Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

[Cleanprophet]

Hard this leg spin lark, eh?

On top of getting your legspin up to scratch, you really, really need to be backed up in the field and by the captain. That happens rarely in club cricket apart from the very best club cricket. Most of your lower level club cricket and friendly cricket is not a great place for a spinner, especially a legspinner. You just have to constantly keep putting it into perspective. As you say, if the fielder takes the catch then that batter isn't on strike to hit a further 16 runs. An 18 run over could easily have been 1 for 8 or maybe even 2 for 8. It can change so easily. I've lost count of the number of drops I've seen off my bowling - most of them very easy. It can be disheartening. Even more so because I've never dropped a catch off any other bowler (dropped 2 and half off my own bowling - all smashed back at my ankles). It's all good for developing a good thick skin, that's for sure!

Googlies are going everywhere. Although I haven't mastered control the wrong wrong'un is definitely possible from 22 yards and is coming out for me with flipper qualities. The back-spinning flipper should be easier.

I can't thinking that you really should just focus on the legspinner. Target bowling is something I'm focusing on solely now. I'll just be putting down markers and looking to hit that marker every time. You can easily miss your length by a yard and go for runs. I was doing a fair bit of bowling last week against the best batter at the club. He's a very good batter. Very close to professional standard. Bowling the ball on a good length and on offstump was, as you might expect, the best place to bowl to him. If I gave him a sniff of a scoring opportunity, then he was all over it. He plays the slog sweep very impressively. He said to me that he can't do a great deal with the length ball on offstump besides block it. Towards the end he went into T20 mode and I had him stumped. I'll be doing some more bowling to him tomorrow evening. I can't recommend enough bowling to a quality batter (I've done a bit of bowling to our pro, who is a left-arm spinner and useful batter).

I can only bowl a variation to these batters if I know I can land it on that correct line and length. If I'm off that length, I'm going for runs. It is vital to get a good sequence of 6 balls together. It is something you see and hear in cricket all the time (quite often for legspinners). There's no point in bowling 3 or 4 good balls and then putting in a short/full ball. You have to build pressure on a batter. It is hard enough to have very good control of line and length of a legspinner without bringing in variations. Not to mention of course that the legspinner is the best ball you can bowl. Drift, dip, turn and bounce away from the bat. It's as good as it gets. Any decent batter will tell you that if you can land 6 out of 6 on a line and length then you will be a very good and dangerous bowler. That's where your focus should be. It's all been said before (SLA has said it many times I know). I've always put the priority on the legspinner, but I am now focusing completely on target bowling. I bowled a ball on Sunday to a 1st/2nd team batter (he could not play straight, only across the line and mostly legside). It landed perfectly, induced the play and miss. Beat the batter and beat the keeper too. It was just a nicely bowled and landed legspinner. That delivery is just too good for all but the very good batters. Simple as that. You don't need variations against the vast majority of club batters. Variation in pace, flight and line of attack, sure. But the legspinner alone is more than sufficient.

 

[Wayne Shorne]

Here is my bowling at the moment. Any glaring problems here?

 

[Darth Spin]

On top of getting your legspin up to scratch, you really, really need to be backed up in the field and by the captain. That happens rarely in club cricket apart from the very best club cricket. Most of your lower level club cricket and friendly cricket is not a great place for a spinner, especially a legspinner. You just have to constantly keep putting it into perspective. As you say, if the fielder takes the catch then that batter isn't on strike to hit a further 16 runs. An 18 run over could easily have been 1 for 8 or maybe even 2 for 8. It can change so easily. I've lost count of the number of drops I've seen off my bowling - most of them very easy. It can be disheartening. Even more so because I've never dropped a catch off any other bowler (dropped 2 and half off my own bowling - all smashed back at my ankles). It's all good for developing a good thick skin, that's for sure!



I can't thinking that you really should just focus on the legspinner. Target bowling is something I'm focusing on solely now. I'll just be putting down markers and looking to hit that marker every time. You can easily miss your length by a yard and go for runs. I was doing a fair bit of bowling last week against the best batter at the club. He's a very good batter. Very close to professional standard. Bowling the ball on a good length and on offstump was, as you might expect, the best place to bowl to him. If I gave him a sniff of a scoring opportunity, then he was all over it. He plays the slog sweep very impressively. He said to me that he can't do a great deal with the length ball on offstump besides block it. Towards the end he went into T20 mode and I had him stumped. I'll be doing some more bowling to him tomorrow evening. I can't recommend enough bowling to a quality batter (I've done a bit of bowling to our pro, who is a left-arm spinner and useful batter).

