Field Setting - Yasir Shah v Ian Bell 4th day, 2nd test UAE

Yasir Shah v Ian Bell - 4th day second test UAE 2015 - Field Settings

This field was set with England in a losing situation, so Shah was in a good position with support from the other end. England needed to score 491 with little hope of doing so.

Spinners drill - competitive off-spin v Leg spin

My younger son Joe bowls finger spin so is a right arm off-spinner and I bowl Leg spin. We quite often practice in the paddock together trying to see who can hit the stumps the most times and things like that and I've done similar things at the club before. Tonight I came up with a good little drill you can easily do which encourages accuracy with line and length with the necessity to spin the ball.

Using a set of Kwik Cricket or training stumps, remove the middle stump. Make a decision that you're both going to bowl one side or another and both bowl that side. We both bowled over the stumps in this illustration. Then mark out a zone into which you're going to bowl, we use a mat. The zone/mat needs to be wider than the stumps and placed on a good length to bowl. As both bowlers look down the wicket from the bowling end they've both got a fair equal area onto which to bowl, one side shouldn't favour the other.

So the off-spinner bowls as per this illustration below - landing the ball on any part of the mat but aiming to hit the furthest stump, so with the offie he has to hit the leg-stump so encouraging him/her to turn the ball as much as possible. We play it - giving a point for landing it on the mat (A) and 3 points for landing it on the mat and hitting the designated stump (B). If the bowler hits the easier stump no points are given. Needless to say you could easily modify the rules and give points for the nearer stump too.

For the leg-spinner (Me) I have to pitch the ball on the mat (C) and turn the ball into the off-stump (D) to get maximum points. The way we play it is if the ball hits the stumps having gone straight on we still get 3 points.

 

Needless to say this only really works if you've got a good few balls. But it's good in that it's competitive and encourages bowling on a good length spinning the ball hard enough to hit the furthest stump. Looking at it, you could if you had some white tape mark the mat out as below and award even more points for landing it in the outside zone and hitting the opposite stump? The variations and possibilities are quite varied.

 

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

 

 



Another blatant attempt to promote one of my other blogs

This is a massive list which is generally useful for anyone who's studying photography at level 3 or above. The list which is on-going and constantly updated, lists photographers who are seen by critics, curators, designers, editors, academics and peers as being innovative and unconventional tackling subjects in new and different ways, exploring 'The Human condition'.

As much as I can I glean the names from printed journals in the first instance or books. The list should be a starting point for your research if you are a student, you should try and access hard-copy magazines where possible and I would advocate that you use Journals and Magazines as your primary research tool.

http://southendasphoto.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/list-of-photographer-and-their-themes.html