someblokecalleddave's Blog

Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Kids can be the worst, but what ive found is the better you re at a younger age, the quicker you taper off, i was never the best player until about under 16s, but before that i worked harder then most and it payed off
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Virendersingh.berthwal;379535 said:
Hi dave,

Any development on the paddock and how is your cricketing season..


Virender

The paddock has recently suffered some damage and we've had virtually 50 days of rain here - it's been the wettest recorded November ever. As consequence I've not been able to get over there for one reason or another - mostly because I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark and it's been pouring with rain at the weekends.

Wrist Spin Bowling: Paddock news and more - 15567

The weather's changed in the last few days and it looks like there's going to be sun at the weekend and I'll be able to have a look at the situation and maybe do some kind of repairs.

Because of the rain, I've not had a bowl for 24 or more days which is unheard of, in between paddock repairs and getting Christmas sorted I'll hopefully get out somewhere with the kids and have a bowl. I'm looking forward to trying these new sliders I think I'm going to be able to bowl this season.

Pre-season nets has been announced for late January and similarly my kids have their pre-season nets starting around the same time. So lots to look forward to.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

5byes;379607 said:
Kids can be the worst, but what ive found is the better you re at a younger age, the quicker you taper off, i was never the best player until about under 16s, but before that i worked harder then most and it payed off

There may be some truth in that, there's a few blokes in my own team that go on about being exceptional when they were kids and being trialled for the county and suff like that. They're still okay now but fall short of being exceptional as they were when they were a lot younger. It may have something to do with being given the impression at that age that you're on the rungs of a ladder that's leading to playing for your country based on being so self aware that you're so much better than the kids around you? Then as you say as the other kids that maybe take a longer view and potentially a healthier attitude find their stride they then close the gap and the 'Special ones' become disillusioned?

Breeno - how's your season going?
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

I got promoted to my club's ones last match, abd took 2/18 and 1/10 off 5 overs each time. Now I've been dropped to the threes within 5 days which is startling.

As for the kid's who taper off, you'll probably find they were the bigger, more developed kids. When the others catch up to them, they can no longer get away with just being big, the flaws in their techniques are exposed.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

breeno;379936 said:
I got promoted to my club's ones last match, abd took 2/18 and 1/10 off 5 overs each time. Now I've been dropped to the threes within 5 days which is startling.

As for the kid's who taper off, you'll probably find they were the bigger, more developed kids. When the others catch up to them, they can no longer get away with just being big, the flaws in their techniques are exposed.

Sounds harsh? Do you normally play for the 2nd's?
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

someblokecalleddave;379940 said:
Sounds harsh? Do you normally play for the 2nd's?

Yeah, I've played the majority of my games in the 2nds. Not sure what's going on to be honest.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

That's pretty crap, I really don't get what they were thinking, breeno. We've had a few weird selections this week, as well. We're playing 2 keepers in the 2nds, one of which bats at 9 :S

Dave, those kids sound really shitty. I love it how they're fielding at the "easy" positions in mid on and mid off and yelling abuse to people who are in the harder positions. Lucky my juniors team doesn't have any guys like that, although there's one guy who's not that good, but still persists on yelling advice to everyone. It's usually good natured but it's so frustrating because he's not a good fielder himself...

Does Joe mind it when he gets hit around a bit? If he sticks with it, once he gets up to the higher grades he will be played properly and won't get smashed. We have a gun leggy in our team, he gets smashed in u16s, but he gets treated with respect and takes wickets in seniors.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Jonesy;380035 said:
That's pretty crap, I really don't get what they were thinking, breeno. We've had a few weird selections this week, as well. We're playing 2 keepers in the 2nds, one of which bats at 9 :S

Dave, those kids sound really shitty. I love it how they're fielding at the "easy" positions in mid on and mid off and yelling abuse to people who are in the harder positions. Lucky my juniors team doesn't have any guys like that, although there's one guy who's not that good, but still persists on yelling advice to everyone. It's usually good natured but it's so frustrating because he's not a good fielder himself...