I can only bowl a variation to these batters if I know I can land it on that correct line and length. If I'm off that length, I'm going for runs. It is vital to get a good sequence of 6 balls together. It is something you see and hear in cricket all the time (quite often for legspinners). There's no point in bowling 3 or 4 good balls and then putting in a short/full ball. You have to build pressure on a batter. It is hard enough to have very good control of line and length of a legspinner without bringing in variations. Not to mention of course that the legspinner is the best ball you can bowl. Drift, dip, turn and bounce away from the bat. It's as good as it gets. Any decent batter will tell you that if you can land 6 out of 6 on a line and length then you will be a very good and dangerous bowler. That's where your focus should be. It's all been said before (SLA has said it many times I know). I've always put the priority on the legspinner, but I am now focusing completely on target bowling. I bowled a ball on Sunday to a 1st/2nd team batter (he could not play straight, only across the line and mostly legside). It landed perfectly, induced the play and miss. Beat the batter and beat the keeper too. It was just a nicely bowled and landed legspinner. That delivery is just too good for all but the very good batters. Simple as that. You don't need variations against the vast majority of club batters. Variation in pace, flight and line of attack, sure. But the legspinner alone is more than sufficient.

Good post mate I agree with what you're saying. I let the dropped catch get to me, the next one went down leg side and was swatted for 6, I then thought I need to do something so tried a wrong un which was hit for four and by then he was all over me. The last ball I was happy when it came out the hand but it still went for 6. Basically, I was bowling fine until the dropped catch and what followed was a horror show. It's a good lesson for me, though; forget about the missed chances and get on with it.

I was lucky last year with the captain as he liked me and bowled me a lot. In my first t20 game I got hit for 11 runs in the first over, but he kept me on and I took 3 wickets in the next over and we went on to win. It's not something I can control though, all I can do is practice. That captain has left the club now and so I have new captains to convince that I'm not crap.

I do have a batter who I net with a lot. He's on the first team and was the highest run scorer last season, although this season he is struggling. And I am concentrating on the leg break most of the time but i like the wrong un and having it in my repertoire. I'm off out for more practice (week off) as I have another match tomorrow.

 

[Darth Spin]

Here is my bowling at the moment. Any glaring problems here?

I can't view it, mate. It says video removed or not available due to privacy settings.

 

[SLA]

Good post mate I agree with what you're saying. I let the dropped catch get to me, the next one went down leg side and was swatted for 6, I then thought I need to do something so tried a wrong un which was hit for four and by then he was all over me. The last ball I was happy when it came out the hand but it still went for 6. Basically, I was bowling fine until the dropped catch and what followed was a horror show. It's a good lesson for me, though; forget about the missed chances and get on with it.

I was lucky last year with the captain as he liked me and bowled me a lot. In my first t20 game I got hit for 11 runs in the first over, but he kept me on and I took 3 wickets in the next over and we went on to win. It's not something I can control though, all I can do is practice. That captain has left the club now and so I have new captains to convince that I'm not crap.

I do have a batter who I net with a lot. He's on the first team and was the highest run scorer last season, although this season he is struggling. And I am concentrating on the leg break most of the time but i like the wrong un and having it in my repertoire. I'm off out for more practice (week off) as I have another match tomorrow.

Generally when a dolly catch goes up in the air to an outfielder I shout "try to save the second".

 

[Darth Spin]

Generally when a dolly catch goes up in the air to an outfielder I shout "try to save the second".

I actually thought he'd taken it but it squirmed through.

Back on the horse tonight in another t20, a bit expensive with 4-0-26-2 but happy to be back in the wickets. First was a nice leggie, pitched around leg to a right hander, a play & miss and bounced onto his off bail. Second was a stumping after some quick work from the keeper, another leg break to a right hander. A weird spell with some unplayable deliveries, some a tad short, a couple of stinkers down leg side and two wides on the off side. With the bat I made my best score for some time with 21 not out. But we narrowly lost a great game by 5 runs chasing 128.

 

[SLA]

I actually thought he'd taken it but it squirmed through.

Back on the horse tonight in another t20, a bit expensive with 4-0-26-2 but happy to be back in the wickets. First was a nice leggie, pitched around leg to a right hander, a play & miss and bounced onto his off bail. Second was a stumping after some quick work from the keeper, another leg break to a right hander. A weird spell with some unplayable deliveries, some a tad short, a couple of stinkers down leg side and two wides on the off side. With the bat I made my best score for some time with 21 not out. But we narrowly lost a great game by 5 runs chasing 128.

