Batting with Mongoose MMi3 bat

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some of those shots with the Mongoose look like they went miles! And you didn't even look like you were trying that hard on some of them, the bat speed is just so high. I think I might get one for Christmas, I wasn't convinced by the bat at first but having seen that televised county match a few months ago that I mentioned on here, and now having seen a few videos on YouTube of people using the bat, I reckon it has a purpose. It's probably not the kind of bat you look to build an innings with, but if you want fast runs in a chase/last few overs situation then its definitely got a purpose.

I'm not a batsman, or in any way qualified to comment on technique, but just from looking at your batting it looks pretty solid. A few lovely shots in there. You've got quite a wristy technique, but I think thats an Indian thing. Theres an Indian guy at my club who is very wristy and he plays some beautiful shots. I'd say his technique is quite similar to yours overall. He clears the boundary for fun with the most effortless looking shots, sometimes even with Kashmir willow bats!! I'll let the experts offer coaching opinions though, I am in no way qualified lol, my batting is awful.
 
I got this bat as a B'day Gift and its an absolute beast. I would say definately get one for Christmas. it feels just so light when you hold it, the one i have is 2.14 lbs and it feels like a 2 lbs bat. when u feel u are late on the ball, just swing thru the line and it still flies off. When we talk about building inns, if you are set, you can play all shots including defensive ones and its not really difficult. You saw me defend some as well right? its a very good bat and i have no regrets in buying one.
Thanks Jim for your reply,
AV
 
I figure there is so much meat on it, and I play mostly on grounds with small'ish boundaries, that bat speed is more important than mass. So I will probably go for the lightest bat at 2.06 lbs. Its definitely on my Christmas list.
 
It looked like when you were playing with it for the first few balls you were hacking a bit, trying to hit it too hard and swinging across the line, also most probably getting out a couple of times by skying the ball. I was just wondering if you found using the Mongoose sort of made you do that? I found it did with me, I did notice that it is a bit end heavy (not as much as I first thought though) and I was playing rash shots like that early in my innings.

Would you suggest starting an innings with it or starting with a normal bat and swapping? Or maybe bring out the right bat for the occasion sort of thing? Do you think you can play all different sorts of innings with it? It didn't really to me, but I'd like to see your opinion on this before passing my opinion onto others.
 
Hey boris, I think the reason one starts hacking with mongoose is because of the fact that they are not used to it. I am certainly sure that if i practice with this bat for 5 more sessions, i would be playing with as i would with any other bat. It is just the fact that the batsman who is using it first few times, is not used to it and keeps thinking he has Mongoose in his hands rather than a cricket bat. I would not recommend it for an opening batsman to open an innings with this bat because it will be very tough. If i was batting, i would call for it when i see a spinner or when i feel confident of playing my shots
 
the worst thing about the mongoose would be walking out to the middle with one! you'll look like a right wally unless you're the same size as and as good as matthew hayden. personally i've gone for a Black Cat Joker, still bound to get sledged a bit but it doesn't look quite so ridiculous and i've been well advised that they perform a lot better as well and aren't just good for hitting half volleys out of the park.
 
i dont much care if i look a wally walking out there, id care more about looking a wally walking back to the pavillion first ball though lol. its no different really to batting with a normal bat, its important not to let the bat dictate your playing style i think. the best couple of innings ive seen from players using the MMi3 have been ones where they have played conventional shots as if using a regular bat, but just taking advantage of the more powerful middle on the Mongoose.

youre bound to get comments from opposing players about it when you walk out at club level. not really any different to a player walking out wearing a load of test standard equipment though. if you get out cheaply youre going to get the "all the gear and no idea" comments, its inevitable. but you cant allow that to play on your mindset. you have to play a normal innings and let the bat do the talking. ive had comments whenever ive used a brand new bat, usually along the lines of "ooh someones been spending some money". wicket keepers will do anything to throw you off your game, i just ignore all comments or laugh them off. as soon as im getting ready to face the ball its complete concentration on that next delivery, and nothing else. it shouldnt matter what youve got in your hands.

the bat alone isnt going to turn a bad player into a good one. it just means that when you get the shots right, youre likely going to score more runs with the same shots than you would with a conventional bat. when i first decided i wanted mine i thought it would work as a bat to score fast runs with and just go out to smash the ball. having used mine (only in indoor matches though) i see that it has a far wider purpose. and unless youve got the talent to go in and smash the ball out of the park i dont think it will provide any assistance anyway.