Does Joe mind it when he gets hit around a bit? If he sticks with it, once he gets up to the higher grades he will be played properly and won't get smashed. We have a gun leggy in our team, he gets smashed in u16s, but he gets treated with respect and takes wickets in seniors.


Yeah he does mind it and he's kind of gone off the boil with his leg breaks now he's in a team and facing far better batsmen. He's kind of took it upon himself to mix his bowling up and he bowls medium pace in amongst his Leggies. When he's focussed and he practices he's unusually accurate and I think he grasps the fact that bowling different speeds causes problems, so he mixes up leggies - slow and loopy with differing speed seam up balls and then faster leggies. Over the summer his arm dropped lower - again his decision mimmicking Lasith Malinga and trying to bowl faster still. What with being 8 he wont listen to me and his club are not that fussed on spinners and therefore are not bothered that he's changed his action. In recent weeks before the rains we'd been practicing on old tennis courts (Tarmac) and he's getting his arm back up and bowling a lot better. So hopefully he'll settle with his spin again this summer. But - yeah he doesn't like getting hit but at the same time he doesn't heed advice too readily from me. I'll just have to see how he gets on and keep encouraging him without moaning at him and let him find his way, the desire to bowl spin has got to be an intrinsic motivation.

With regards his team, there'll be some movement as some of the kids will move up into the next age bracket, that'll then allow some of the younger and not so adept kids to possibly gain some confidence and play in a way where they wont be looking over their shoulder all the time fearful of letting the 'Pro' kids down.
 
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From my main blog at Wrist Spin Bowling There's some pic's of an igloo we built in the snow we're having at the moment in the UK

Bloody Left - handed batsmen!
Woo hoo! Cricket started again tonight with this seasons first net session and it went well apart from aspect - Left Handed batsmen (Matt Hills). But I suppose in my defence I could point out that he is the best batsman on our team, so he's always going to be a bit of a handful. So what went wrong?

1. I was bowling all sorts of variations around my leg break and the ball I should have possibly been bowling I only used once and it was miles away from the bat/stumps.

2. When I was bowling the Leg Break I was on auto-pilot and so the ball was going down his legside as his Leg Stump what with being a Leftie is the Off-stump that I'd normally bowling around. Every ball that was in that area he was hitting generally really well. There may have been one or two that may have gone a bit haywire, but whether he'd go down on his knee and play that sweep shot as frequently as he did is doubtful in a match situation? Now, I'm not sure what the situation would be if I bowled that line - how would he play that ball and would there be any mileage in setting a field more heavily on his on-side? What then would that force him to try and do - or would he just continue blasting the ball down the legside with little risk?

3. It seems there's a couple of strategies my favoured one would be to bowl Wrong Uns at his off-stump looking for the edge of his bat - but this then relies on getting the length and line right and my wrong un is no-longer that accurate, so I'm going to have to work on it. Philpott recommends bowling well up fairly wide of his off-stump bowling Leg Breaks. So perhaps that's what I should aim to practice with Lefties?

Conclusion

Next week work on pitching the ball well up under a Lefties nose (Preferably Matt) bowling Leg Breaks outside of his Off-Stump and just see how he plays it - the kind of strokes he plays and whether this causes any problems. In addition maybe work in a net with just some stumps and try and get the wrong un going into the same area. Also tuck the leading elbow in and vary the speed of the delivery as my faster balls did get through 2 or 3 times, so there's some promise there.

Maybe this could be my key objective for the next 3 months alongside screaming for LBW's which I still don't do! This sounds like a good plan.

Other than that I did okay against most of the right handers except Neil. Neil was playing this deft little shot where he was waiting late for the ball - seeing it turn and then just allowing it to leave the bat down the off-side towards 3rd man. Whether it would work in a game or not again I don't know as I'd imagine the slips fielder would come in closer and stop that stroke being used.

The best bowling came at the end against Imran Mohammed who's one of our better bastmen and I had him dancing down the wicket coming after me and got him 2 or 3 times. I also was troubling him with my wrong un a bit. At the end though he conceded that he was a big hitter and found it difficult against slow bowling generally.