We had a good T20 game, they made 138, we chased it down with 2 balls to spare. I bowled two (8 ball) overs at the death of their innings. Don't know what I went for but it was about 10. No wickets. Scored 30* in our chase.

Considering they were about 50 off the first 4 overs, we did really well to peg them back, our middle over medium pacers did a good job and we got the field better set. I thought for a while we would be chasing 200.

The chase was a breeze, they put the field way back so there was always an easy single on either side of the wicket.

I find 8 ball overs so difficult as both a batsman and a bowler. I normally have just enough mental energy for 6 balls, the extra 2 are really tough to stay focussed.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Sorry to hear about your woes. But at least you got a wicket!

I had a stinking t20 game tonight. I didn't bat and we made 119. So they're on about 50-1 with about six overs gone (15 overs, 8 ball overs). I'm given a bowl. First three balls are okay, they pick up a couple of singles. Next ball gets spooned straight to long off, fielder gets both hands on it cleanly but down it goes. Argh! Then the real pain starts. The batsmen, who is their best player and well set, runs two from the dropped catch and then hits 6,4,0,6 from the last four balls. I'm duly taken off and we go on to lose. Hard this leg spin lark, eh?

Yeah - really hard in that scenario. I wouldn't want to do that unless I was on top form! Was he coming down the wicket to you? Our club Chinaman who's 16 and plays in the 4's with me has already had a five fer! I've had a couple of wicket-less spells - but been reasonable with my economy. I think I've lost a bit of fitness as I've been working hard and not been getting out and practicing that much or exercising. Back on it now though and hopefully things'll improve?

 

[Darth Spin]

Yeah - really hard in that scenario. I wouldn't want to do that unless I was on top form! Was he coming down the wicket to you? Our club Chinaman who's 16 and plays in the 4's with me has already had a five fer! I've had a couple of wicket-less spells - but been reasonable with my economy. I think I've lost a bit of fitness as I've been working hard and not been getting out and practicing that much or exercising. Back on it now though and hopefully things'll improve?

Not really coming down at me, just swatted a few full balls away once he'd sized me up and been dropped. I had another match today and because of my 21 not out the other night the captain puts me into open. I get 6 runs before duly being bowled with the first really good ball I faced. And then watched on as they successfully chased down our 145 with about 8 overs to spare, twiddling my thumbs, slowly realising that I'd given up another Sunday only not to get a bowl. Not sure how many more of them I can take. The captain apologised and said I was due up next. Well here's an idea, why don't you bowl me earlier and we might actually get a few top order wickets? We took 3 wickets in total. They were always gonna get the runs so give me a bowl! To be fair the other leggie in our team had a bowl but I'm kind of getting a bit down about it all. If I give up my Sunday I want to bowl, it's as simple as that.

 

[boogiespinner]

I marked myself down injured for two weekends. I've been an idiot for keeping using the shoulder instead of letting it really heal so hopefully this will sort it.

But I got the 'we're short please come and help' call so went down on Saturday. While fielding I nearly held onto to a sharp chance at short leg diving to my left. I was thinking 'soft hands' and it went in. But went out again as I hit the deck. Argh! I think I wasn't really expecting to catch it and you have to think, 'that's mine'. Not, 'oh my god it's coming towards me'. Luckily the same bat was out a few balls later clean bowled.

Seems the team had already put down 4 catches before I got there. Opp. scored 179, but our openers did an amazing job and we got there for the loss of one wicket, our no.1 making his century off the winning hit. Really classy.

I did the scoring. Got the thing to balance too. Getting the hang of it.

Someone did a fine effort on the tea front. Scones + clotted cream + jam! not bad for the boundary snacks, not like there was a pavilion or indeed any girls helping. Alas, no actual tea to wash it down. I am going to look into thermos flasks.

 

[Cleanprophet]

We had a match today, but it had been raining overnight and early morning. As a result, the outfield was quite wet and ball was soaked. The captain probably should have used a few balls, but we stuck with the same ball. It was just too wet to grip so I bowled some seam instead. It was coming out quite nicely and with good pace. I didn't take any wickets (keeper dropped an edge) but didn't go for many runs (it was something like 20 runs from 10 overs). Just a shame I wasn't able to bowl some spin because that's what I was there to do.

I failed with the bat again. Missed a straight full one. I might start batting without the helmet. I have to say, when I bat in the nets and take the helmet off, I find it so much better to bat. The vision is much better, but the confidence and conviction in my batting is significantly better.

