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.
Oh yeah - and screaming for LBW's
