Bowlers Union

Welcome.

Scroll down and you'll get a sense of what the blog is about. I play in the T-Rippon league here in Essex and if you play in the same league, you may find some of the content here useful. I'm aiming to keep records on as many batters as I can from our league to give us (The bowlers) an increased chance of taking a bag of wickets and keeping out averages low.

Hopefully, it might become a resource captains and bowlers turn to prior to games to help work out plans and set fields against these blokes. If you like the blog - share it us much as you like.
Use the links in the side-bar on the right.

Cheers and go well!

Dave Thompson.

July 2020 - 5527 views

May 2022 - 10,200 views

Loughton South cc

 Andrew Shields No.3________________

Shields was the captain for this match and will be captain for the season as far as I can make out. His data over the last 10 years...

Looked like a solid batsman with a good range of shots around the wicket. Deft late cut, but we had a bloke there that cut that off. A flick off the legs to fine leg was another preferred shot, but generally the sense I got was that he had the ability to hit the ball where he wanted to potentially, but our field we set for him, which was pretty standard worked well. One of his main shots is the cover drive which he hit plenty of, but with the conditions -  virtually 100% of these were simply fielded. Another shot seen quite a bit was a late cut. 

 Our field made use of the conditions and we had everyone on the edge of the circle as such, but this was primarily due to the fact that the grass was so long and covered with cuttings, the ball wasn't going to be going for fours much at all. Given a dryer day with a fast outfield he'd have been far more of a handful. 

We got wickets early and we may have got their 2 best bats cheap and this may have affected Shield's approach. He was very watchful and seemingly un-phased by the very low run rate (1 an over for the first 20 overs as I recall). He was dropped a few times - drive through Mid off (Off my bowling). Cut shot attempt through point top-edged and dropped by our keeper (Off my bowling) and dropped at Gully. Not a candidate for stumpings, didn't come out of his crease as far as I noticed. If you're a Wrist-Spinner with a straight variation and the wicket allows for the ball to turn well, an approach you might find useful is to bowl on a good length given the conditions you have and set him up with straight balls. Balls on a good length he tends to defend with a straight bat, so then bring in the small Leg-Break and the edge might be found? 

He was eventually trapped LBW sweeping Kirby Jennings (Slow Left arm orthodox). 

Aarush Rout No.9 _______________________

Rout is an under 15's player and plays a lot of cricket. 

Rout came out at Number 9 and right from the on-set looked good. I'd been bowled out so didn't get to bowl at him, but he did say that he was glad that he didn't have to face me and felt that he might have struggled.

He was busy, looking to rotate the strike with Shields and others with an obvious good leg glance into the area between square leg and fine leg, which I quickly cut off and had a tactic for. He then changed it up and went for a more aggressive shot looking to pierce the gap between square leg and mid wicket. Again, I reacted moving from a position of backward of square leg to forward of square leg and almost caught him in that position on the edge of the circle - the ball bobbling out of my hand as it was hit so hard and I didn't have soft hands. 

We tightened up the Leg-side field and stymied his shots through there, but he also had some straight shots and late cuts/cut shots through point and backward point, but the fielders and the state of the grass stopped his efforts through there. 

More so than any of the other players he was confident and skilled enough to come out of his crease and hit the ball on the full and he did this time and time again against Kirby Jennings (SLA). 

He survived all of the bowling we threw at him and came away with the highest score and a not out. I reckon he'll be fun to bowl at and I'm hoping that he continues to bat as he does and works his way up the batting order by the time we visit their ground and I get the chance to bowl at him. Not only is he a good batter he then went on to open the bowling with Leggies... 8-4-7-4. A very impressive young allrounder. 

Rohit Taheem No.4_____________________

Taheem came out during my spell while I was bowling with Henry and Lee Thompson as I recall.

Taheem's batting data here suggests that he's new to the club. 

Taheem scored quickly and looked like he was looking to take the attack to us and upset our work.

Thankfully, I was bowling well and I slowed him down. I had really good support in the field especially from Lee Thompson and some of the balls he'd have hoped to have scored runs off. Lee pulled off some superb stops and kept him at the crease. 

I hardly bowled any Leg-Breaks in this spell - out of the 48 balls perhaps 4? One or two of these to Taheem to try and let him see that it was there as an option. After a beauty that he blocked and only just missed his bat he then pulled out a big shot in the style of a bloke looking to not let the spinner settle and hit the ball straight at me at about 100 mph and I caught it clean - bowled and caught... Nice!

I had a chat with him and he's looking forward to a re-match and reckons he's got my number! Love it, can't wait!

Again as with all the others, the wagon wheels are representational of a game played on long, damp grass. In different conditions it would have been a different story, almost 100%. 

East Hanningfield & Great Burstead cc

 First and foremost I apologise if I've got Marlon's surname wrong

This was an unusual game where it rained for virtually the whole of the game and what with it being at the start of the season there were plenty of grass cuttings combined with the wet grass, so the two's in normal conditions would have probably been 4's and the 1's at least 2's.