 

[Cleanprophet]

I marked myself down injured for two weekends. I've been an idiot for keeping using the shoulder instead of letting it really heal so hopefully this will sort it.

Someone did a fine effort on the tea front. Scones + clotted cream + jam! not bad for the boundary snacks, not like there was a pavilion or indeed any girls helping. Alas, no actual tea to wash it down. I am going to look into thermos flasks.

A good tea can make the day worthwhile if the cricket hasn't done the trick!

I had a similar problem with my shoulder. I rested it for a month and came back bowling. That comeback was at the start of April. Since then, I've had some discomfort in my shoulder. I've been using heat rub before bowling, just to really warm the shoulder up. In the last couple of weeks the shoulder has started to feel close to fully recovered. I've been bowling flat out, but I've also been doing lots of shoulder strengthening. But it is 10 weeks since I've come back bowling and it's only now that I feel the shoulder is close to 100%. If I'd had any pain when bowling, I'd have given the bowling a miss.

 

[boogiespinner]

A good tea can make the day worthwhile if the cricket hasn't done the trick!

I had a similar problem with my shoulder. I rested it for a month and came back bowling. That comeback was at the start of April. Since then, I've had some discomfort in my shoulder. I've been using heat rub before bowling, just to really warm the shoulder up. In the last couple of weeks the shoulder has started to feel close to fully recovered. I've been bowling flat out, but I've also been doing lots of shoulder strengthening. But it is 10 weeks since I've come back bowling and it's only now that I feel the shoulder is close to 100%. If I'd had any pain when bowling, I'd have given the bowling a miss.

I've had not much discomfort when bowling spin, but have felt bit of a twinge on full efforts and just generally complete rest would be better than continually working it to the edge and never getting it totally sorted. I've had over a month now since I threw it out. I just feel a bit silly really and will know for the future what to be more careful of.

Good to know your shoulder is pretty sorted.

I've found that ozonated olive oil has helped to rub on my shoulder. That's to assist healing rather than warm up. It's a form of oxygen therapy - people mostly use it for skin issues but I've really felt it's helped. The other thing I do every night is sleep on a grounded sheet. I can't say how good these are and they are meant to be particularly good for inflammation issues. There's not nearly enough research on grounding but there's a paper here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22291721

The other thing that's been helping me is intermittent fasting. I credit this and the grounding sheet with improving my achilles tendonitis to the point where I can play cricket no problems. The theory is that if your body isn't occupied with digestion it can get some serious repair work done

 

[Cleanprophet]

The other thing that's been helping me is intermittent fasting. I credit this and the grounding sheet with improving my achilles tendonitis to the point where I can play cricket no problems. The theory is that if your body isn't occupied with digestion it can get some serious repair work done

I've heard something about that before. If I remember rightly, when eating as normal your liver works to keep you going and when you fast the liver goes into repair mode. This is all fairly new stuff however, but the evidence does look interesting.

One thing I always do is eat my final meal of the day around 5pm and I don't eat again until 1pm the next day, so there is a 20 hour period of no eating.

As I say, this is all new research so I have no idea about how effective fasting is for cell repair but it is interesting.

 

[boogiespinner]

I've heard something about that before. If I remember rightly, when eating as normal your liver works to keep you going and when you fast the liver goes into repair mode. This is all fairly new stuff however, but the evidence does look interesting.

One thing I always do is eat my final meal of the day around 5pm and I don't eat again until 1pm the next day, so there is a 20 hour period of no eating.

As I say, this is all new research so I have no idea about how effective fasting is for cell repair but it is interesting.

But that's the 20/4 IF regime!

 

[Cleanprophet]

But that's the 20/4 IF regime!

I didn't know what the 20/4 regime was. Just had to look it up. I did that a few years ago and lost a good bit of weight. You always hear stuff about the breakfast being the most important meal of the day but evidence suggests that skipping breakfast is no bad thing.

To be honest, I ended up doing this 20 hours of no eating simply because I often have a meal about 5pm. Plus, I often would pick at food throughout the evening and decided to put an end to that. I also felt that I could skip breakfast and not miss it. That meant I ended up eating only between 1pm and 5pm. It's incredibly easy. Whether it is good for cell repair and the like, I don't know.

 

[boogiespinner]

But that's the 20/4 IF regime!

The "Warrior Diet" is based around 20/4

 

[boogiespinner]

I didn't know what the 20/4 regime was. Just had to look it up. I did that a few years ago and lost a good bit of weight. You always hear stuff about the breakfast being the most important meal of the day but evidence suggests that skipping breakfast is no bad thing.

