Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

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How did everybody (UK/Canada) do yesterday? I had my first match and came away with 8-1-20-3 which I was happy with. Lost the match by a substantial margin though and they only had 8 players. Again we just didn't have any batting and our best batsman was a 13 year old kid!
 
someblokecalleddave said:
How did everybody (UK/Canada) do yesterday? I had my first match and came away with 8-1-20-3 which I was happy with. Lost the match by a substantial margin though and they only had 8 players. Again we just didn't have any batting and our best batsman was a 13 year old kid!
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Similar scenario for me. We only had 9 players because one of the other club's teams took players from us, yet again, at the 11th hour. The opposition gave us a couple of fielders, so it wasn't too bad for us bowlers (although, their fielding wasn't great at times). We had no batters and the pitch was a touch slow and low bouncing. I ended up bowling 15 overs straight and finished with 3 for 68 from those 15 overs. Only the one dropped catch off my bowling, which was a refreshing change. Although the drop was off a batter who came in and swung at every ball as hard as he could and probably hit about 15 runs off my bowling before someone got him out at the other end. I got him to lob one up 3rd ball, but the fielder spilled it and he went on to hit a couple more 4's off me. I enjoy getting those types of sloggers out, so that was a tough one to take.

I can't remember how all 3 wickets fell. I can remember 2 of them and I think the 3rd was clean bowled. One was the classic of the batter coming out of his crease, missing the ball completely and the keeper taking a nice stumping. The other one I remember was quite pleasing. It was a googly that clean bowled the batter on legstump. I bowled some decent topspinners and googly's today. Should have had an LBW for a full toss that landed on the batter's lower leg on the full and on legstump. I reckon there were a good 6 or 7 swipes across the line to full balls that they just about managed to get some bat on and one or two that just pitched outside leg before hitting the pads (one in particular almost bowled one player around his legs but it just slipped his heel and slipped down legside).

Overall, I'd give myself 7 out of 10.
 
Had a reasonable day with the ball today. Didn't get full supported in the field and had a young inexperienced keeper for most of my 9 overs. I ended up with 2 wickets for 44 from my 9 overs. Probably had about 10 runs given away from poor fielding (10 runs at least). I bowled a few good topspinners and googlys today. Bowled one googly to a batter who was a big bloke and was swinging away (he was on about 40 at the time). He was beaten all ends up with the googly turning in and missing the top of off-stump by a coat of varnish. It would have been a very enjoyable wicket.

Otherwise, I bowled pretty well. I had better figures last week, but I bowled a fair bit better this week. I think I gave myself 7 out of 10 last week. I'd give myself 8 out of 10 for today. I was giving it a fair old rip today and didn't bowl many poor deliveries. Out of the 54 balls I bowled, none were too full and probably 3 or 4 were a bit too short (not drag downs by any means, just short enough to allow the batter to play me off the back foot). All the other balls were on a decent line and length.

Just need to start getting some runs with the bat. I made the decision to start using my feet a bit more. Any bowler who is under 70mph is a player that I can use my feet to, unless he is getting plenty of swing or drift - even then it shouldn't be a problem. I don't really play square of the wicket too well and play straight pretty well. Therefore, I much prefer fuller deliveries to anything back-of-a-length, so using my feet is a fair enough option. Unfortunately for me, I came down the crease to a very slow bowler (probably 40mph and no more) and lifted my head out of the shot (something that you are prone to do if you are not completely confident with the shot), missed the ball and was stumped for only 4.
 
Cleanprophet said:
Had a reasonable day with the ball today. Didn't get full supported in the field and had a young inexperienced keeper for most of my 9 overs. I ended up with 2 wickets for 44 from my 9 overs. Probably had about 10 runs given away from poor fielding (10 runs at least). I bowled a few good topspinners and googlys today. Bowled one googly to a batter who was a big bloke and was swinging away (he was on about 40 at the time). He was beaten all ends up with the googly turning in and missing the top of off-stump by a coat of varnish. It would have been a very enjoyable wicket.

Otherwise, I bowled pretty well. I had better figures last week, but I bowled a fair bit better this week. I think I gave myself 7 out of 10 last week. I'd give myself 8 out of 10 for today. I was giving it a fair old rip today and didn't bowl many poor deliveries. Out of the 54 balls I bowled, none were too full and probably 3 or 4 were a bit too short (not drag downs by any means, just short enough to allow the batter to play me off the back foot). All the other balls were on a decent line and length.

