Training SEDCB - Joe Thompson

Another good session tonight at the freezing cold Fitzwymarc school sports hall. Again another very low turn out. Tonight they set the boys another one of those scenarios in the nets. T20 game; six of the boys were batting and six were bowling. They had two nets and the bowlers were being used in spells with one boy acting as the captain. The spare bowlers were in a third net doing throw-downs with the 'Yet to go in batsmen'. When you were out you rotated with batsmen in the 3rd net.

Captain kid chose Joe to open and Joe bowled well from the outset bowling an off-stump line or in the corridor or uncertainty area. Joe set a field with fine leg and no third man and after a couple of balls, the batsmen were guiding the ball through the 3rd man region so the coach suggested a re-think on his field positions and they came up with the field setting below...

The idea being that he was looking to get the batsman to drive through the space between point and extra cover and get an edge through to 2,3,4 or 5 with the protection of 3rd man at 6 for balls that get through. He bowled well and came away with 3 wickets, all of them going through to slips or the wicket keeper as planned.

At the end the trainers spoke to the boys as a collective. The bats had all been aware of the field positions and were asked why their batting figures were so low and they admitted that the bowling was good "They bowled a good line and length", the coach came back with 'Who bowled a good line and length and bowled to their plan'? A number of the bats nodded towards and said "Joe". Which is really helpful, as that would have massively encouraged Joe, that they had acknowledged his bowling with little encouragement and that'll now make Joe feel as though he has some function in the team, as the group dynamic is still a little cliquey and fractured as far as I can make out. So bit by bit I reckon Joe is feeling a part of the team and as though people are recognising his contribution, which is essential if he's going to do well, he needs to feel as though people believe in his abilities and want him to do well and expect him to do well. So again, another really good session for Joe. 

 Joe discussing the field settings with one of the Essex coaches (Scott).

Adil Rashid - England v New Zealand 1st one day match 9th June Edgbaston.

Everything you need to know about bowling Leg Breaks here.

A brilliant start for the new look England side today. Came in from work turned the tele on and saw 400 runs and just assumed we were chasing 400. Got settled and started watch the game and then realised England were bowling and had scored 400 plus!!!!

Then a few minutes later Adil Rashid is standing at the top of his mark ready to start his spell and what a spell it turns out to be! With the protection of so many runs Rashid was able to settle and looked as though he was completely relaxed and able to go about his work. Later in the interview he acknowledge this saying "I was able to play with a positive mind set and just work on spinning the ball hard". He started with an off-spinner finger spin delivery - stump to stump, but then moved straight on to his leg-breaks. Initially they didn't look that spun hard and it took a couple of overs to settle, but then once he'd taken his first wicket - Kane Williamson caught deep mid - off (Joe Root), he settled and started to bowl really well. His next wicket was Santner caught in the slips by Chris Jordan. 3rd wicket was Henry bowled with Googly and trapped LBW see field below.

This was to Matt Henry who was bowled with a Googly trapped LBW

The classic one was Luke Ronchi who caused England all sorts of problems in the test series batting like a one day batsman. He came out and Rashid hadn't used the Googly for a while, but you just knew Ronchi would give it the biggun, he just had that aura about him that kind of suggested he would smash Rashid back into the England Lions and Yorkshire. I guessed he'd come out and be aggressive right from the outset and sure enough he did, but Adil was one step ahead of him and bowled him clean with a Googly.

The fields for Rashid were interesting...

The commentators mentioned the fact that his Wrong-Un turns more than his leggie. When asked about his variations and at what point he deploys them, he said that it wasn't a case of 'Showing the batsman' the Googly early, it was just a case of bringing it out when needed, but he said you have to be confident that you're going to be able to pull it off, because you need to be seen to be an attacking option and stay on top of the batsman.

It's going to be interesting to see how he goes in the rest of these matches as McCullum is no doubt going to come out hard and I'm pretty certain that like Luke Ronchi had intended to do, they wont want Rashid to be a key part of the England set up, as the more he bowls and the more frequently he's used effectively and he comes away with wickets, the more his confidence will grow. I'm pretty sure New Zealand will target him. It'll be interesting to see how he's used when he hasn't got that same buffer in terms of runs on the board, will he be used in the same way and will he bowl with such confidence?