All in all a good session with some targets for next week.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

someblokecalleddave;384026 said:
Maybe this could be my key objective for the next 3 months alongside screaming for LBW's which I still don't do!

All last season I never really went up for much - it was my first season of senior cricket so I guess I didn't really feel sure about shouting for much if I didn't get support from my teammates. This season I decided to go up much more and it's worked for me. Every time our spinner goes up he shouts as if everything's dead plumb. If anything it puts more pressure on the batsmen if you lead him to believe it was closer than he thought.

It's always good to go into the next net session with a plan to work on a few things, and even more beneficial to have a mid-term goal to work on throughout. Probably something I need to work on, but then I've never been a really tactical bowler.

How far away's the first game?
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Jonesy;384700 said:
All last season I never really went up for much - it was my first season of senior cricket so I guess I didn't really feel sure about shouting for much if I didn't get support from my teammates. This season I decided to go up much more and it's worked for me. Every time our spinner goes up he shouts as if everything's dead plumb. If anything it puts more pressure on the batsmen if you lead him to believe it was closer than he thought.

It's always good to go into the next net session with a plan to work on a few things, and even more beneficial to have a mid-term goal to work on throughout. Probably something I need to work on, but then I've never been a really tactical bowler.

How far away's the first game?


Ages yet mate - Mid April if I get selected to play. Last year was crap for some reason I didn't get a game till mid May and then when they played me I played 4 consecutive games with 4 fers with ridiculously high strike rates. Early in the year when it's damp I get the ball to turn a mile so Hopefully I'll play in the first games of the season.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Todays nets from - Wrist Spin Bowling: Leftie Watch

Nets tonight and it went well. I had all the variations in use - Leg Break, Top-Spinning Flipper, Back-Spinning Flipper and the Wrong un and all of them came out pretty good. A few full tosses here and there and a few that were a bit wide of off-stump, but I think I only bowled a couple of balls down the Legside to either right-handers or Lefties.

My main focus was the Lefties and I eventually got to bowl at a few in the first team nets including my nemisis Matt Hills who I can't get anywhere near bowling out, but again I have to remind you he is the best batsman in our club. The good news is I reckon there was an improvement in my bowling. All the balls with the exception of 1 were down the off-side. Again with the variations in pace - once or twice with Flippers I managed to get the ball past him. The ball that caused the biggest problems was the Wrong Un (As it did with all of the others as well), so that looks like it's definitely got potential but needs to be used with more accuracy and possibly with a little more speed than the normal leg breaks. The other thing I noticed was that pitching the ball right up slighty faster right in on the Off-stump, was causing him problems and he was unable to play his preferred shots at all and was seemingly only able to punch the ball back down the wicket? I asked whether there was an improvement over last week and he conceded that there was and said that the bowling was far more negative than last week pointing out that the bowling into his feet/off-stump line was the negative approach. Well he might think that it was negative but struth at least I wasn't hit for a combination of 25 fours and sixes like last week!!!

To me it seems that if I was confronted by a Leftie at one end and a right hander at the other end, at least now I have a potential tactic in that I can possibly restrict the flow of runs when bowling to the leftie as a containment tactic and then attack the Right Hander. Interestingly I heard his Dad say at the start (He's one of our coaches) that in 40 overs cricket it's important that runs are made off of every ball. If that's the case then to me it seems that if I was to adopt this approach with a leftie and tie them down restricting their runs - there's a chance that my bowling may then force him to try and play in a more risky manner?

In the longer term though it now strikes me that I need to get more accurate with the Wrong Un so that I can bowl that in there on the same line and possibly find the edge? The Flipper too may also be useful on that line of attack?

The other Lefties that were in that net (1st teamers) they were easier to deal with and they were both undone with the Wrong Un despite it's inaccuracy, so it's looking promising.

