gundalf's cricket blog

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thx sadspinner

unsurprisingly the weather got the best of the rearranged uni game today, hasn't stopped raining since this time yesterday, lol
 
Re: gundalf's cricket blog

wow its been ages since i've updated this or my main blog as i haven't been playing i just haven't been updating. I am playing nowas i'm not working but have had a few problems.

Excerts from my blog

first game for ages: 2/12 from 3 overs in torrential rain playing on a sodden pitch not too bad horrible conditions to play in.

main entry An Aspiring Spinner's Blog: match update sun 26th july

an unfortunate accident last weekend on the pitch
main entryAn Aspiring Spinner's Blog: match update sun 2nd august

excert from that blog entry: We were taking the bricks off the pitch and one guy the batsman who i practice with regularly who does roofing and building was carrying the bricks off 6 at a time off the square. He told me to pick a brick up so i bent down to pick it up and then suddenly a huge pain in my hand and he had dropped the bricks off his shoulder with 2 landing on my hand while i was picking up the brick from the ground. I looked down a straight away al i could see was my hand was just blood my hand was covered in seconds....
i spent most of the afternoon in accident and emergency getting my hand patched up and x-rays and everything. Fortunately somehow i didn't break anything and just had a array of huge cuts with one across my spinning finger on my right hand needing 6 stiches.

update from this week: my hand looks awful its still swelled cut and bruised and i'm playing tomorrow in my first league game for my club but its not looking good i've said okay to play but i can barely bend my spinning finger and currently can't hold a bat with my right hand. Hoping patching up, painkillers and limiting my bowling if any tomorrow, may play sunday though as well, will depend on how tomorrow goes.
 
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yeah i probably will dave when i get around to it.

The match went as badly as could have been feared, i could barely hold the bat and being a bottom handed player means i had to play without any power while batting and only made 1 in my first innings for my club with a paddle sweep but was to early on a little drive as the ball slowed and died in the surface and kept low and bowled me. I was last man out with the score on 91 batting at no 10.

Had to tell the captain i couldn't bowl as i can't even bend my spinning finger enough to hold the ball properly. The pitch was realy hard to bat on and at least we made the opposition take 32 overs to get the 92 with a big 6 to finish so we lost by 6 or 7 wickets. Worst of all i managed to slip turning to chase a ball and seem to have caused a problem with my back as it hurt a little and has no seized up.

Turned down the chance to play tomorrow as my hand is absolutely screwed, i couldn't even get my glove off after batting as my finger had swelled up from just playing defensive shots.
 
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Mate you need a rest for a few weeks by the sounds of it! I reckon you'll be on here next week telling us you've got Swine Flu!
 
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lol it really has been an absolute age since i've updated this
just updated my blog for the first time in ages as well heres a bit of it
taken from( http://www.aspiringspinner.blogspot.com )

Well i'll summarise how i feel the winter has gone really, the bowling is much improved consistency wise and is now much more my natural action and is much more comfortable for me. I'm gonna try and video the action soon as i am curious to see if i can see how close it is to my old action and it will be good to see a benchmark when i fell comfortable with the bowling. The accuracy can be a bit hit and miss at the moment though i feel that is more down to concentration in nets as as soon as i get in a serious situation the accuracy is nigh on perfect.

The other main and probablly biggest development from the winter has been the batting though, i don't look like a shocking number 11 anymore and am getting a few complements on the batting and especially how far it has improved, especially in the last week i've had 3 amazing nets and for some reason look more comfortable against quick bowlers at the moment than spinners. The first of the 3 nets i managed to video as part of the process of looking at how my technique is/has changed.

YouTube - batting001

On the batting in the vid, the delivery i get bowled by why the hell i tried to cut an off spinner i'm not sure, lol. Also supposedly what is my trademark shot the paddle type shot is seen at 6:07 in the video. Also the quickie who bangs in every ball bowls with such an angle i'm not sure where my stumps are most of the time(one of the only bowlers to do this).
 
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Yeah - not being a batsman and not having any idea what you were like previously it's difficult for me to comment with regards how good or bad you are and how much you might have improved. But it looks like you may have moved up to No.10! ha- ha! I'm tempted to film myself next week and see if I look any different to you! It'd be interesting to get comments from someone who can bat though.
 
