Pre-Season 2011 - Nets

The 2011 cricket season is almost upon us and RUASCC, not well known for putting in too many hours of practice, had an almost unprecedented three weeks of net sessions booked in the run up to the first game at Farley Hill on Easter Sunday. Today was the final session and also the first one from which I seem to have emerged unscathed. After week one everything hurt – a group of muscles from my legs and torso felt moved to get together and write a letter of complaint to The Times. Then while batting last week I reacted too slowly to a bouncer from Andy Greenhalf and wore it on the chin, giving me a lovely deep, red seam print and discomfort while chewing for several days. Today, I feel great.

Regular readers of the Keiwit blog will know that 2010 was not a great season for me personally; I averaged less than one wicket per match and struggled to put any pressure on batsmen, bowling very few maidens and far too many four-balls. I ended up bowling more and more defensively, not expecting to take wickets but simply hoping to bowl dot-balls. Batsmen seemed to sense this and go on the attack. In a bid to put this right I did something I’ve never actually done before: I started reading a coaching manual. Specifically I started reading “The Art and Science of Cricket” by the late Bob Woolmer and immediately turned to the chapter on bowling to see what he had to say.

“No, no, no!” screams Woolmer from beyond the grave. “Your grip’s all wrong - you’re holding the ball too tightly.”
“Ah,” I say, not quite knowing where to direct my response. “I did wonder. But I hold it tightly because I can’t control the ball very well. I had problems last year bowling a consistent line, and I couldn’t seem to get any pace.”
Bob shakes his head and taps an area on page 251:

“The ball should rest on the last joints of the fingers with a small gap between it and the cupped palm of the hand. This space is very important – if you grip the ball too tightly, or wedge it too deep in your fingers, it will leave your hand too slowly, and you are also likely to lose a great deal of control over it.”

“Oh. That would explain it,” I say, looking down at the floor.
The point is that while a smooth run-up and bowling action are important to the delivery, if you don’t understand and fully utilise the wrists and fingers you lose out on the “subtler, more dangerous variations.” In short, you’re not going to take many wickets.

For example, I thought my stock ball was the pitched-up outswinger on or just outside off-stump – in the past I’ve had success with it, beating the bat regularly and seeing lots of mis-timed drives edged to slip or chipped to the covers. But last season I couldn’t find that consistent line and length outside off-stump and the ball was barely moving off a straight line. Woolmer quotes one of the greatest bowlers of all time, Dennis Lillee:

“The most critical part of swing bowling is the way you let the ball go from the hand. If this is not done with a high degree of precision, the ball either will not swing at all or will swing only a little and too early in its flight to be of any great danger to the batsman… The ball is sent away with a natural under-spin, and I believe the more under-spin imparted on the ball the later it will swing.”

So immediately I can see where there are flaws in my technique, and I’ve set about trying to correct these in the nets. One thing I haven’t quite figured out yet is how I used to be able to bowl tight, economical overs, swing the ball and take wickets without knowing what I have recently learned.

In fact, when trying to bowl outswingers in 2010, just about the only thing I was doing right (according to Woolmer) was to hold the ball with the rough side facing the covers.

“The side that is smooth and shiny will present less resistance to the air than the rough side: the resulting low pressure on that side of the ball will pull it in that direction and away from the high pressure. This manifests itself as swing.”

I mention this because, in the pub after one of our net sessions, we couldn’t even agree how to bowl an outswinger – some thought it should be the shiny side that faces towards the covers. Admittedly one of them was Dr Ashman who, it must be said, wobbles the ball about more than anyone at the club, so if The Good Doctor wants to take it up with Mr Woolmer I’ll stay out of it.

So, how did all this new-found knowledge fair in the nets? Actually, I think it’s gone pretty well. Several people remarked that the ball was coming on a lot quicker and I’ve found it much easier to put the ball on a good length (typically I err towards the half-volley). This means that when I have bowled people out (and I have!) the ball’s been clipping the top of off-stump – exactly where I’ve been aiming for.

One thing I haven’t really been able to test is the swing. Picking up a twelve-year-old ball indoors on a concrete pitch and getting it to deviate at all can be a hopeless task so I’ve been concentrating on line, length and pace (including a proper slower ball, also using the wrist) and eagerly anticipating the first game outdoors with a new ball and a good cloud cover. With a much better idea of what I should be doing and how I’m going to take wickets, I’m heading into this season full of optimism.