To be honest, I ended up doing this 20 hours of no eating simply because I often have a meal about 5pm. Plus, I often would pick at food throughout the evening and decided to put an end to that. I also felt that I could skip breakfast and not miss it. That meant I ended up eating only between 1pm and 5pm. It's incredibly easy. Whether it is good for cell repair and the like, I don't know.

That's amazing that you fell into it! Impressed!

I have also found that intermittent fasting works at shifting body fat like nothing else. I've done it for health reasons but a nice side bonus for sure.

 

[Cleanprophet]

That's amazing that you fell into it! Impressed!

I have also found that intermittent fasting works at shifting body fat like nothing else. I've done it for health reasons but a nice side bonus for sure.

Yeah, I was young lad (about 17yo or 18yo) and was carrying a good 3-4 stone too much. By chance, I fell into that 20/4 diet and lost 4 stone in 6 months. It definitely works if you want to lose weight. I could do with shifting 1-2 stone now but the problem I have now that I didn't have when I was 17yo-18yo is beer

I like to have a drink on a Saturday night. Only about 4 pints, but I also end up eating something afterwards so that Saturday night is a blow out. If I didn't have a drink on a Saturday, I would be back down my fighting weight. I don't mind though. I know I can shift that little bit of weight whenever I want to.

The thing that really interests me is how fasting impacts healing and cell repair. The fasting itself is actually very easy. The influence of ghrelin is the big factor because that is what leaves you feeling hungry. But ghrelin is produced in accordance with your circadian rhythm and normal eating habits. In other words, within a week or two, you cease to feel hungry in that 20 hour period of fasting because you have retrained your biological response to not eating.

As I say, I would like to see much more detailed studies of the effect of fasting on biological reparation because there are some very bold statements about how fasting reduces the risk of things like cancer, as well as the impact on mental well being. For the time being, I see fasting as simply a way to control your weight.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Not really coming down at me, just swatted a few full balls away once he'd sized me up and been dropped. I had another match today and because of my 21 not out the other night the captain puts me into open. I get 6 runs before duly being bowled with the first really good ball I faced. And then watched on as they successfully chased down our 145 with about 8 overs to spare, twiddling my thumbs, slowly realising that I'd given up another Sunday only not to get a bowl. Not sure how many more of them I can take. The captain apologised and said I was due up next. Well here's an idea, why don't you bowl me earlier and we might actually get a few top order wickets? We took 3 wickets in total. They were always gonna get the runs so give me a bowl! To be fair the other leggie in our team had a bowl but I'm kind of getting a bit down about it all. If I give up my Sunday I want to bowl, it's as simple as that.

Yeah that's a difficult situation and I can totally see where you're coming from. I've had this policy of giving everyone a go, but this weekend we came up against an opposition that looked like ours - 7 kids 4 blokes. They put us in first having won the toss, one thing led to another and my older son who, if you gave him the choice of sawing his finger off with a rust razor blade or umpire, he'd go for the rusty razor ended up umpiring at the bowlers end. Needless to say our best batsman who was looking to occupy the crease for the whole match had pad/bat combo and my son gave him out surrounded by about 6 players all screaming OWZAT!!!! in his face. The bloke was not pleased claiming it hit the bat first. My son is not an umpire. Anyway they bowled us out cheaply 120 odd, but we had some good bowlers and I went for an approach of - if you're economic and looking like you're going to get a wicket you stay on. I ended up using 3 bowlers. One 19 year old I mistakenly let bowl 24 overs, my son bowled 12 in two spells and an old finger spinner bowled the rest. All three of them bowled very tightly and the two seamers took 8 wickets. But two little kids at the end batted superbly and took all afternoon and we couldn't bowl em out and they won with just a couple of overs to spare. I didn't even bowl myself. But - like your game it did feel like that there was a lot of blokes there that had paid £12 to have a day in the field - especially the LBW bloke.

Back at the clubhouse he'd been back before me and mentioned it to everyone and when I got there one of the clubs senior blokes said 'How'd it go Thommo'? so I mentioned it and he said 'Well... if he don't like it - go and play football, it happens... that's cricket for you'. Which I thought was true. It's quite tricky this captaincy lark. Hopefully I can get back to a situation where everyone gets a go at bowling this week? I guess that scenario that you speak of - sitting there knowing you're not going to bowl comes down to making a decision about improving your batting and also accepting that it's not going to go in your favour every week if you see yourself as batter as well? Or you simply have to get that much better as a wrist spinner so that they can't leave you out of the equation. Or as I do - try and enjoy your fielding?