one potential drawback is that it fires bowlers up a bit more. the same as if someone reverse sweeps me or switch hits me. im just more determined to get them out next ball for having the cheek to try that shot against me. if i saw someone with a mongoose id instantly think that they fancied themselves as a big hitter, and id serve the ball up accordingly. but if you play with the right mentality i dont think this would matter.
 
well i wish you luck jim! i can guarantee anyone who has a 'goose in any league is going to get acres of stick and coming in down the order any fast bowler worth his salt is going to stick one right up your nose/armpit first ball. personally i would be cacking my pants facing chin music holding one of those, you basically have no choice but to pull/hook or to duck and sway. what if you cna't get out of the way because of its direction and you can't attack because its too quick and you can't raise your bat to defend?? bruise time! i'm yet to see many pro's using an actual mmi3 in a serious game situation so i'm still not convinced they have any real use. anderson has a stickered up Cor3, if you look closely you can see there's a splice in the bat which mean its probably an SS or something similar, so why doesn't he use a proper Cor3 if they're so brilliant? there's a few others who are sponsored and just have the stickers but not the real deal, and hayden only used his sporadically in the IPL last year before switching back to his trusty gray nics. i think a few county blokes have used one at the end of their innings for a laugh a sort of 'Bring out the Mongoose!" situation. be interesting to see what Madfish actually has in his hands at the start of the county season. i'll be keeping a beady eye on his splice... i love the idea of having these bats but i think the mmi3 just goes too far. have you had a look at these badboys:

http://www.blackcatcricket.com/#/joker/4538791762

this is what i went for as it seems to me to be a very happy medium. should be arriving any day now and i'm getting fairly excited:)
 
GoldenArm said:
well i wish you luck jim! i can guarantee anyone who has a 'goose in any league is going to get acres of stick and coming in down the order any fast bowler worth his salt is going to stick one right up your nose/armpit first ball. personally i would be cacking my pants facing chin music holding one of those, you basically have no choice but to pull/hook or to duck and sway. what if you cna't get out of the way because of its direction and you can't attack because its too quick and you can't raise your bat to defend?? bruise time! i'm yet to see many pro's using an actual mmi3 in a serious game situation so i'm still not convinced they have any real use. anderson has a stickered up Cor3, if you look closely you can see there's a splice in the bat which mean its probably an SS or something similar, so why doesn't he use a proper Cor3 if they're so brilliant? there's a few others who are sponsored and just have the stickers but not the real deal, and hayden only used his sporadically in the IPL last year before switching back to his trusty gray nics. i think a few county blokes have used one at the end of their innings for a laugh a sort of 'Bring out the Mongoose!" situation. be interesting to see what Madfish actually has in his hands at the start of the county season. i'll be keeping a beady eye on his splice... i love the idea of having these bats but i think the mmi3 just goes too far. have you had a look at these badboys:

http://www.blackcatcricket.com/#/joker/4538791762

this is what i went for as it seems to me to be a very happy medium. should be arriving any day now and i'm getting fairly excited:)
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Hey Golden, according to my personal experience with actual fast bowlers, I would have to disagree with you when you say you cannot defend a perfectly aimed bouncer with mongoose. When the ball is actually heading towards your "Nose," it has to be pitched at half way(bouncy wickets ) or even at shorter length. Now when the ball is pitched that short, it is very hard to defend it even with a regular cricket bat(unless you are as tall as Tremlett.) A bouncer pitched that short, can either be pulled/hooked or fended off by ducking. Defending it with control is merely impossible considering the height factor. With mongoose mmi3 bat, a person with decent technique can play fine without any trouble.
Talking about mongoose cor3, mongoose creators never said that its splice is in handle. They said that with mmi3 they will have a traditional designed bat for sale as well. So anderson is not necessarily using a stickered up cor3 bat. I use only my mongoose bat in the nets to get good practice with it and i can say its not really a bat with disadvantage when comes to defending and playing short balls. People can have problems using it, when they start worrying about the shorter blade. Its more of mental problem rather than the bat itself. I batted in front of bowling machine and some fast bowlers at 75-80 mph and I didnt have problems with the shortness of the blade.
The best way to bat with mongoose without trouble is to not think of the shortness of the blade and bat like its a "traditional" bat.
Cheers
A.V
 