Statistically he's done well in this game at 5.5 an over and having taken four wickets. Everyone is saying that this is his time, he's 6 years older he made a massive contribution with the bat with the highest number 7 partnership in all one day cricket history at this level. He's also come away with the best Leg-spin figures for an English man in one day history too. Let's hope this is Adils moment and he gets his chance to cement a place in this side for the next 10 years or so.

 

Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.

 

 

Fielding diagram - Nathan Lyons v Murali Vijay and Rohit Sharma 9th Jan 2015 at the SCG

Fielding diagram - Nathan Lyons v Murali Vijay and Rohit Sharma 9th Jan 2015 at the (4th day) SCG.

Captained by Steve Smith. Most of the runs were scored backward of square leg through the 45 degree 'Man round the corner' position.

 

In the last over at least, there may have been more, but I only saw the highlight package, the field was brought right up for the tail-enders. See the map below, I don't know where the 11th man was, but I guess he may have been in a straight long on or off position?

 

Here's the positions as I saw them with the suggested straight Long-on in place as a guessed position?

 

 

Field positions Leg Spin bowling

Mushtaq Ahmed v the Aussies 1995 3rd test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va3nkw4p5F0

 

An aggressive field, bowling primarily leg breaks, with the occasional Wrong Un, The Wrong Uns catch the wicket keeper out and some runs go for byes. 

This years field when bowling well

Someone on the Big Cricket forum requested "Talk us through an over". So I posted up my approach to bowling my opening over at the end of the season when I feel quite confident and added the field.

See here http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/talk-us-through-an-over.184373/#post-569583

The field was this one...

Field settings

Field settings.

I'm just on the internet at the moment discussing field settings for Wrist Spinners and needed to upload a diagram of this one here. It's discussing the approach whereby you leave a dirty great gap in the field (The hatched section) to encourage the batsman to hit the ball through there. In this instance - I'd be bowling on an off-stump line trying to encouarage the batsman to drive the ball through that area with a straight bat. With the ball going away from the edge of the bat with turn off the wicket (leg breaks) at some point I'm going to find an edge? I suspect that such a radical field would only be used on tail-enders, but I'll see what the others on the forum say...

My Field modifications by Chaz Adams

Again another field. This time, this is the one that has been set by the captain and me when I've played this year, but slightly modified as per the recommendations of Chaz Adams on the http://www.bigcricket.com/ forum. His suggestion was that the field here be modified...........

Touching on this very briefly as I have a busy day today. I'd move the point to backward point, this is also a wicket taking position in many competitions if batters are hitting against the turn. And move the deep backward point to a sweeping cover. The Deep square leg should be in front of square. I would also suggest that the fine leg be moved into the circle and placed on the 45 degrees to save one, also again a catcher from sweep shots.

This then gives us a slightly different field which makes sense. The only thing is, as more experienced players will know, the field in part is set keeping in mind who you've got available to you - so it's not at all clear cut. One of the points that Chaz has made is that the bloke at Fine Leg should be brought up closer? I've thought this through a bit and initially I was sceptical - thinking that I don't ever intend on bowling legside and if I make a mistake and the ball does go legside, it's likely to go over the top of the bloke if he's in closer and that I'd rather the bloke run in off the boundary having more time to have a look at it and ensure that it only ever goes for two. Add to this that I don't play first or second team cricket, so it's unlikely there's going to be anyone that is super athletic in that position so having him on the boundary seemed to make sense? But then thinking it through, balls that do end up there are often inside edges or mis-hits where the batsman is trying to get the ball there and they rarely go all the way, so a bloke there half way or closer may be a better idea and is more threatening too?

I would also mention, that once I'm settled and if I've managed to gain ascendancy over the batsman I then bring up the mid on and mid off to at least half way. This was something I picked up off of G-Man.

Another point is that in the last couple of games I did lose runs to balls out to the deep cover point area and the bloke that was originally at 3rd man had to cover a lot of ground to get to the ball, so bringing him round to either deep cover or deep cover point seems like a good idea too.

Field Setting from Forum

The original comments and response were as follows - (See http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/field-settings-for-leg-spinners.57045/page-3#post-412325 )


Hey Guys,
I am generally confused on where to place my fielders. I'm an okay legspinner. I can bowl the odd crap ball and I'm not the most accurate of bowlers. I'm playing in a league with 12, 13 and 14 year olds who aren't that confident at catching but throw well. The wicket keeper is reasonably inconsistent. What would you guys suggest as a good field placement?

