stumps' so it was a 'Round the back of the legs' drill.

Most of the time I wasn't able to get the ball across enough to hit the stumps, but in the hour I did do it 3 times and twice it was the off-stump that was hit and this was earlier in the session rather than later. But the best thing was the amount of times I hit the mat, I reckon that I must have been hitting the mat 20% of the time and 60% time maybe more it was bloody close to the mat. All in all it was probably one of the best bowling practices I've ever had and I was able to get the wrong un working and both my flippers. I thought about taking the camera but didn't expect to bowl so well and all this is due to going back to my old bowling technique and being relaxed.
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Bit like Grimmett and the empty fruit crate he placed in front of the stumps and bowled to when he was in his teens in NZ. He wrote that he only accepted as good legbreaks those that drifted to the right of the target and disappeared behind the box for a splt second as they spun back.

He must have told Wally Hammond that story also because the batsman mentions it in his description of facing Grimmett.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

someblokecalleddave;399758 said:
- I thought 'sod it go back to what I was doing' and having done so and not worrying about what's happening, i've moved forwards massively.
Click to expand...

I was hoping you would do that. Sounds like it is working as well.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

macca;399771 said:
Bit like Grimmett and the empty fruit crate he placed in front of the stumps and bowled to when he was in his teens in NZ. He wrote that he only accepted as good legbreaks those that drifted to the right of the target and disappeared behind the box for a splt second as they spun back.

He must have told Wally Hammond that story also because the batsman mentions it in his description of facing Grimmett.
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Yeah I'm a way off getting there, but I'm probably bowling better than I've ever done. I never thought I'd see the day that I'd bowl a leg-side line. I video'd it tonight and there's a good sequence of 5 or 6 balls one after another I'll try and get uploaded, but I just tried it and it came up as being 2.4GB file sizes. I might just do what Jim does and upload individual deliveries. There's one clip where I bowl 56 balls one after another, I might upload that as well that's 11 minutes long.

Here's the short clip of the best handful of balls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM9lHQ1yi2A
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

someblokecalleddave;399774 said:
Yeah I'm a way off getting there, but I'm probably bowling better than I've ever done. I never thought I'd see the day that I'd bowl a leg-side line. I video'd it tonight and there's a good sequence of 5 or 6 balls one after another I'll try and get uploaded, but I just tried it and it came up as being 2.4GB file sizes. I might just do what Jim does and upload individual deliveries. There's one clip where I bowl 56 balls one after another, I might upload that as well that's 11 minutes long.

Here's the short clip of the best handful of balls YouTube - Leg Break Bowling.avi
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Impressive. Great sequence of deliveries. Only one was a little off line, not much though and would work against a lefthander anyway, and you followed that up with a real good one next ball.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i didnt exactly get my five-fer last night. that would have required me to actually get a bowl! i spent an hour stood in the cold fielding off of a 20mph off spinner instead. i literally could have bowled faster underarm. he was economical, and took some wickets. based purely on boring the batsmen out of the game i think.

the captains words at the end were "sorry you didnt get a bowl, but theres 2 games we have to win each season and this was one of them". forgetting that i basically won them the first of those 2 matches with 2 wickets that transformed the game from a simple run chase that the other team were well ahead of, into them getting all out with 2 overs left and about 4 runs required.

youve gotta love captains that see leg spinners as an expensive luxury. so where the hell do i go from here? im not getting any games for my club, so if i find out at training tonight that im not playing this weekend then thats the last time il be attending. its pointless wasting my time there. and my midweek safety team that i figured were a sure bet for overs every week (given that im probably the best technical bowler there) dont give me any overs.

the problem i now face is that the season has started, all the teams have their regular line-ups, and breaking into a new team is going to be a nightmare. cricket is the most cliquey sport on the planet, its infuriating. even at international level coaches have their favoured players, regardless of performances. i guess its the nature of the sport, being a gentlemans game. unlike working class sports where everyone just wants to win, so the best players play.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

bloody hell Dave, youve gone nuts with this new video!! its on every thread isnt it? :D

it looks pretty good, thats the line and length i bowl all day long. youll find situations where batsmen go after it in nets, but in matches they never do. and its really easy to set a field to anyway because there are almost no shots available on the off side apart from cut shots between point and 3rd man. so just pack the leg side.

youve also encountered the same problem i have - leg side wides. you bowled what, 9 or 10 balls? and one of them went straight on. depending on the surface youre bowling on that can vary and sometimes be worse. if you bowl at the stumps and turn it away then youll almost never get called for wides, but the aggressive leg side line is prone to it. even if the ball turns back and almost hits leg stump, umpires still give them sometimes if you pitch it wide enough. captains seem to hate wide balls, regardless of how well you bowl in between them. so you have to keep that in mind.

its definitely the most aggressive line of bowling, with big turn and drift. but its also the most expensive. thus far i think youve always been more of a containment bowler and taken wickets based primarily on pressure, based on what you have said in the past and how youve described your bowling and your matches. it will be interesting to see how you find the differences between your old style, and trying more aggressive (and risky) lines to the leg side.
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim2109;399816 said:
bloody hell Dave, youve gone nuts with this new video!! its on every thread isnt it? :D

it looks pretty good, thats the line and length i bowl all day long. youll find situations where batsmen go after it in nets, but in matches they never do. and its really easy to set a field to anyway because there are almost no shots available on the off side apart from cut shots between point and 3rd man. so just pack the leg side.

youve also encountered the same problem i have - leg side wides. you bowled what, 9 or 10 balls? and one of them went straight on. depending on the surface youre bowling on that can vary and sometimes be worse. if you bowl at the stumps and turn it away then youll almost never get called for wides, but the aggressive leg side line is prone to it. even if the ball turns back and almost hits leg stump, umpires still give them sometimes if you pitch it wide enough. captains seem to hate wide balls, regardless of how well you bowl in between them. so you have to keep that in mind.

its definitely the most aggressive line of bowling, with big turn and drift. but its also the most expensive. thus far i think youve always been more of a containment bowler and taken wickets based primarily on pressure, based on what you have said in the past and how youve described your bowling and your matches. it will be interesting to see how you find the differences between your old style, and trying more aggressive (and risky) lines to the leg side.
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Yeah I was keen to promote the vid!!! I've been amazed at the amount of hits your vids get so I'm trying elbow in on your approach! Yeah I think I'll keep this in the locker for a while yet till I can get a higher percentage of the balls turning, it's very much at the developmental stage, but a very weak batsman on the legs I may give it a go?
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

i dont really pay any attention to how many views my videos get, but i just checked and its almost 20,000 views in total!! thats not bad going. the off spinning flipper has had almost 4000, i guess theres a worldwide interest in it!
 
Re: Wrist Spin Bowling (Part Three)

Jim2109;399828 said:
i dont really pay any attention to how many views my videos get, but i just checked and its almost 20,000 views in total!! thats not bad going. the off spinning flipper has had almost 4000, i guess theres a worldwide interest in it!
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Pity that dickheaded captain you had the other night didn't check out the vids. Fancy him telling you he wanted a win so you wont bowl. What a dickwad he turned out to be. WTF is he on? Was he joking?
 
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