abhiscenter said:
Hey Golden, according to my personal experience with actual fast bowlers, I would have to disagree with you when you say you cannot defend a perfectly aimed bouncer with mongoose. When the ball is actually heading towards your "Nose," it has to be pitched at half way(bouncy wickets ) or even at shorter length. Now when the ball is pitched that short, it is very hard to defend it even with a regular cricket bat(unless you are as tall as Tremlett.) A bouncer pitched that short, can either be pulled/hooked or fended off by ducking. Defending it with control is merely impossible considering the height factor. With mongoose mmi3 bat, a person with decent technique can play fine without any trouble.
Talking about mongoose cor3, mongoose creators never said that its splice is in handle. They said that with mmi3 they will have a traditional designed bat for sale as well. So anderson is not necessarily using a stickered up cor3 bat. I use only my mongoose bat in the nets to get good practice with it and i can say its not really a bat with disadvantage when comes to defending and playing short balls. People can have problems using it, when they start worrying about the shorter blade. Its more of mental problem rather than the bat itself. I batted in front of bowling machine and some fast bowlers at 75-80 mph and I didnt have problems with the shortness of the blade.
The best way to bat with mongoose without trouble is to not think of the shortness of the blade and bat like its a "traditional" bat.
Cheers
A.V
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They most certainly do say that the Cor3 doesn't have a splice!

http://www.mongoosecricket.com/bats

and one of the guys who works for Mongoose is on another forum and he's said its not a proper Cor3. I see what you're saying about the bouncer but there are definitely times when i absolutely have to use my bat to block a short ball, its something i would have to train myself out of to use a Mongoose and personally i couldn't be bothered with that. the bat should compliment my style not force me to alter it unnecessarily. Regardless of all that though the Mongoose is a bloody cool piece of kit:) and i'd def like a smash with one!
 
just to follow up on the Mongoose discussion.

i played indoor last weekend and batted at number 5 against a team that plays ECB premier cricket, but most of their players werent ECB league players. out i strolled with my Mongoose bat, to the expected banter. i reckon 4 out of 6 players probably gave me stick. 2 of them just said "wow hes got a Mongoose, i havent seen one yet", and the other 4 made comments about "bowl him some short stuff", or just generally laughed.

i walked to the crease with the wicket keeper shouting "good luck with the short ball", but being indoor cricket short balls are no balls and 3 free runs, so i cockily replied "id love some short balls, 3 free runs all day long, bring it on". and that shut him up.

first ball the bowler pitched it up so that i played a defensive drive, more about getting bat on ball really, no follow through, i hit the ball on the full about 3" from the toe. it absolutely flew past the bowler along the ground for 6 runs at the back wall. there was really no major effort on the shot. that soon shut the banter up. instead a couple of them were making comments about "bloody hell lads, place your orders now!". all the balls thereafter were bowled shorter, so i just played across the line with slogged pull shots. the ball was absolutely smashing into the walls, to the point where fielders were more worried about getting out of the way than looking at catching or stopping it lol. one went just in front of square leg, where the umpire was standing (who near enough poo'd his pants i think), and the keeper said "dont hit it any squarer or youre going to kill the bloke!".

so all the initial sledging very quickly turned to impressed looks at the performance of the bat. i think the same will hold true outdoors. you might get sledged on the way in, you might get some short balls. but as soon as you connect and the ball disappears to the fence that is all going to stop. i cant wait for summer :D
 
Jim2109 said:
just to follow up on the Mongoose discussion.

i played indoor last weekend and batted at number 5 against a team that plays ECB premier cricket, but most of their players werent ECB league players. out i strolled with my Mongoose bat, to the expected banter. i reckon 4 out of 6 players probably gave me stick. 2 of them just said "wow hes got a Mongoose, i havent seen one yet", and the other 4 made comments about "bowl him some short stuff", or just generally laughed.

i walked to the crease with the wicket keeper shouting "good luck with the short ball", but being indoor cricket short balls are no balls and 3 free runs, so i cockily replied "id love some short balls, 3 free runs all day long, bring it on". and that shut him up.