Points for development


Pitch the ball up right under their noses on the off-stump line with a faster leg break. Work on that line and see how that develops and see what the longer term effect is - does it restrict all of the Left Handed players?
Work on the back-spinning Flipper as this will have the potential to swing away from the Leftie.
Work on the Wrong Un's accuracy and speed and get it in on that same line and see what it does.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

I've been reading your blog for a little while, but haven't commented.

The point on restricting left handers is an interesting one. I don't like a negative line at all, unless it is used as in a wicket taking objective. As a spinner, there is generally only one front line in a team. That means there are no other spinners to keep an end quite, you must attack.

What I would suggest is to bowl this line and really tie them down, particularly in ODs. Then toss up a 'pie' an over and see if a run starved batsman takes the bait. Put it in his favourite area after an over of continuous 'negative' line and let him go for the big hit. If he works a single, then most likey you have a right hander to attack.

A question I put to you know, though, is what happens if the right hander is reading your bowling and you really want the other batsman on strike? That other batsman is a left hander. Work out some field placings as customised to suit you and some tactics before a game, to left handers. I'm sure you do this all anyway, just reiterating well know points.

What would your field be for that fast leg-break on off stump?

Also a technique I have seen used that is very effective to left handers. I have just changed clubs, and have been lucky enough to secure myself a spot in a team just after a spinner has left (albeit I hate the club). I'm an offie and have a pretty straight line to higher grades should I prove good enough to get there. The spinner before me and I were chatting as he came down to the nets to say his farewells as he was moving. We talked about a whole range of things, including his tactics.

One he used for left handers went as such:

Wrong 'uns a plenty! Every single ball was a wrong 'un that he could turn about similar to a standar off break. That way he was spinning the ball away from the batsman. He practiced this ball a lot and had become quite sufficient at landing it ball after ball. Some not so skilled batsmen actually thought he was a off spin bowler. Then came the big turning leg break he had, which is like a wrong 'un to them, but absolutely lethal due to the amount of spin. A whole over of balls turning just away from you, then all of a sudden a wide one comes back in at your middle peg and bowls you.

Have actually started to use that technique with my offies and my slowly developing doosra.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Boris;385242 said:
I've been reading your blog for a little while, but haven't commented.

The point on restricting left handers is an interesting one. I don't like a negative line at all, unless it is used as in a wicket taking objective. As a spinner, there is generally only one front line in a team. That means there are no other spinners to keep an end quite, you must attack.

What I would suggest is to bowl this line and really tie them down, particularly in ODs. Then toss up a 'pie' an over and see if a run starved batsman takes the bait. Put it in his favourite area after an over of continuous 'negative' line and let him go for the big hit. If he works a single, then most likey you have a right hander to attack.

A question I put to you know, though, is what happens if the right hander is reading your bowling and you really want the other batsman on strike? That other batsman is a left hander. Work out some field placings as customised to suit you and some tactics before a game, to left handers. I'm sure you do this all anyway, just reiterating well know points.

What would your field be for that fast leg-break on off stump?

Also a technique I have seen used that is very effective to left handers. I have just changed clubs, and have been lucky enough to secure myself a spot in a team just after a spinner has left (albeit I hate the club). I'm an offie and have a pretty straight line to higher grades should I prove good enough to get there. The spinner before me and I were chatting as he came down to the nets to say his farewells as he was moving. We talked about a whole range of things, including his tactics.

One he used for left handers went as such:

Wrong 'uns a plenty! Every single ball was a wrong 'un that he could turn about similar to a standar off break. That way he was spinning the ball away from the batsman. He practiced this ball a lot and had become quite sufficient at landing it ball after ball. Some not so skilled batsmen actually thought he was a off spin bowler. Then came the big turning leg break he had, which is like a wrong 'un to them, but absolutely lethal due to the amount of spin. A whole over of balls turning just away from you, then all of a sudden a wide one comes back in at your middle peg and bowls you.

Have actually started to use that technique with my offies and my slowly developing doosra.

