King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Nice stuff, Dan. It's always hard at the start of the season. Getting rid of the rustiness and getting yourself back into form.

All the best for the season.
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog

Update- Another Week of Winter Nets

Had another net session last night, and it was another pretty good one. Started off with us 4 quicker guys bowling in 1 net with a black square out for us to aim the ball into. I apparently failed to get the ball in the box once, which is rubbish, as I bowled better than the other 3 easily. They were sticking it in the box, but getting spanked, I was bowling slightly back of a length, getting the batsman hopping around and getting the ball up nicely into the mid-rift area.

I seem to be consistently swinging the ball as well, the ball seems to be coming out quite nicely in the winter nets. I was probably the fastest bowler out there last night, and actually seemed faster than the lad that plays for Suffolk, so good signs. I also picked up another wicket last night, with another of those swinging yorkers that I seem to be developing, this time to the lad that plays for Suffolk, so I was delighted with that, bowled very nicely.

Also managed to get abit of a bat with the new willow, seemed to go alright. Played a couple of strokes, but was just basically defending to knock the bat in. Played 1 shot of note where I walked down the wicket McCullum style and flicked the ball through mid-wicket sort of area. Changing my back-lift to over off-stump seemed to work, as the ball came off the middle, as opposed to the back. Went well, but didn't have a great deal of time as we've only been getting hour long sessions. Hoping we get another hour and a half session next week, they're far better, as you get more bowling and batting.

Just really looking forward to my session with Ian Pont on the 9th of April now. Looking forward to having a bowl on the speed gun to see how quick I am. I think with a decent run-up and with Ian's help I could easily be bowling 80mph. Off a 3-4 step run-up in winter nets it's coming out faster than it was off 8-10 paces last season, so I'm pretty hopeful of bowling genuinely fast next season. Looking forward to it =D
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Update- Final Winter Net Session

Well guys, first update for a while, and just thought I'd let you know how I did in my final Winter Net Session. Well, it has to be my best ever winter net session. I just seem to be getting better and better, more and more confident as the weeks go on. I started off bowling, and immediately found my swing, and was really getting the ball to talk. Swinging it both ways with ease, and really getting the inswinger to go late and swing quite far. My pace was also decent, and so much so that I wrapped the first guy that batted plum on the toe twice, he could barely walk when he came out of the net :D

The bowling went on for about 45-50 minutes, and I was maintaining a pretty consistent line and length, obviously had a few off balls, but was overall quite consistent. I got the bouncer going as well, bowling 2 very good ones. I seem to have fantastic control of line on my bouncer, and manage to get it right up at the batsman's head, and had the best batsman in our club really jumping around and fending off the short balls. Also did him with an away swinging yorker as well, just missed off-stump.

Then after about 50 minutes I volunteered to pad up, not really expecting much, as my batting hadn't really come on much over the sessions, but tonight everything seemed to click into place. I was watching the ball right onto the bat, getting into fantastic positions and picking the line and length incredibly early. It's the best I've ever batted. There was no slogging (until the last couple of balls), and I was just trying to play as straight as possible.

I got the leg glance working again, with my head and my hands working in perfect synchrisity. I also managed to bring out the Reverse Sweep which I've been practisicing by throwing the ball against the wall, and standing about 10 yards away, and just playing the ball on merit, seems to have helped. All 3 reverse sweep attempts came off the middle of the bat, I also advanced down the wicket once and smashed the ball down the ground off the middle, and then also smacked one over the mid-wicket area from middle stump as well.

It really was great fun knowning that I was getting it right after such a long time of batting mediocrity. Everything seemed to come off the middle, and I just felt so confident when batting, it was brilliant.