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yeah just fixed it damn spelling :p,yeah you should have a go with the bat on vid too helped me see alot of what was wrong and why i was getting bowled.
 
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gundalf7;392027 said:
The other main and probablly biggest development from the winter has been the batting though, i don't look like a shocking number 11 anymore and am getting a few complements on the batting and especially how far it has improved, especially in the last week i've had 3 amazing nets and for some reason look more comfortable against quick bowlers at the moment than spinners. The first of the 3 nets i managed to video as part of the process of looking at how my technique is/has changed.

YouTube - batting001

On the batting in the vid, the delivery i get bowled by why the hell i tried to cut an off spinner i'm not sure, lol. Also supposedly what is my trademark shot the paddle type shot is seen at 6:07 in the video. Also the quickie who bangs in every ball bowls with such an angle i'm not sure where my stumps are most of the time(one of the only bowlers to do this).

You need to bend your legs less when batting. You start off with a slight bend, then go right down only to come up again. Three different planes of vision and hampering your following of the ball. The excessive bending is also causing your head to lean too far over the off stump which is messing with your balance.

A slight bend is all you need - remember the key is keeping the head still and eyes level, not bouncing all over the place.
 
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mas cambios;392047 said:
You need to bend your legs less when batting. You start off with a slight bend, then go right down only to come up again. Three different planes of vision and hampering your following of the ball. The excessive bending is also causing your head to lean too far over the off stump which is messing with your balance.

A slight bend is all you need - remember the key is keeping the head still and eyes level, not bouncing all over the place.

yeah i'm trying to get the bending knees reduced a bit or at least do it before the bowlers gets into the delivery stride, the main problem is i've always tapped the bat on the ground before the bowlers bowls but i hold the bat so low it won't actually touch the ground without me going right down. The balance issues are the main thing atm as its effecting my cover drives, well that and a bit too much bottom hand.
 
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There are positives with your batting, not least that you seem to be happy to go for your shots. However, to be honest there are three main things I would change - two with with your set up and one with the back swing.

Do you have access to a good coach? A few adjustments and I guarantee that you will improve quickly - better balance, more power and easier movement.

If you have access to a coach, I'll bullet point the changes I would make and see if he agrees. Either way you need someone to spend some time with you going over the basics - as I said a few tweaks and you'll improve a lot.

Regarding the bat tapping, how tall are you and what size bat do you use?
 
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our club doesn't really have a coach as such more really just the old club guys just give tips to the young lads. At uni though we have a few lads that are qualified coaches so i can ask them definitely.

As regards the bat i just use a standard short handle bat gripped right at the bottom, which i've been told is probablly a bad thing before and i'm 6ft 3ins.

I'd be grateful if you could bulletpoint what you think would be good changes, most of my batting has generally come from trial and error of what works, lol.
 
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well my season starts tomorrow, it will be my first proper season after having played only 2 partial end of seasons in the previous 2 years due to a combo of work commitments and injuries. It looks like i'll be playing regular league games this year as well for the 1st team and occasional sundays.

At the moment the leggies are coming out alright had a really good practice at home on wednesday but struggled a bit at nets yesterday with the ball with a bit of inconsitency but on the whole i'm bowling many times better than last year with pace through the air, turn off the pitch and much better accuracy which our keeper was fairly impressed with as 9 out of 10 balls were landing on a length on the stumps.

The batting has improved even more in the last month and i hit the best shot i've ever played at nets yesterday a perfect timed straight drive that was back past the bowler before he could even move. I'm even confident i may actually make a few runs and i'll be hugely disappointed if i don't beat my best of 12 this season.

Team wise our team from last year that should have been relegated haven't been due to some league restructuring and we have ended up in a harder division than last year as a lot of the teams we will be playing and 2nd 11s of big clubs rather than 3rd 11s and we've lost a few of our best players. Our sunday captain has taken over as well so i'm confident that we will all have a better time even if we are losing all season, lol.

Sunday i have a game against my uni's 2nd team playing for my club which i've organised as the first sunday friendly for the year so it would be nice to impress there as well and should be a good game and i'll guess i'll get a bit of stick either way :p
 
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