Your tactic here at the end is one I could easily adopt with a little practice as I've gone through the 'Googly Syndrome' and come out of the other-side having re-learned the Leg Break. But to be honest having bowled Wrong Un's for more than a year and it being my stock ball during that year it is still lurking there in the background always threatening to undo my Leg Break again. This year it is a part of my bowling strategy and I will be bowling it a lot more and it's a far better ball than my leg break with regards turn off the wicket. So potentially I could easily do as you've suggested and then throw in a leg break every 6-8 balls or more frequently. I've found in the nets if I do the opposite (the negative line using the Leg Break really full) the odd wrong un has them all at sea as does the use of the flatter faster Flipper. As you've suggested it I may try this on Monday in the nets to the Lefties and see how it works out?

The other suggestin made by Macca was to do a similar thing - bowl the negative line and then offer up a full toss every now and then to force a catch, although he cautioned that this might only be useful to tail-enders.

With regards field placings I've not really had the experience to do that myself, but I noticed that this year I had a bunch of different captains and the best results always came off one particular captain who's a Chinaman (Our best bowler) and probably knows my bowling better than anyone including me. With last years results for my bowling being -

54-12-267-21
Average 12.71
RPO 4.86
Strike Rate 15.69
Best Bowling 4-27

I reckon this year I might have the confidence to go about setting my own field. I'd probably just set a field like this one here - Field placings for spinners | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips look at the one that's 2nd down - it's described as slow left arm orthodox, but it's pretty much the field my captain sets for me and it works well for me as I rarely bowl down the Leg side. The only area of concern and where I leak runs is if I bowl wrong uns to RH bats they're so much faster and turn more than my leg breaks and often the Keepers haven't got a clue as to what I'm bowling and they miss these and they'll run off for 4 byes down at deep fine leg.

As for a field for a Leftie - yeah that's going to be dictated by whether I bowl off-spinning wrong uns as the primary ball in which case it'd be the same field as in the link. If I was to ball the negative line I'm not really sure what I'd do, I suppose it might be a scenario where I'd bring in a silly mid-on (Moving mid wicket in closer) and do a similar thing with short extra cover. I have noticed when I bowl the negative line to the Lefties, they can't pick the wrong un and it often ballons up or comes off the gloves if there's extra bounce to the silly mid on region. Does that make sense or am I talking out of my Jacksy?

Other stuff from my main blog

Bowling practice
Me and the kids went over to the tennis court today and had a knock about and I got to have a bowl albeit using wind balls. The good news is that I'm still sticking with my 4 variation approach and was able to try all these out today and they went okay.

Leg Break; Wrong Un; Flipper and Top-Spinning Flipper. The Leg Break in particular was coming out well with 3 different kind of sub variations on the go which was how I was working with it at the end of the season. My main sub variation which is held high in the fingers and is bowled faster and flatter was going well, very accurate on the middle and off-line or just outside off - this is the ball that got me the most wickets last year. The other two variations were going well too, they're more flighted and with a ball with a seam they have the addition of drift, these tended to bounce more and turn more but are slower, I can't really say how good they will be till I can get on some grass or an artificial wicket, but I'm very optimistic about there potential.

The good thing is that all of them turn using balls with no seams, so it'll be good to see how they all go with a seamed ball once we get the dry weather, warmth and sunshine.

I may have a proper practice tomorrow using hockey balls on my own and that'll give a better indication as to how I'm bowling.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

someblokecalleddave;387535 said:
Your tactic here at the end is one I could easily adopt with a little practice as I've gone through the 'Googly Syndrome' and come out of the other-side having re-learned the Leg Break. But to be honest having bowled Wrong Un's for more than a year and it being my stock ball during that year it is still lurking there in the background always threatening to undo my Leg Break again. This year it is a part of my bowling strategy and I will be bowling it a lot more and it's a far better ball than my leg break with regards turn off the wicket. So potentially I could easily do as you've suggested and then throw in a leg break every 6-8 balls or more frequently. I've found in the nets if I do the opposite (the negative line using the Leg Break really full) the odd wrong un has them all at sea as does the use of the flatter faster Flipper. As you've suggested it I may try this on Monday in the nets to the Lefties and see how it works out?