Overall, a very good session, that's given me alot of confidence going into my Coaching session with Ian Pont on Thursday. Really looking forward to that, any improvements to my bowling will be a real help. It does seem to be coming out nicely at the minute though, a few action issues, but I'm hoping Ian will be able to help with that. Loving my cricket at the minute, roll on the start of the season!!
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Update- Session with Ian Pont

Just got back from a 5 hour session with fast bowling coach Ian Pont, and it's one of the most enjoyable days I've had for a long time. We started the session by bowling in the net with the speed gun set up, quickest delivery out of all of us was timed at 71mph, my quickest was about 64-65mph, so basically Danish Kaneria's quicker ball :p

After that it was down to drills, walking through our actions, working out our foot placements and then doing that with eyes closed. We then learnt about the 4 Tent Pegs of fast bowling, which are back foot impact, front foot impact, release of the ball and completion of action. These were again walkthrough drills, at times used with weights in each hand to get the follow through perfected.

We also looked at the 3 knee lift, and also the dragging of the right foot (for a right armer) to help generate extra pace. At the end of the session we worked on variations, which included the various slower balls (a hell of alot of them), cutters, yorkers and a quicker ball. 1 other thing we looked at was arm pull, which is something that Atul Sharma and Lasith Malinga use, to generate extra pace. You can really feel it pulling your arm through, really effective.

I'm not now bowling at 85mph, but the session taught me all about my bowling action, what I need to do to improve it, where I'm going wrong and even taught me that I'm front on :p. Overall, was a really helpful experience, and the things I learnt today will definitely help me improve and start bowling faster. Just so long as I don't start bowling like Steve Harmison (who got alot of hilarious abuse from Ian :p). If you ever get the chance to work with Ian, jump at it, he's a superb coach, makes things incredibly easy to understand, and I hope to work with him again. Awesome stuff.
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Update- First Game/s of The Season

Well, the season has officially started for me, and it started with an Interclub T20 Test Match. We planned on just having 2 T20 matches, but decided mid-way through to play a T20 Test. My team bowled first, and I got the new ball early on, and bowled a decent first over, going for just one. Getting some decent pace, but because we were playing on the artificial wicket I got nothing off the track. The 2nd over wasn't as successful, as by this point the 2 batsmen had their eye in and were just slogging like mad. I didn't do too badly though, going for 2 boundaries, both of which were due to fielding errors.

I also bowled a no ball in that over, which led to a free hit, and the free hit delivery couldn't have been bowled better, a perfect inswinging yorker into the toes leading to a dot ball. I then had a break for the next few overs, until being brought on for the last over of the innings, which went really well, going for just 5. I was getting my yorkers in well and mixed in a few slower balls as well, which in a proper pitch would have held up more in the surface. They ended up with 133 in their 20 overs.

Then we had a bat, and managed a measily 91 all out. Thanks mainly to 49 from one of the openers, and 21 from his brother. I came in at 6 and batted ok, got 3, but was caught at mid on trying to go over the top. I played the reverse sweep and picked up a single in that innings as well :p Wasn't a bad start.

We then went almost straight into their next innings. I didn't get the ball first up in that one, as a few of the other lads got a go, but I still bowled my 4 overs towards the end, taking 1/16 off 4, bowling to last seasons 1st XI captain for the most part. My wicket was just full and straight and the lad played all-round it. I also had 2 chances dropped in my 4 overs, and also put one down myself, but it was an almost impossible C+B chance. I got a run out during my 4 overs as well, the batsman just knocked it down and went for the single, I ran onto the ball and nonchalantly just under-armed it into middle stump. Easy.

They only managed 88/4 declared in their 2nd innings, leaving us 127 to win. We started well, the 2 openers making 20 apiece, and it sort of fell apart after that. The 2 other guys that could have won it for us fell for 1. I batted for about 7 overs, and made 9*, taking the season average to a healthy 12 :cool: Was one of the worst innings I've ever played though, should have been stumped about 4 times, and probably out LBW once as well, but got away with it. Certainly will be looking to play better than that over the season. Already matched my high score with the bat for last season though, not too shabby :p. Only 3 runs off my season tally from last year already haha.

