Real Life Cricket

[its me lads]

Not sure whether I said this before but my batting was reminiscent of Chris Martin from New Zealand...

Hahaha classic.

[Jay]

Had the first innings of the season on the weekend. Batted for a hell of a long time and as a team we managed about 100 runs in the 30-odd overs that I was at the crease. So you'd expect someone that had been batting that long to get pretty close to a 50 right? Nup, 22 for me, which came all from 1s and 2s :P I reckon I was on 1 for about 8-10 overs, just ridiculous ::)

Anyone got some tips on how to turn the strike over a bit more? I'm feeling alright just gotta learn to push the singles. Any tips?

Oh and, facing spin bowling... Recommend advancing and trying to get to the pitch of the ball or just staying back in the crease? In the nets I'm constantly charging but don't have the balls to do it in a game. So getting bogged down by spinners regularly.

Thoughts? Cheers :)

[specky92]

Gotta love cricket season, where were you batting? and when did you come in?

Early in any innings i like to turn the strike over as much as i possibly can, study the field, where are the fielders the deepest?

If you're really struggling, just mention to your partner to back to a bit extra and tell him you're going to drop it in short and run.

Also with spinners it's crucial you use the crease as much a possible, between a front foot shot and a very deep back foot drop you should be able to mess up their mojo a little bit, Also keep practicing using your footwork, it plays with the spinners mind like crazy if you occasionally come down the pitch and thats when the loose balls appear.

[Jay]

Forgot to add before, hit a 3 through mid-on. So it wasn't all 1s and 2s :P

I came in at 6 on the weekend. Was after we'd lost 3 quick wickets for not many at all. So was looking to play defensive to steady the ship a bit since I had an attacking guy at the other end who was really batting well but I could never really get going. Happy that I got to spend a bit of time at the wicket though to start this season, unlike last year ::)

Just gotta get that mindset to hit it in the gaps and run. Plenty of runs available all the time but its just having the confidence instead of "batting to not get out" which I fall into doing quite a lot.

The pitch didn't seem to have much spin in it so I'm not sure how many overs I'll be getting next week with my leggies but should be interesting :)

[Cicjose]

scored 12 runs from 2 partnerships.... only role was to get the hitters on strike.... my partners scored 80

[specky92]

Ahh, batting collapses are always the worst, ::) but it feels good when you stay out there for awhile, cut shots were always my go to single or two getter,  ;)

Decent effort Cic, gotta love watching a clinic from the non strikers end,  ;)

[Cicjose]

yeah so much nicer than trying to smash my way out of a thrashing

[specky92]

Nothing worse than coming in during the last over of a 20/20 at the non strikers end, running 11 in 5 balls and then getting clean ripped for a duck on the last ball,  :-[

[roo boys!]

Had the first innings of the season on the weekend. Batted for a hell of a long time and as a team we managed about 100 runs in the 30-odd overs that I was at the crease. So you'd expect someone that had been batting that long to get pretty close to a 50 right? Nup, 22 for me, which came all from 1s and 2s :P I reckon I was on 1 for about 8-10 overs, just ridiculous ::)

Anyone got some tips on how to turn the strike over a bit more? I'm feeling alright just gotta learn to push the singles. Any tips?

Oh and, facing spin bowling... Recommend advancing and trying to get to the pitch of the ball or just staying back in the crease? In the nets I'm constantly charging but don't have the balls to do it in a game. So getting bogged down by spinners regularly.

Thoughts? Cheers :)

Haha that's solid mate, different types of innings are always required at different times of the game so don't beat yourself up that kind of knock can be very handy. Sometimes that type of innings is even more fulfilling. For example on the weekend I went in and worked around for a few overs before notching up a relatively quick 32, 20 of which coming off one over of leggies, before holing out straight down the throat of long on. Fell right into their plan, I would have been much better off going back to turning the strike over as there were plenty of ones to be had with the field back. So a hard worked for 20 odd can be a lot more satisfying than a quick fire 40 or so. Sorry to talk about myself again but another example just popped into my head, a few weeks back in juniors I made one of the worst 50s of all time, with 30 of my runs coming in 6s, my wagon wheel would have been mostly the mid on to square leg region haha. Cow corner yehaaa. That afternoon in seniors I grinded out a 50 off a lot more overs which was a lot more satisfying.

