Pitches

[big kev]

Hi guys

Which pitches do you bowl best on? I find that I bowl a lot better on old worn synthetic pitches and bouncy dry turf pitches. Any idea why? When I bowl on new synthetic pitches and green turf pitches I lose accuracy and turn. It definitely feels like it's more of a mental thing, because I basically practised all my life on worn synthetic pitches, which are light green and flat.

How about you? Any pitches you like particularly? Do you know how I could fix this problem?

 

[SLA]

I never bowl on synthetic pitches, but if they're anything like nets then I would hate them as they don't turn.

Of the other pitches, I tend to mentally divide them into fast and bouncy (bowl slower on offstump with plenty of flight and topspin), green and damp (skid the ball in at the stumps and watch them play for the spin), and slow and dusty (keep it simple, maybe bowl a little quicker). Each one requires slightly different tactics.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

I never bowl on synthetic pitches, but if they're anything like nets then I would hate them as they don't turn.

Of the other pitches, I tend to mentally divide them into fast and bouncy (bowl slower on offstump with plenty of flight and topspin), green and damp (skid the ball in at the stumps and watch them play for the spin), and slow and dusty (keep it simple, maybe bowl a little quicker). Each one requires slightly different tactics.

Our clubs 2nd pitch 3rd and 4th XI is a blinder (literally) as it's nestled in on the side of a hill and the pitch runs East to West. In the UK here the sun comes up in the east and sets in the west. It's been there for decades and you'd think that the oppo would make a note of the fact that if they field first they're then going to have bat facing a setting sun with the ball coming out of the sun! They never do though and given the choice we always bat first knowing we'll have this advantage when we bowl and the spinners just toss the ball up and bingo easy!

 

[TonyM]

In the UK here the sun comes up in the east and sets in the west.

(OK, made me smile anyway). Old Trafford recently moved their pitch through 90 degrees as towards the end of the season when the sun was lower the setting sun stopped play - good job you guys dont have first class umpires who go along with such nonsense

Our groundsman has done loads of work during the autumn to try and get some pace and bounce back into our club's pitches which were really slow and low this season which didnt help anyone (even the batters disliked it as the ball didnt really come on to the bat). That said he did provide me with a better track for my district leggies, but the turn was still slow so relatively easy to play

 

[macca]

Hi guys

Which pitches do you bowl best on? I find that I bowl a lot better on old worn synthetic pitches and bouncy dry turf pitches. Any idea why? When I bowl on new synthetic pitches and green turf pitches I lose accuracy and turn. It definitely feels like it's more of a mental thing, because I basically practised all my life on worn synthetic pitches, which are light green and flat.

How about you? Any pitches you like particularly? Do you know how I could fix this problem?

Yeah the ball doesn't like to grip the synthetic when its brand new. skids on a bit. If they get wet they are very hard to spin on but you get loads more lbws. The ball can come into the batsman with the arm like a little off cutter. But usually in that situation a lot of captains keep the quicks while it has juice.

The accuracy thing is a bit wierd. like you say a mental thing.

I suppose its the ability to have the stock legbreak on the rhb stump or outside lhb offstump on a good length so ingrained that you fall back on it in all sorts of situations. That takes a practise.

Also finding a new one around your area and using it to practise on, do it when its wet also. If you cant get it to spin remember its one of the rare situations where its not you but the surface that is the cause of no spin.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

(OK, made me smile anyway). Old Trafford recently moved their pitch through 90 degrees as towards the end of the season when the sun was lower the setting sun stopped play - good job you guys dont have first class umpires who go along with such nonsense

Our groundsman has done loads of work during the autumn to try and get some pace and bounce back into our club's pitches which were really slow and low this season which didnt help anyone (even the batters disliked it as the ball didnt really come on to the bat). That said he did provide me with a better track for my district leggies, but the turn was still slow so relatively easy to play

Tony I've never been able to get my head round those facts about direction of the earth spinning etc, so I'm assuming everyone else knows that it's the same everywhere? I'm not even going to try and get my head round it even now! But I said it because if you were to ask your average person here in the UK where the sun comes up and goes down they wouldn't know.

That aside, the last game we played where our blokes were shouting toss up into the sun, their blokes got the hump and were saying that we could be reported to the district and we'd be fined thousands or something or other, to which our blokes just said it hasn't happened yet and we've been here 15 years or whatever and besides you play here every year and you could have chosen to bat first.

 

[Spiderlounge]

I can confirm (because I've specifically looked) that there is NOTHING in the laws that bars a spinner from tossing the ball up with a setting sun behind them, simply that umpires can suspend play if they judge the light conditions to be "dangerous or unreasonable", but that "unreasonable" is not the same as merely "less than ideal". Frankly the idea that spinners shouldn't bowl out of a setting sun is a bit like saying swing bowlers should be forced to bowl straight when it's cloudy. We're both taking advantage of ambient conditions, and it's the umpire's job to judge when conditions are unreasonable, not ours.