So, we drew, and I had a decent enough match. Got a few runs, picked up a wicket and a run out, and bowled pretty dang well. Was getting some swing, was getting the yorkers in with regularity and bowled at decent pace. Good start to the season, happy.
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Update- Final Winter Net Session

Well guys, first update for a while, and just thought I'd let you know how I did in my final Winter Net Session. Well, it has to be my best ever winter net session. I just seem to be getting better and better, more and more confident as the weeks go on. I started off bowling, and immediately found my swing, and was really getting the ball to talk. Swinging it both ways with ease, and really getting the inswinger to go late and swing quite far. My pace was also decent, and so much so that I wrapped the first guy that batted plum on the toe twice, he could barely walk when he came out of the net :D

The bowling went on for about 45-50 minutes, and I was maintaining a pretty consistent line and length, obviously had a few off balls, but was overall quite consistent. I got the bouncer going as well, bowling 2 very good ones. I seem to have fantastic control of line on my bouncer, and manage to get it right up at the batsman's head, and had the best batsman in our club really jumping around and fending off the short balls. Also did him with an away swinging yorker as well, just missed off-stump.

Then after about 50 minutes I volunteered to pad up, not really expecting much, as my batting hadn't really come on much over the sessions, but tonight everything seemed to click into place. I was watching the ball right onto the bat, getting into fantastic positions and picking the line and length incredibly early. It's the best I've ever batted. There was no slogging (until the last couple of balls), and I was just trying to play as straight as possible.

I got the leg glance working again, with my head and my hands working in perfect synchrisity. I also managed to bring out the Reverse Sweep which I've been practisicing by throwing the ball against the wall, and standing about 10 yards away, and just playing the ball on merit, seems to have helped. All 3 reverse sweep attempts came off the middle of the bat, I also advanced down the wicket once and smashed the ball down the ground off the middle, and then also smacked one over the mid-wicket area from middle stump as well.

It really was great fun knowning that I was getting it right after such a long time of batting mediocrity. Everything seemed to come off the middle, and I just felt so confident when batting, it was brilliant.

Overall, a very good session, that's given me alot of confidence going into my Coaching session with Ian Pont on Thursday. Really looking forward to that, any improvements to my bowling will be a real help. It does seem to be coming out nicely at the minute though, a few action issues, but I'm hoping Ian will be able to help with that. Loving my cricket at the minute, roll on the start of the season!!
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Good Start KP.

regarding the coaching session with Ian Pont..Can u share any documents with me..i have couple good fast bowlers with me who can helped with the coaching documents.

Virender
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Update- Session with Ian Pont

Just got back from a 5 hour session with fast bowling coach Ian Pont, and it's one of the most enjoyable days I've had for a long time. We started the session by bowling in the net with the speed gun set up, quickest delivery out of all of us was timed at 71mph, my quickest was about 64-65mph, so basically Danish Kaneria's quicker ball :p

After that it was down to drills, walking through our actions, working out our foot placements and then doing that with eyes closed. We then learnt about the 4 Tent Pegs of fast bowling, which are back foot impact, front foot impact, release of the ball and completion of action. These were again walkthrough drills, at times used with weights in each hand to get the follow through perfected.

We also looked at the 3 knee lift, and also the dragging of the right foot (for a right armer) to help generate extra pace. At the end of the session we worked on variations, which included the various slower balls (a hell of alot of them), cutters, yorkers and a quicker ball. 1 other thing we looked at was arm pull, which is something that Atul Sharma and Lasith Malinga use, to generate extra pace. You can really feel it pulling your arm through, really effective.

I'm not now bowling at 85mph, but the session taught me all about my bowling action, what I need to do to improve it, where I'm going wrong and even taught me that I'm front on :p. Overall, was a really helpful experience, and the things I learnt today will definitely help me improve and start bowling faster. Just so long as I don't start bowling like Steve Harmison (who got alot of hilarious abuse from Ian :p). If you ever get the chance to work with Ian, jump at it, he's a superb coach, makes things incredibly easy to understand, and I hope to work with him again. Awesome stuff.
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

I'm afraid I've got no documents to share with you Virender, but give Ian's book a look. Really good read, full of superb tips!
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Update- First Game/s of The Season

Well, the season has officially started for me, and it started with an Interclub T20 Test Match. We planned on just having 2 T20 matches, but decided mid-way through to play a T20 Test. My team bowled first, and I got the new ball early on, and bowled a decent first over, going for just one. Getting some decent pace, but because we were playing on the artificial wicket I got nothing off the track. The 2nd over wasn't as successful, as by this point the 2 batsmen had their eye in and were just slogging like mad. I didn't do too badly though, going for 2 boundaries, both of which were due to fielding errors.