As for turning the strike over speck pretty much nailed it, look where the fielders are deepish/flat footed as there will always be one to them. Another tip, and not many do it at our age really so can really be a pretty handy advantage if you can get it right, is to make sure you keep in mind which hand a few fielders throw with. Point especially, as if they've got any brains they'll put a left armer at point (I do) because the majority of shots will be behind square, spinning towards his left. If they've got a right armer there is a single just behind point every day of the week, left hander be careful.

How you play the spinner really depends on the bowler, what he's doing, what the wickets doing and how confident you feel. If you can pick the length early and get to the pitch of it you are absolutely cruising. Don't charge every ball obviously so just work on facing a lot of spin (both leggies and offies as they often have different flight patterns for every bowler) and pick the length really early.

Best of luck with your cricket Jay, sounding good mate!

[Nige]

If you really want Jay, just let me know when you're playing matches and I'll fly over and play for the opposition... quite ordinary in the field. :P Can throw though, don't mind a run-out. Although, I took a catch once... yeah, just once... in like 7 or so years of cricket. That said, twas a ripper. Batsman top-edged it and it was like a bloody skyscraper... had to wait under it for a while. Had to run a few steps back at the last minute but took it easy on my catch... to everyone's surprise.  ;D

[GoLions]

Had the first innings of the season on the weekend. Batted for a hell of a long time and as a team we managed about 100 runs in the 30-odd overs that I was at the crease. So you'd expect someone that had been batting that long to get pretty close to a 50 right? Nup, 22 for me, which came all from 1s and 2s :P I reckon I was on 1 for about 8-10 overs, just ridiculous ::)

Anyone got some tips on how to turn the strike over a bit more? I'm feeling alright just gotta learn to push the singles. Any tips?

Oh and, facing spin bowling... Recommend advancing and trying to get to the pitch of the ball or just staying back in the crease? In the nets I'm constantly charging but don't have the balls to do it in a game. So getting bogged down by spinners regularly.

Thoughts? Cheers :)

If the field is more-so on the off-side, I would try walking across your crease a bit just as the bowler is delivering their ball. Not further than off-stump though. This allows you to work it down to fine leg a lot easier for singles, and also makes it a bit easier to drive as you've already gotten your feet into a good position.

Depending on the quality of the spin bowlers, I would usually advance towards the off-spinners, and stay back against the leg spinners. However, I am left-handed, so if you're right handed, I'd do the opposite. Makes it easier to smash the ball to the leg side :P

[Master Q]

Being a spinner myself I prefer batting against spinners.

Unless the spinner is crap I usually just keep my back foot in the crease and just step forward to everything, however sometimes against an off spinner I just step back and hit place everything on the offside like most people do.

[Jay]

How's everyone going so far this season? :)

Played my first game in the seniors yesterday and notched up a 107 run partnership with the skipper. I scored 25 off of 40 overs :P get around that strike rate lol.

[PowerBug]

Stuff playing, umpires ftw! That is a very nice strike rate you have going there however, wish I had that temperment when I played. :(

[Tominator]

Had the first innings of the season on the weekend. Batted for a hell of a long time and as a team we managed about 100 runs in the 30-odd overs that I was at the crease. So you'd expect someone that had been batting that long to get pretty close to a 50 right? Nup, 22 for me, which came all from 1s and 2s :P I reckon I was on 1 for about 8-10 overs, just ridiculous ::)

Anyone got some tips on how to turn the strike over a bit more? I'm feeling alright just gotta learn to push the singles. Any tips?

Oh and, facing spin bowling... Recommend advancing and trying to get to the pitch of the ball or just staying back in the crease? In the nets I'm constantly charging but don't have the balls to do it in a game. So getting bogged down by spinners regularly.

Thoughts? Cheers :)

I've never been a big hitter. Never have been, probably never will be. But I can always generally get a single out to cover, point, or third-man.

I often charge spinners in the nets, but I don't have the balls to do it in a game either. If I get bogged down I always just try and find a single to one of those three aforementioned positions. Just wait for the ball to prop up a bit and glide it away. Helps me turn the strike over and build my innings, run by run.

A few of my mates say I'm a bit like Mike Hussey in the way I push singles around   ::)

Then when you get a short ball you can easily pull away for a boundary, or hit it hard rather than prod it.

The key is not to lose your cool