first ball the bowler pitched it up so that i played a defensive drive, more about getting bat on ball really, no follow through, i hit the ball on the full about 3" from the toe. it absolutely flew past the bowler along the ground for 6 runs at the back wall. there was really no major effort on the shot. that soon shut the banter up. instead a couple of them were making comments about "bloody hell lads, place your orders now!". all the balls thereafter were bowled shorter, so i just played across the line with slogged pull shots. the ball was absolutely smashing into the walls, to the point where fielders were more worried about getting out of the way than looking at catching or stopping it lol. one went just in front of square leg, where the umpire was standing (who near enough poo'd his pants i think), and the keeper said "dont hit it any squarer or youre going to kill the bloke!".

so all the initial sledging very quickly turned to impressed looks at the performance of the bat. i think the same will hold true outdoors. you might get sledged on the way in, you might get some short balls. but as soon as you connect and the ball disappears to the fence that is all going to stop. i cant wait for summer :D
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Fair play! thats the way to give em some stick back, i am guilty of sledging myself back in my uni days (it was quite vicious cricket with a lot of chat) but i really hate copping it myself and i don't do it anymore unless its good natured or part and parcel of my bowling (i.e enticing someone to play a few shots). so its always nice to hear someone shutting the big mouths up. I don't think you can really compare indoor and oudoor, indoor is a totally different game. what sort of ball do you use? Honestly I don't think you can say its passed the test until you've tried it for half a season outside against different bowling attacks. i think it will cope poorly with proper fast bowling and also with big out swingers, and possibly with good spin as well when you have to switch to defense and get right to the pitch and block with a really long body stance, fully extended. i can see the ball just bouncing past or over that miniscule blade!
 
we use a 4oz (i think) plastic indoor ball. and youre right its a totally different game, the bat hasnt been used against proper bowling yet so time will tell. but having seen it used in county cricket im already convinced that it is more than up to it. everything you describe as a weakness for this bat is a weakness of the batsman. maybe a conventional bat saves their bacon more often, but ultimately the issue there is with batting technique/skill. so if im getting out to specific deliveries with a Mongoose then thats a flaw in my technique more than a flaw in the bat. the ball should always be hitting the middle regardless of the shot. if it doesnt then thats a mistake. so maybe it is less forgiving, but when a shot is played correctly it has a huge advantage over a conventional bat.

i plan to use my Slazenger V12 when required to bat "properly". the Mongoose serves a purpose for T20 cricket, and situations where i have free license to play stupid shots. ive got a solid sweep shot, my pull is pretty good also, and im always improving my straight drives. all those shots will favour a Mongoose i feel. i dont have a cut shot and play little on the off side. when i can go in swinging i want a bat that will maximise my run scoring, and if i get out then so be it. when i need to build an innings then obviously having that extra margin for error with a conventional bat is beneficial.
 
Jim2109 said:
we use a 4oz (i think) plastic indoor ball. and youre right its a totally different game, the bat hasnt been used against proper bowling yet so time will tell. but having seen it used in county cricket im already convinced that it is more than up to it. everything you describe as a weakness for this bat is a weakness of the batsman. maybe a conventional bat saves their bacon more often, but ultimately the issue there is with batting technique/skill. so if im getting out to specific deliveries with a Mongoose then thats a flaw in my technique more than a flaw in the bat. the ball should always be hitting the middle regardless of the shot. if it doesnt then thats a mistake. so maybe it is less forgiving, but when a shot is played correctly it has a huge advantage over a conventional bat.

i plan to use my Slazenger V12 when required to bat "properly". the Mongoose serves a purpose for T20 cricket, and situations where i have free license to play stupid shots. ive got a solid sweep shot, my pull is pretty good also, and im always improving my straight drives. all those shots will favour a Mongoose i feel. i dont have a cut shot and play little on the off side. when i can go in swinging i want a bat that will maximise my run scoring, and if i get out then so be it. when i need to build an innings then obviously having that extra margin for error with a conventional bat is beneficial.
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yeah i can't really disagree with that, i need that forgiveness because i can't bat perfectly! even the pros have to give themselves a chance early on. i remember aussie cricketer Rodney Hogg saying that Graeme Pollock used to bat 'like a busted arse' until he hit thirty, then when he started seeing it he became 'scary'. i think you've got to give yourself a chance to see it and i feel like the mongoose lessens those chances. def one to keep for the high days and holidays.
 
Guys if you really want this bat I know a way you can get this without spending any money (its legal) Just click thelink in my signature and your on your way
 
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