Targets & Nets

A far better session tonight at G&CCC nets. I bowled at other people other than Danny and did okay - Fozzy, Danny, Mason and a few at Reece/Rees. I managed to get the ball past all of them or hit the stumps and generally cause them some problems. Fozzy was saying that he couldn't read my bowling at all and was having real problems with it, but I was really mixing it up loads, but sticking to the bowling Leg Break style balls that were going down the middle and spinning away to the slips most of the time and varying the speed and length so that they were pretty awkward on their own.

With regards the earlier ephinal realisation that maybe I should try and bowl a la' Philpotts 'Round the clock' with my wrist turned slightly inwards it seemed to work. I was getting the ball a lot shorter this week and in the right areas and there was a little bit of turn there and on the odd ocassion some drift that I noticed myself and some improved bounce. So overall in view of last weeks appalling session this week was far better. It was nice to have someon like Fozzy who's a good bat to say that I was causing problems and it was nice to totally do Mason with a series of Leg Breaks followed up by a bouncy Wrong Un that got him on the gloves and then a couple more later put a low skidding Flipper through and on to the stumps. Danny on the other hand is getting wiser and is more likely to deal with my bowling - he attacks it and the only way I can get him these days is with balls that hit the edge and fly up for a catch. The odd one goes through and he might go for a stumping?

I had a bat at the end and faced Mason and some other bloke who's of a similar build and age to him who bowls deceivingly fast. With these blokes I've just got to bide my time and defend the balls that threaten the stumps and maybe go after the more wayward ones? Ross bowled at me - he's our best Leg Break bowler and the approach with him seemed to be stand some way forward and give the impression that you're going to come after him down the wicket - he then bowled shorter to get you out of the crease so that he could get the ball past you for a stumping, but instead of doing that I was just stepping backwards and tracking the ball and a lot of the time square cutting it. So maybe that's an approach I could try the next time I face The Wizard? But he reads this blog so that scuppers that idea!

On the subject of The Wizard and the fact that he reads it ocassionally - he noted the comments a couple of days ago regarding our stats and the fact that I'm out to beat him this year, so it looks like the battle between the lower order Wrist Spinners is on! It turns out that he's only been with the club a couple of months more than me. I joined in July 2007 and he joined May 2007 so we are very evenly matched in many ways so this should be interesting and hopefully drive me to be a better bowler?

Talking to my captain earlier on Face Book he asked what my targets were for this season and he's set me some -

To bowl 60 overs or more
get average down to 40
rpo 5
maidens 5
batting 20
runs 50
average 5
15 wickets