someblokecalleddave;387535 said:
As for a field for a Leftie - yeah that's going to be dictated by whether I bowl off-spinning wrong uns as the primary ball in which case it'd be the same field as in the link. If I was to ball the negative line I'm not really sure what I'd do, I suppose it might be a scenario where I'd bring in a silly mid-on (Moving mid wicket in closer) and do a similar thing with short extra cover. I have noticed when I bowl the negative line to the Lefties, they can't pick the wrong un and it often ballons up or comes off the gloves if there's extra bounce to the silly mid on region. Does that make sense or am I talking out of my Jacksy?

From personal experience, I think the true teller of whether this will work or not is how many balls are hit on the legside. Try and restrict that side of things fully, don't let a batsman come down the wicket to you to be able to hit it legside, or even over it. I think for this tactic to work you really have to make a batsman believe that you are a wrong 'un bowler, offering up some nice juicy chances wide of off stump and spinning away from them to let the batsman hit you cleanly into the covers or backward of point. For that reason I would put 4 in that diagram for field placings (slow left arm orthodox) on that link you sent slightly backward or point, then take out mid wicket and stuff the covers more, give the batsman a reason to hit to cow corner.

This should help your economy rate and boost that surprise factor of the big one spinning back in. If you bowl a few leg breaks and they don't work, then I would suggest to give up while you are ahead and move onto another plan. I would do this to the not so greatest batsmen, but still top order.

someblokecalleddave;387535 said:
With regards field placings I've not really had the experience to do that myself, but I noticed that this year I had a bunch of different captains and the best results always came off one particular captain who's a Chinaman (Our best bowler) and probably knows my bowling better than anyone including me. With last years results for my bowling being -

54-12-267-21
Average 12.71
RPO 4.86
Strike Rate 15.69
Best Bowling 4-27

I reckon this year I might have the confidence to go about setting my own field. I'd probably just set a field like this one here - Field placings for spinners | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips look at the one that's 2nd down - it's described as slow left arm orthodox, but it's pretty much the field my captain sets for me and it works well for me as I rarely bowl down the Leg side. The only area of concern and where I leak runs is if I bowl wrong uns to RH bats they're so much faster and turn more than my leg breaks and often the Keepers haven't got a clue as to what I'm bowling and they miss these and they'll run off for 4 byes down at deep fine leg.

Good field for an all rounder leg break bowler such as yourself, something I would set, although my field placing experience is limited, I have crammed a lot in in these few years and seen quite a lot of different styles of captaincy. I would encourage you to keep building that confidence in setting field placings, that way you can formulate these sorts of plans. Take a couple of minutes every now and then during play to just stop and think about what you could do. Take in everything a batsman does as well, keep your eyes on them. Just little things you probably already know about, but might as well repeat it.


someblokecalleddave;387535 said:
Other stuff from my main blog

Bowling practice
Me and the kids went over to the tennis court today and had a knock about and I got to have a bowl albeit using wind balls. The good news is that I'm still sticking with my 4 variation approach and was able to try all these out today and they went okay.

Leg Break; Wrong Un; Flipper and Top-Spinning Flipper. The Leg Break in particular was coming out well with 3 different kind of sub variations on the go which was how I was working with it at the end of the season. My main sub variation which is held high in the fingers and is bowled faster and flatter was going well, very accurate on the middle and off-line or just outside off - this is the ball that got me the most wickets last year. The other two variations were going well too, they're more flighted and with a ball with a seam they have the addition of drift, these tended to bounce more and turn more but are slower, I can't really say how good they will be till I can get on some grass or an artificial wicket, but I'm very optimistic about there potential.

The good thing is that all of them turn using balls with no seams, so it'll be good to see how they all go with a seamed ball once we get the dry weather, warmth and sunshine.

I may have a proper practice tomorrow using hockey balls on my own and that'll give a better indication as to how I'm bowling.

Keep it up!
 
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