The wagon wheels are approximations, but when I showed the captain at the end of the game he pretty much agreed that they were representational. 

6/5/23

East Hanningfield & Great Burstead cc 3rd XI v Basildon & Pitsea 5th XI at Hannikins Farm, Billericay.

Cliff Ferady No.1_____________________

Listed last year as the 8th highest scoring batter at the club with an average of 18.25 last year and the captain of the current 3rd XI.

All time - 6th Highest scoring bat, played 68 games, scored 926 runs with a high score of 70. Average of 15.69 with 2 x 50's. 

Feraday had some nice shots the late cut was particularly nice I thought and the cover-drive. The cover drive looks like his got to shot. In this game because of the grass cuttings and how wet it was we didn't really get to see him at his best. But observations with regards bowling to him - I think most of us bowled full to him, I certainly did. Anything wide of the off-stump and he's on to it with that cover drive, so that needs to be covered in the field. Looking at how he gets out on Playcricket (See below or here ) He's out 39.9% of the time to catches which is worth keeping in mind and it might be worthwhile trying slower or shorter balls if you're seam bowler or in my case (Wrist spin) Top-spinners. 

The other observation I made bowling so full was that he didn't like it around the leg-stump and just outside of the leg-stump line. This was bowling virtually yorker length back-spinning Flippers, so if the conditions had been normally good length leg-breaks or fuller leg breaks might produce results? 

Another point - anything outside of the off-stump he was looking to play the back foot cut shot which might account for the high percentage of caught dismissals - he might be getting caught behind - keeper, slips, gully or point? 

Overall confident and correct batter, but looks to take chances on shorter balls outside of the off-stump. 

As a Wrist Spinner, given what I saw in this game and the 39% catches factor. My initial analysis would be that he doesn't favour his leg-side play and I'd look to exploit that. I'd bowl over the wicket and load the leg-side with my best catchers and most athletic players and look to bowl him around his legs, occasionally bowling a flipper to get him with a faster straight ball. It might also be worthwhile doing the Warne thing and moving around the crease changing your angles - even looking to bowl around the wicket to see how weak his leg-side play is, it might be the shots off the leg are his risky shots? 

Marlon Jatajekara No.2________________

Marlon's analysis to follow...

Leigh - on - Sea cc

 April 22 - 2023 Friendly

N.Attwood (No.3)_________________________

No images of the player.

Attwood batted No.3.

As you can see his main shot was through the off-side and we had blokes in the positions marked with the blue dots. With the outfield being slow Attwoods shots were played late,  so along the ground. Eventually caught by me at cover.

The wagon wheel is an approximation made from notes made in the break and after the game. 

Game played at Southchurch Park in fairly cold conditions with cloudy bright conditions with a  cold east south east wind blowing off the Estuary. I wasn't there for the toss, but arriving late it was obvious that we'd be fielding first. The team had changed from the original I'd seen posted on "Playcricket...

The wicket was green and damp given that these are un-covered wickets and we'd had a cold week with very little sunshine, but a fair amount of April showers...

what3words - manual.glaze.drove

We got off to a good start keeping the run rate to around 2 an over. Our oldest player (4th XI) Tony keep bowled with a broken toe and still managed his full 8 overs with 2 wickets for 8. One LBW and the other was a catch by me in the Covers. With Tony was one of our boys Tom Tomason who I think is 15. I think this was his 2nd game having played in the 6th XI last summer. Michael Gray bowled well too with a wicket off 4 overs for five. That then as usual brought out the big guns and me into the mix. I end up bowling to...

Impey, Reed and Threadgold who you can see looked to 'Go after the spinner' and 'Not let him settle'. Reed  (RHB) looked the most threatening as far as I was concerned and whether they were kidding or not they referred to him as their 'Overseas player' he had a South African accent? He looked good and not phased at my bowling, he dealt with my Flippers quite easily, so I scrapped them and went with the Leg-Breaks and top-spinners. Our most athletic player Jon Bonnet was positioned at Deep Mid Wicket and although he'd already dropped a catch he was also the most likely to take a catch in that position. Having been hit for a couple of 2's and possibly both his 4's and the other bloke ensuring that he rotated the strike to get Reed facing me, I decided to lob up a ridiculous moon ball to try and lure him into hitting one out towards Jon or potentially mis-hit it for it to go anywhere. The ball floated up outside of leg, he wound up to hit it into the Estuary - swung the bat completely missed it and was bowled round his legs.

The other bloke Sibley was a similar story, but without using the moon-ball approach, again he didn't seem phased by the Flippers or balls outside of off and was playing well, so with Jon still deep and Joe Cleveley at mid wicket I was tempted to push Joe out a bit and bowl a slower one leg-side. Sibley, went for it and didn't get anything on it, