Second net session at Basildon and good ol' long un's they are too (2.5 hours), but then with only three nets with 10 blokes in sometimes you need it to be that long. Did slightly better this week, although still being impeded by the fact that the floor is dead slippery and I can't get the purchase on the surface to get a good rotation action. This meant for much of the time I was bowling off of one step, but in keeping it simple it still went okay. The batsmen this week were of a higher standard including one who is very good, but despite that once he'd got past the blocking stage and playing defensively I managed to get the ball past him once for a potential stumping and also forced a couple of errors, but how seriously he was taking it I don't know and I wouldn't assume that in a game situation he'd make the same errors. What was good though was the application of getting the ball above the eye, for much of the time I bowled a flattish line and the better batsmen were on to these readily, putting them away with ease, my wrong un, because I don't practice it that much at the moment was ropey and too slow. Coming round the wicket to some people with a leg break works quite well, but the ball above the eye-line looks to be a good un.
So despite the fact that I'm still rolling the ball and not flicking it, I didn't do too bad and have come away quite happy with the outcome. If I can remember, next week I'll work with flight variations, but crucial to this approach is landing the ball in the right place.