Just need to start getting some runs with the bat. I made the decision to start using my feet a bit more. Any bowler who is under 70mph is a player that I can use my feet to, unless he is getting plenty of swing or drift - even then it shouldn't be a problem. I don't really play square of the wicket too well and play straight pretty well. Therefore, I much prefer fuller deliveries to anything back-of-a-length, so using my feet is a fair enough option. Unfortunately for me, I came down the crease to a very slow bowler (probably 40mph and no more) and lifted my head out of the shot (something that you are prone to do if you are not completely confident with the shot), missed the ball and was stumped for only 4.
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I had another good game. 8-1-26-3 with two almost wickets a plumb LBW that wasn't given and a catch put down by my younger son. I'm still reading your report though so no detail...

I was out for 0 again. Can't bat.
 
Had a T20 game tonight. Unfortunately, we batted first and batted poorly. Ended up 55 all out. Not good at all. It's always good to win the toss because batting second is important in these games. The pitch wasn't great, but wasn't too bad considering we had lots of rain overnight. There's so many changes in the team that it's tough to actually know the strength of our own batting as well as the oppositions. In short, you never know whether 80 runs will be enough or whether you need 130+, so you want to bat second and not worry about that. We lost the toss and had to bat first. I batted at 10 and made a nice first ball duck with the ball coming off inside edge, onto boot, outside off and then spinning back onto middle stump! Poor batting and poor luck. I came in at 42/8, so wasn't exactly feeling relaxed and able to play freely.

Anyway, I opened the bowling and bowled 4 overs for just the 8 runs with a wicket thrown in. The other opener bowled some nice left-arm seam and picked up 2 for 16 from his 4 overs. We were in the game at that point, but in the end the opposition got there with 5 overs to spare and 6 wickets in hand. If we had another 30-40 runs, I think we would have defended and won.
 
So the Australian squad features Fawad Ahmed. Wonder if he'll play? I haven't seen much of him but looks like his stock legbreak really turns and he has a googly too.
 
boogiespinner said:
So the Australian squad features Fawad Ahmed. Wonder if he'll play? I haven't seen much of him but looks like his stock legbreak really turns and he has a googly too.
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I'd be surprised if we see him. I think he has been in the Australian squad in the very recent past, but he will only play if Lyon is injured or if they play two spinners. They'll have Harris, Johnson and Starc as the seamers with some seam from Watson and spin from Lyon. Selecting Fawad Ahmed will mean leaving out one of Harris, Johnson or Starc and I can't see them doing that unless the pitch looks set to be an absolute turner - something we are highly unlikely to see in England. I'd like to see him play in the Ashes, but I wouldn't stake any money on it happening.
 
Played two games back to back this weekend - never done that before. A 50 over game and a rain affected game that was reduced to 30 overs. Still haven't written up my blog for the Saturday game with my regular team, but the game with a team called SDR I've blogged already and it's here http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/sdr-cc-v-rayleigh-fairview-cc-sunday.html Only got three overs, but having never played with them before was thankful for the three. It was a good game with some really good players. Came away with 3-0-4-1, the wicket was a Wrong-Un, first wicket with a wrong un for years and I set the bloke up beautifully!
 
A bit of an annoying game for me yesterday. We batted first and scored 161 before declaring. I got 10 mins to bat. Managed to hit a 4 off the first ball (lofted drive) and then pulled a full toss for 4, both off an off-spinner. Next over was against a seamer. I hit his first ball straight to the fielder and turned down a quick single. Next ball was a much quicker ball that was well bowled, on the stumps and then into the stumps. Bit gutted about that.

For some reason, our captain didn't bring me on to bowl as early as he should have. Was beyond the 20 over mark and I was getting a bit annoyed at that point. I eventually came on to bowl after having a whinge with the captain, but I wasn't really in a great mindset. I bowled 3 or 4 legside full tosses, which is something I never do these days. Still, I managed to pick up 2 for 24 from my 6 overs (both stumpings). There were a few miss hits, a few play and misses and an edge to the keeper that the umpire didn't give and the batted certainly wasn't going to walk. All in all, I didn't really enjoy it and I'd give my bowling about 5 or 6 out of 10.

Still, I was quite happy that I managed to produce reasonable figures whilst not being in the right frame of mind to bowl at all.
 
These last few days I reckon have been the best I've ever bowled, this afternoon I've been over the paddock practicing landing the ball on a car mat and turning it 2' outside of leg back on to the stumps, not one or two times but several. I've not even blogged about Saturday yet, but I bowled superbly after the first over. I'll get on with it now, so once I've sorted all the scores and stuff I'll be back with a link and my overall figures.

Worked them out, with 4 games so far I'm going for - 27-3-70-8. So that's an average of 2.59 and a strike rate of 8.75. I'm well happy with that, the last two games were pretty special, not many wickets only two, but good batsmen apparently and went for virtually no runs. The only let down was the Saturday match as I was hit for 2 x 4's in the first over, a short one and full toss before I settled, but after that I bowled superbly.
 