I also bowled a no ball in that over, which led to a free hit, and the free hit delivery couldn't have been bowled better, a perfect inswinging yorker into the toes leading to a dot ball. I then had a break for the next few overs, until being brought on for the last over of the innings, which went really well, going for just 5. I was getting my yorkers in well and mixed in a few slower balls as well, which in a proper pitch would have held up more in the surface. They ended up with 133 in their 20 overs.

Then we had a bat, and managed a measily 91 all out. Thanks mainly to 49 from one of the openers, and 21 from his brother. I came in at 6 and batted ok, got 3, but was caught at mid on trying to go over the top. I played the reverse sweep and picked up a single in that innings as well :p Wasn't a bad start.

We then went almost straight into their next innings. I didn't get the ball first up in that one, as a few of the other lads got a go, but I still bowled my 4 overs towards the end, taking 1/16 off 4, bowling to last seasons 1st XI captain for the most part. My wicket was just full and straight and the lad played all-round it. I also had 2 chances dropped in my 4 overs, and also put one down myself, but it was an almost impossible C+B chance. I got a run out during my 4 overs as well, the batsman just knocked it down and went for the single, I ran onto the ball and nonchalantly just under-armed it into middle stump. Easy.

They only managed 88/4 declared in their 2nd innings, leaving us 127 to win. We started well, the 2 openers making 20 apiece, and it sort of fell apart after that. The 2 other guys that could have won it for us fell for 1. I batted for about 7 overs, and made 9*, taking the season average to a healthy 12 :cool: Was one of the worst innings I've ever played though, should have been stumped about 4 times, and probably out LBW once as well, but got away with it. Certainly will be looking to play better than that over the season. Already matched my high score with the bat for last season though, not too shabby :p. Only 3 runs off my season tally from last year already haha.

So, we drew, and I had a decent enough match. Got a few runs, picked up a wicket and a run out, and bowled pretty dang well. Was getting some swing, was getting the yorkers in with regularity and bowled at decent pace. Good start to the season, happy.
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Good Start KP.

regarding the coaching session with Ian Pont..Can u share any documents with me..i have couple good fast bowlers with me who can helped with the coaching documents.

Virender
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Update: First Summer Net Session

Had my first Summer net session last night and I'd been looking forward to it for quite a while. Really looking forward to the start of the season. Still got a few weeks till my first game, but hopefully I'll be bowling decently enough come that first game to pick up a few wickets. Hoping for a good season this season. Onto the session.....

Started of with abit of bowling. I decided I'd try out a longer run up, as my old run up was only 12 paces and pretty poor meaning I had very little momentum going into the crease sort of stopping me generating any decent pace. So I lengthened it to 18 paces and saw immediate benefits. I could feel the pace increase, and the accuracy remained. I made sure my weight was forward in my run meaning that I was balanced and it really helped generate momentum coming into the crease.

As for the result end, the ball came out very nicely. Couldn't get the inswinger working much, but was really getting some quite extravagent away movement at times, in the air and off the seam, which was pleasing. I also tried to mix in a couple of slower balls, both of them clearly worked, as the batsman hit the ball in the air. I managed to pick up a couple of wickets and thought I bowled pretty nicely.

I also managed to get a decent go with the bat. I did the usual and played myself in, playing nice and straight, before bringing the shots out. Once I'd got my eye in I started to open up abit. Played a few lovely straight drives, a couple of sweet cover drives, 4 or 5 reverse sweeps and I even started advancing down the track to the quicks and hitting them down the ground. Timing wasn't as good as it has been, the ball wasn't hitting the middle as often as I'd have liked, but it wasn't too bad at all.

