catching the wet ball

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notrunout

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catching the wet ball

Hi
when it's wet the ball is like a bar of soap and slips through my fingers. The other day when it was raining I went for an easy catch - a gentle dying loop at fly slip- but the ball just slid between my hands. I just couldn't close my hands on it. When I did it seemed to squirt out below. It honestly felt as though it was made of slimy soap or something. In dry conditions there is very little question I would have completed the catch.

Has anyone any advice or technique they use? Should I be practising with a bar of soap?
 
Re: catching the wet ball

the only thing you can do really is try and get all of your body behind the ball which is hard to do anyway is you moving for the ball.
Playing with a soaking wet ball is just one of those difficult things in cricket it hard to throw or catch and even harder to bowl leg spin with.
 
Re: catching the wet ball

im not sure if this is the correct thing to do or not, but i consider myself a good fielder, especially in slips, and as it rains quite a lot in my area during cricket season i play quite a bit in the wet. i have developed a completely different technique for wet cricket. it also works in the dry if you feel different.

when you go for a catch with your hands in the upwards facing direction (hands down) make sure you have your little fingers crossed as you should anyway. now spread your hands far apart, trying to force your crossed fingers upwards, dominant hand on top.
have your thumbs pointing out at right angles with your hands almost flat, ever so slightly cupped.
then next part requires good hand-eye co-ordination. make sure you watch the ball very closely all the way into your hands as you should be doing.
throw a ball up and quickly put your hands in this position. now accurately position your hands so that when the ball hits your hands it hits the point were your two fingers are crossed, not the palms of your hands.
if your are pushing the top little finger with your bottom little finger then it will be a fairly hard surface. much like a baseball glove your hands will close quickly as a reflex action in the pocket. you will find that even with a tennis ball chucked up half a metre if it hits that spot then you dont even have to voluntarily move your hands and they will shoot around the ball. now if you close your hands around it then it will pocket the ball just like a glove, your palms will barely be touching the ball at all. try and spread your fingers as wide as possible and the ball should barely be touching your palm. you need pretty big hands. its a less consistent way of catching normally but very good for the wet ball. to see the final position just put the ball on top of the crossed fingers and wrap your interlaced fingers wide around the ball without it touching your palm too much, but not so that the ball is poking out the end.

it is much the same with your hands pointing up, but a bit harder. cross both your first finger and your thumbs and aim for the crossing of the first finger and look through the gap between that and your thumbs. remember to wrap around the ball as much as possible to prevent spillage.
 
Re: catching the wet ball

Thanks I will give it some practice. This idea of overlapping the fingers might be a very fruitful tip since it might stop even a dry ball bursting through. The key thing you say about the wet ball is that you must spread your fingers to make a bigger net - is that right?
 
Re: catching the wet ball

yes, make the net as big as you can leaving no weak spots that will let the ball through. really keep your little fingers rigid and strong and the parts of the palm of your hands that touch very firm together.. and dont forget to give with the ball a lot. leave your other fingers floppy.
 
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