In our league there are two pitches aligned east-west, and interestingly I got a different reaction at each - at one I bowled with the setting sun in front of me as it was cloudy when I started my spell and the wind and surface suggested the other end, and after the game ended the batsman said I'd missed a trick by not bowling with the sun behind me, whereas on the other one I bowled with the sun behind me and in the second over took 2 wickets in 3 balls (and could have had 3 in 4), to large mutterings from the boundary that it was "simply not on". Frankly, I can't understand why any club would set their wicket east-west, perhaps it's because their seamers and batsmen are too naive to know how much we spinners love it, and we're too greedy to turn it down...

 

[someblokecalleddave]

I can confirm (because I've specifically looked) that there is NOTHING in the laws that bars a spinner from tossing the ball up with a setting sun behind them, simply that umpires can suspend play if they judge the light conditions to be "dangerous or unreasonable", but that "unreasonable" is not the same as merely "less than ideal". Frankly the idea that spinners shouldn't bowl out of a setting sun is a bit like saying swing bowlers should be forced to bowl straight when it's cloudy. We're both taking advantage of ambient conditions, and it's the umpire's job to judge when conditions are unreasonable, not ours.

In our league there are two pitches aligned east-west, and interestingly I got a different reaction at each - at one I bowled with the setting sun in front of me as it was cloudy when I started my spell and the wind and surface suggested the other end, and after the game ended the batsman said I'd missed a trick by not bowling with the sun behind me, whereas on the other one I bowled with the sun behind me and in the second over took 2 wickets in 3 balls (and could have had 3 in 4), to large mutterings from the boundary that it was "simply not on". Frankly, I can't understand why any club would set their wicket east-west, perhaps it's because their seamers and batsmen are too naive to know how much we spinners love it, and we're too greedy to turn it down...

Is there anything in the laws about commissioning a pitch or cutting a pitch east to west when the other option is available? This pitch is set on the side of a hill so it couldn't run north to south as it it'd be on a slope.

 

[Spiderlounge]

Is there anything in the laws about commissioning a pitch or cutting a pitch east to west when the other option is available? This pitch is set on the side of a hill so it couldn't run north to south as it it'd be on a slope.

Not a dickie bird. You could prepare it on the slope if you wanted as far as the laws are concerned.

 

[tcs]

I envy you all if the field you play looks like the one Dave posted.
Here in San Francisco Bay area, there is not a single turf wicket !. There are 4 in Los Angeles area.
Typical field - mainly multi-use (soccer, baseball, frisbee whatever). They either belong to city or schools.
We pay aroung $150 for single day use, they allow us to put in a pitch in the middle. 4 inch grass in the outfield, sometimes
more with plenty of encouragement to hit in the air )
Typical wicket - concrete/clay with astroturf nailed on top of it. Does not turn much, but there is bounce. Pacers hate it that
they need to transition from grass to hard cement close to their delivery stride. Some teams have had the foresight of
extending the pitch to include a good 4 yards for runup.
A total of 20+ grounds in our area. About 35 clubs organized into A,B,C Dvisions playing 45-50 over cricket. Social league 25/30 overs. An ofcourse 20/20.
Of late, two indoor facilities have opened up, allowing rainy season cricket and more importantly working on technique. They dont make money, mostly they are doing it for cricket. We can play year around here, weather is great except for Jan-April some weekend games get rained out.
Love to come and in play in one of your fields.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

I envy you all if the field you play looks like the one Dave posted.
Here in San Francisco Bay area, there is not a single turf wicket !. There are 4 in Los Angeles area.
Typical field - mainly multi-use (soccer, baseball, frisbee whatever). They either belong to city or schools.
We pay aroung $150 for single day use, they allow us to put in a pitch in the middle. 4 inch grass in the outfield, sometimes
more with plenty of encouragement to hit in the air )
Typical wicket - concrete/clay with astroturf nailed on top of it. Does not turn much, but there is bounce. Pacers hate it that
they need to transition from grass to hard cement close to their delivery stride. Some teams have had the foresight of
extending the pitch to include a good 4 yards for runup.
A total of 20+ grounds in our area. About 35 clubs organized into A,B,C Dvisions playing 45-50 over cricket. Social league 25/30 overs. An ofcourse 20/20.
Of late, two indoor facilities have opened up, allowing rainy season cricket and more importantly working on technique. They dont make money, mostly they are doing it for cricket. We can play year around here, weather is great except for Jan-April some weekend games get rained out.
Love to come and in play in one of your fields.

They're not all like that - this is the last club I played fors pitch - http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/2009/08/shocking-6-0-61-2.html