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This Saturday I was going to play for the 4th but got a msg from the 3rd captain saying I was playing for them ! I was very excited ! The 3rds level was much better ! We were planning to play 100 overs declaration but because of the rain we only played 75, the captain gave 10 over spells to bowlers so I came in the 36ty over I think with one wicket remaining and got the last wicket that we were struggling to get in 5 balls, they were under estimating me and said I bowled well, to get the wicket, I bowled a leg break that didn't spin (unintentionally) on off stump the tail ender left it and it clipped his off stump for my first wicket for the 3 RDS. If I play for them again, I think I'll get more overs as the captain now trusts me .... I think
 
shahidpak said:
This Saturday I was going to play for the 4th but got a msg from the 3rd captain saying I was playing for them ! I was very excited ! The 3rds level was much better ! We were planning to play 100 overs declaration but because of the rain we only played 75, the captain gave 10 over spells to bowlers so I came in the 36ty over I think with one wicket remaining and got the last wicket that we were struggling to get in 5 balls, they were under estimating me and said I bowled well, to get the wicket, I bowled a leg break that didn't spin (unintentionally) on off stump the tail ender left it and it clipped his off stump for my first wicket for the 3 RDS. If I play for them again, I think I'll get more overs as the captain now trusts me .... I think
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I've played in the 3rd before and before I did so the blokes said "They'll give your bowling far more respect than they do in the 4ths", and it panned out to be true, it was one of my better bowling spells before this season and I was able to settle and started to bowl really well. So, good luck with that, as if that becomes a regular thing you'll probably do really well.
 
Glad to see people having good games. I just had my first bowl over 22 yards this year. I have been doing a little practice against a brick wall so far. Difficult.

I managed to get some seam up into the groove. I am now bowling a seam up that is just about passable. I am sure there are 13 year olds who can bowl faster but it's nice to have the action working, especially feeling everything come over the front foot

legspin - abysmal. I produced one which turned enough to beat the bat.
googly - all over the place, and only turned properly.
topspinner - these were actually half-decent. This is what I had been working on against the brick wall. I was able to really get the ball spinning over the top of the hand and knowing it was spinning hard. It is quite satisfying beating a batsman in the flight with a straight ball, which to be honest I thought was something of a commentary myth before. The batsmen only got to the pitch of a couple of them. One also beat the bat by kicking and bouncing high.

I need to do some sessions with a bucket of balls and an empty net to get the legbreak working.
 
boogiespinner said:
Average - 8.75 [runs/wkt]
strike rate - 20.25 [balls/wkt]
economy rate - 2.59 [runs/over]

Very good!
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boogiespinner said:
Average - 8.75 [runs/wkt]
strike rate - 20.25 [balls/wkt]
economy rate - 2.59 [runs/over]

Very good!
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I went to bed last night thinking... Hmm I think I did that wrong. Cheers, I don't know how long it'll stay like that though, but with the Wrong Un, I've now got, and a lot more control and accuracy with my Leg break, things are looking a lot better. Practiced tonight with the bat against my younger son who's normally all over me and I was hitting him cleanly and with fairly good timing. Fingers crossed I might be able to convert that to a game or two?
 
someblokecalleddave said:
I've played in the 3rd before and before I did so the blokes said "They'll give your bowling far more respect than they do in the 4ths", and it panned out to be true, it was one of my better bowling spells before this season and I was able to settle and started to bowl really well. So, good luck with that, as if that becomes a regular thing you'll probably do really well.
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That's very true. More than anything, it's a question of batters playing more correctly. In the 4ths and in friendly games, most batters will play cross bat shots, even to full balls. They will play aggressively and you will often find good balls being missed by them or hacked somewhere square of the wicket. It took me longer to realise than it should have, but the way to bowl to these batters is to bowl it with plenty of air and just on or outside offstump. Don't give them any pace to work with and only put it on the stumps if you have plenty of protection square of the wicket. With a decent keeper, you will be getting stumpings aplenty!

Once you move up to 3rds, 2nds and 1sts, the batters put more value on their wicket and show signs of pressure (something you will never see in the 4ths). Very few of the batters would play a cross bat shot to a full ball on the stumps because the chances of getting out are quite high and getting out like that would seriously let their team mates down. They play more correctly with a straight bat, high elbow etc. None of this cross bat slogger nonsense. But, they will punish your bad balls in a way that the lesser bats won't. It's an odd thing but sometimes you will bowl a ball to a 4th team slogger than he hacks square of the wicket and that very same ball would cause problems to a 2nd team batter. Equally, you will bowl a poor ball to a 4th team slogger than he completely misses or even gets out to whilst the 2nd team batter would be all over it. In many ways, it's a completely different game and differently type of bowling once you move on to proper batters.
 
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