Overall, a pretty successful start to the summer nets. Just need to work on my fitness abit more and then keep working on my action and I'll see my pace improve. I reckon since my session with Ian Pont I've improved alot. My pace is definitely up a couple of mph and the accuracy is far better, I'm hitting the right areas almost every delivery now which is very pleasing. Just looking forward to getting stuck into some batsmen at the start of the season now!
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

I'm afraid I've got no documents to share with you Virender, but give Ian's book a look. Really good read, full of superb tips!
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

First match of the season, quick summary of my performance:

Bowling: 2/40 off 10 overs. Got a wicket with a bouncer, the lad tried to ride the bounce but I was too quick for him :)P) and he edged behind. Handy start.

Fielding: Solid in the field, no mistakes, accurate arm.

Batting: 24 off about 18/19 balls, including 5 fours. Shots included 2 pulls from full tosses, a cover drive for four and 2 flicks off my pads for four. Felt in great touch, was hitting the ball beautifully, but then didn't roll my wrists enough and smacked a ball in the air to square leg. Was gutted, had a chance to make an unbeaten 50 and lead the time to victory batting at 8. I'm developing a very wristy technique now as well, I was really rolling my wrists alot, and playing some lovely flicks. I think it's because I've been watching alot of Ravi Bopara. I'm also solid straight down the ground, especially through mid on like him, so my batting's finally coming good which is nice.

In the end we lost by 19 :( Good performance from me though, MOTM from my team tbh.
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

Update: First Summer Net Session

Had my first Summer net session last night and I'd been looking forward to it for quite a while. Really looking forward to the start of the season. Still got a few weeks till my first game, but hopefully I'll be bowling decently enough come that first game to pick up a few wickets. Hoping for a good season this season. Onto the session.....

Started of with abit of bowling. I decided I'd try out a longer run up, as my old run up was only 12 paces and pretty poor meaning I had very little momentum going into the crease sort of stopping me generating any decent pace. So I lengthened it to 18 paces and saw immediate benefits. I could feel the pace increase, and the accuracy remained. I made sure my weight was forward in my run meaning that I was balanced and it really helped generate momentum coming into the crease.

As for the result end, the ball came out very nicely. Couldn't get the inswinger working much, but was really getting some quite extravagent away movement at times, in the air and off the seam, which was pleasing. I also tried to mix in a couple of slower balls, both of them clearly worked, as the batsman hit the ball in the air. I managed to pick up a couple of wickets and thought I bowled pretty nicely.

I also managed to get a decent go with the bat. I did the usual and played myself in, playing nice and straight, before bringing the shots out. Once I'd got my eye in I started to open up abit. Played a few lovely straight drives, a couple of sweet cover drives, 4 or 5 reverse sweeps and I even started advancing down the track to the quicks and hitting them down the ground. Timing wasn't as good as it has been, the ball wasn't hitting the middle as often as I'd have liked, but it wasn't too bad at all.

Overall, a pretty successful start to the summer nets. Just need to work on my fitness abit more and then keep working on my action and I'll see my pace improve. I reckon since my session with Ian Pont I've improved alot. My pace is definitely up a couple of mph and the accuracy is far better, I'm hitting the right areas almost every delivery now which is very pleasing. Just looking forward to getting stuck into some batsmen at the start of the season now!
 
Re: King Pietersen's Blog- **Updated 02-05-08**

First match of the season, quick summary of my performance:

Bowling: 2/40 off 10 overs. Got a wicket with a bouncer, the lad tried to ride the bounce but I was too quick for him :)P) and he edged behind. Handy start.

Fielding: Solid in the field, no mistakes, accurate arm.

Batting: 24 off about 18/19 balls, including 5 fours. Shots included 2 pulls from full tosses, a cover drive for four and 2 flicks off my pads for four. Felt in great touch, was hitting the ball beautifully, but then didn't roll my wrists enough and smacked a ball in the air to square leg. Was gutted, had a chance to make an unbeaten 50 and lead the time to victory batting at 8. I'm developing a very wristy technique now as well, I was really rolling my wrists alot, and playing some lovely flicks. I think it's because I've been watching alot of Ravi Bopara. I'm also solid straight down the ground, especially through mid on like him, so my batting's finally coming good which is nice.

In the end we lost by 19 :( Good performance from me though, MOTM from my team tbh.
 
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