If you require more info please ask?
Seeing as your fielders aren't much kop at catching, you need to try and get wickets by hitting the stumps. So pitch the ball right up there on middle and leg and tempt the batsmen into playing across the line and beat them with your turn. You should see the ball thumping into middle and off with reasonable regularity.

As you are attacking with your legspin, you can defend with the field. Kids tend to hit across the line so put three men back on the leg side boundary - deep backward square leg, deep midwicket, and long on. have everyone else on the single - 4 in a ring on the offside, and a couple of men on the one in the leg side.




Here's a field setting we've been discussing over at http://www.bigcricket.com/ on the thread that set up in response to the fact that there's very little out there by way of field settings. At the minute the discussion has picked up a bit and it's pretty productive, so if you've got any thoughts yourself on the matter join up and join in?

Shane Warne v Jaggi & Chipli IPL 2011

Shane Warne v Jaggi & Chipli
IPL 2011 MATCH02 - DC vs RR, 2011-04-09



Warme in this situation bowling Leg Breaks at the tail end of his career.

Legspin bowling Field Settings

Another in the recent series of field setting suggestions. I have to admit though these are mainly put up to encourage feedback on the bigcricket forum - http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/field-settings-for-leg-spinners.57045/#post-395973 On there I've commented that the use of posting such field settings is limited because of the fact that there are so many different variables to consider when setting the field and simply setting a field on the basis that you've seen it on a website or in a book is pretty much pointless unless of course there's some rationale as to why you've placed the fielders in a particular configuration. I was interested in the comments made by the commentators after the match and Mitchell Johnson's appraisal of the approach. The Daily Mail (On-line) wrote........

If England’s bowling was far too good for Australia’s top seven then why should they suddenly treat their No 8, Mitchell Johnson, like a world-beater, affording him a respect that should have been reserved for the greats of the past rather than a haphazard, fragile bowler who sometimes succeeds with the bat?
Instead, Strauss spread the field, rather like Bob Willis almost suicidally did when faced with Allan Border and Jeff Thomson in that famous last wicket stand in the 1982-83 thriller at Melbourne, and let Johnson dictate terms rather than allow England’s bowlers to put him in his place.

The result was that Johnson swung merrily, with as many as six or seven fielders on the boundary, and Ben Hilfenhaus gained confidence from his team-mate’s productivity, heaving Tim Bresnan for a huge six on his way to 34 runs which may yet prove crucial.
It seems churlish to criticise Strauss after he and Andy Flower have done so much to inspire and revolutionise England, but if they are to become the best team in the world then they must be judged by the highest standards.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1344143/Cautious-Andrew-Strauss-reverts-type-England-let-Mitchell-Johnson-hook.html#ixzz1ACDCEM9h

What the explanation seemed to be was that the focus was Johnson's wicket and the tactic of putting men on the boundary was aimed at thwarting/or finishing Johnson. But the side affect was that it allowed both men to hit two's and singles with relative ease and help build both men's confidence.

Strauss seems to have been caught between a rock and a hard place and the Sky commentators seemed to cut him some slack on the matter. But, it does go to show that field settings is a complex game. I'm a newbie at cricket and since the very start I've had captains ask where I want my field and I haven't had a clue and till this very day I've not been in a position where I've set my field with any real intention, always doing so in conjunction with a captain and letting him decide 80% of the positions. I've bowled on occassions where I've seen situations where now I would change the field or at least ask the captain to do so. Last year seeing my mate at Grays set this field - http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/2010/12/alex-mclellan-field-sept-2010.html and creating five good chances I suddenly grasped some of the theory and realised that thinking outside the box and being creative can yield results. Needless to say this has to be combined with watching the batsmen and observing how they play and what strokes they have in their reperoire. All this combined with staying focussed on your fielding and being ready for the ball to come your way.



I've previously posted a field setting (See below) as a starting point and this is on the basis that you've been thrown the ball with no real idea as to how the batsmen are playing and where they're looking to hit the ball, so for instance possibly tail enders or blokes that are new to the crease?






