Keep Going Out In Slips

freddie90

Member
As the title suggests I keep going out in this region caught behind all the time. Can someone explain what could be wrong. I have made a few low scores and want to alleviate this before next season starts.


Thanks

Fred
 
Thanks mate. I open the batting and it happens against bowlers who move the ball away from me, the shots i play are usually normal straight defence, off/cover drive.
 
Thanks mate. I open the batting and it happens against bowlers who move the ball away from me, the shots i play are usually normal straight defence, off/cover drive.
To be honest I'm probably the last person on the planet to be able to talk about this with any real knowledge, but I have faced 20 overs of fast stuff as an opener and came away with 5 runs to my name before a leggie came on and got me within 3 or 4 balls. My son bowls seam up with figures of 6 for 15 off of 11 overs or so and I never last that long against him and that's simply due to the length he bowls. My main shot is a straight defence or a back foot defence which is very sketchy.
In the case of the 20 overs game both bowlers were bowling fast and full and it seemed relatively predictable as to where the ball was going and it was just a case of dropping the bat down with soft hands. The ball going away though if it looks like it's troubling m off stump I tend try and leave, but once they go slightly more middle and leg, I'm usually in trouble. Recently I've been reading Bob Woolmers book The Art and Science of Cricket and I watched a really good thing on SKY TV here in the UK (Like Aussie Channel 9) and they were saying that the true batsmen with the innate skill have the ability to react in mili-seconds to what they see coming out of the hand. They'll see it and then move their body and their heads in line with the ball and then bring the bat down with perfect timing. But they also on the SKY programme conceded that if you're out of nick you're out of nick and you'll not be able to do anything right, until you fathom what it is you're doing wrong.
We have a bloke in our team who bats well who has a very exaggerated body movement, he seems to move massively in order that he gets behind the ball and his head in line with it. I find that retrospectively when I'm out edged to slips it's the case that I've not moved enough.

That's my take on it, but I'm nowhere near qualified to comment really, but it may give you some ideas or something to think about?

Added later. Have you got access to video recording equipment? If you have video yourself batting and you'll probably spot what it is you're doing wrong.
 
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I have a few thoughts, I'm not totally sure of the theory but these are things you can try in the nets.

Bradman picked up the bat towards gully - my theory is that this allows you to better cover away movement, in essence since the bat is already out there and you are bringing it in. So that might be worth a try if you are picking up straight.

The other thought is when playing the cover drive, if the ball has width, then you might want to fetch it with an angled bat rather than a straight one. You can find both approaches on youtube. I thought they all went with an angled bat, but Sangakkara plays some beautiful wide cover drives with a straight bat. But the thing is, if you use the straight bat to a wide ball your timing has to be perfect, because if you are fraction late it will take the edge. With an angled bat your timing window can be much larger. If you do go for the straight bat I suggest do not try to overpower the ball but rather try to hit in a similar line to the ball, and achieve width in the stroke by a subtle opening of the face, this will also give power from using the pace of the bowler. I think this is what Sangakkara does.

In general, if you are taking the outside edge it is either because you are late on the shot, or have misaligned the shot. When you do get an edge would you have hit cleanly if you had been a little further through the shot? This will tell you which it is.

other basic thoughts - make sure you watch the ball right onto the bat, also you could work on clean hitting with stumps and golf balls (or similar)

hope helpful
 
Hi Freddie, I think that one of the reasons you may be getting out in slips is that maybe you might be pushing at the ball a bit and playing in front of yourself. especially if you are an opening batsman where there is a lot of gaps in that cover area to score runs, you may find your self almost too eager to hit the ball that you go to play it too early. This could be as I said earlier to try and hit those gaps and you are really eager to score runs, you could be nervous which sometimes makes you play in front of yourself, or the other one is that if you are facing fast bowling a lot of people actually play earlier rather than later because of all the adrenaline going through your body which makes you again want to hit the ball and you push hard at it. Let me know what you think.
James
 
Bit of a long shot, but you might also want to look at your guard and trigger move if you have one. Make sure your head is over off stump when the ball is delivered.
 
If you are getting out to away-swing whilst driving then you are probably not playing the second line of the ball and thus knicking off. Learn how to leave the ball also if you are frequently knicking off whilst defending, make the bowler attack the stumps. I also wouldn't do what Steve Smith does, he is far from conventional and is largely unique in his movements.
 
wat do u mean by 2nd line off ball
I haven't heard the term. But this is what I assume. If you've seen that the bowler is getting outswing you want to be covering the outswing, rather than playing it like it's straight, leading to you edging it when it swings. You have to be playing the ball taking the outswing into account. You aren't playing the line of the ball, you are playing for the 2nd line of the ball where it is going to swing.

This is just my opinion. When I play swing bowling my main focus is to make sure I'm in a great position to play the ball every single time. When I'm in a good position I can decide whether a ball needs to be played, whether it swung too much and can be left alone, etc. I can make sure I'm completely on top of the ball when playing offside shots to outswing. I find the majority of the time if I nick off, it's the product of lazy footwork, and trying to follow the swing, chasing it too far outside off and away from the body.

Of course you are going to get absolute gems that you do well to nick to first slip, or make you look an idiot. Just try to minimise that.
 
If you are opening and nicking out-swingers then I would do some net sessions with some quicks and swing bowlers, and work on survival mode where you:
- only play the ball when you must (i.e. know where your off stump is)
- when you do play, aim is to make contact with the middle of the bat
- watch the ball out of the bowlers hand (watch for signs of swing)
- play it as late as possible

Survival mode is an essential part of the opening batsman's armoury....the hope is that if you survive the difficult new ball spell, and it then gets easier to score
 
If the issue is with outswing, don't play at it unless you are certain you can hit it for runs or it is on the stumps (as in you are sure it will hit the stumps)
 
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