This supposedly would give you a chance to settle in to your first over. I bowl a pretty tight off-stump line looking to find the edge of the bat. This works well if the batsmen are driving or blocking with a straight bat, but goes to pieces to some extent if they're looking to play aggressively through the off-side. Being club cricket, your fielders (Me included) are not Collingwood-esque in our abilities and I'd leak runs. In the one above - there's an assumption that most batsmen have some ability and preference to try and get the ball Leg-side and this I'm hoping might be encouraged by the field being set with an off-side bias trying to encourage the batsmen to step across the wicket and try and hoik the ball to the on-side? In which case I'd deploy more Top-Spin or bowl Top-Spinners. Not being a batsman - I'm pretty unsure of all this and it is only theory and part of a learning process. The other potential outcome which would be the desired one - would be if the batsman decided that his best option would be to drive the ball back past me. If that was to happen, the bloke at 10 (Short fine leg) would be brought up to a leg-slip position to bring into play the wrong un.

Legspin Field Setting - encouraging the drive.

Another variation that I thought of to encourage the batsman that showed a hint of self belief in playing the ball straight would be to use a field setting where you removed the mid -off and on fielders. (See below).



The idea here is that you open up the field beyond the bowler to encourage the batsman to drive the ball. Again with the consideration of variables and possibly in a longer format of the game you might even wish to concede a few runs by bowling in such a way that you enticed the player to play straight - bowling straight balls looking to get him trying to play past you. Once that's adopted you'd then bring in a little leg spin looking to find the edge. If turns out that the bat can play straight and he's okay then bring in the wrong un and the top-spinner?

Again I have to say - this is all theory and I'm a newcomer to this aspect of the game. If you want to suggest as to why do so via the link below.........

http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/field-settings-for-leg-spinners.57045/#post-395973

This page has been superseded by a more recent and permanent page with additional field setting and is on-going and update regularly see below...

Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.

 

Field Setting - Shane Warne V Herschel Gibbs IPL

This is Warne 1st over http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isUydDgOAtc

39 minutes in - bowling over the stumps. Symonds at the other end previously in an earlier match had taken him to the cleaners 56 runs off of 23 balls.

Warne gets Gibbs third ball drawing him out of his ground for a stumping the first two ball went for singles indicated by the black arrows.

My own field setting (Potential)

I say potentially because I usually let the captain set the field, but after last season even though it was pretty awful, I've got some sense of the kind of field I'd set at the start of the game till I settled and had some sense of how my bowing was going and how the bats were dealing with my bowling.




The diagram at the bottom indicates my bowling line - over the wicket at middle and off - looking to turn the ball away from the edge of the bat. The bloke that's in the 'Square 3rd man position' (11) would be brought up to a position at Gully depending on how the batman was playing the ball, if say he was playing straight bat shots trying to hit it through the covers with a chance of inviting the edge. If I was getting on top of him and he was playing defensively he may then be brought into short extra cover or silly mid-off, with point being pushed back slightly. In the same way Deep Square Leg would be brought up into a more conventional position. (10) at fine leg would stay in that position for Wrong Uns. Whether that makes any sense or not to other bowlers I don't know. A lot of what you do is dictated by the batsmen and how they're playing and what their strengths are. Reading the batsmen and responding to what they do is a whole new facet of the game that takes a great deal of nous. At the moment it's been interesting to see Ricky Ponting in the Ashes moving blokes around in response to where the balls being hit in the same over and he's getting slated by the commentators, so it's not easy.

Clarrie Grimmett Field settings

Here's a Clarrie Grimmet field setting from http://www.pitchvision.com/
care of Richard Welch, he said -

Here’s a jpg of Clarries field – I found this in an out of print coaching book from the 40’s or something, I forget exactly where, but it does have good provenance!.. and also a Bill O’Reilly field as documented in Don Bradman’s “the art of Cricket” (1948 edition). Bradman says that this is the field O’Reilly usually bowled to – which is incredibly aggressive (“Aggression rating” of 85.6 to Grimmets 59.7 which is a massive difference.)

Peter Philpott Field to Right Handed Batsman

Peter Philpott Field to Right Handed Batsman

Bill O'Reilly attacking field

This is a Bill O'Reilly field sent to me by Richard Welch at http://www.pitchvision.com/ they have a webpage on their site where they've posted up fields for a range of bowling types here - http://www.pitchvision.com/complete-guide-to-cricket-field-settings/ this is my version of his O'Reilly one that he's sent me, he's unsure of its origins and if I can find out I'll post up the details.

The Alex McLellan Field Sept 2010

This is a field I had set for my bowling when I was being captained by Alex McLellan at Thurrock Cricket Club last season.



Hoepfully discussed here - http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/field-settings-for-leg-spinners.57045/#post-395262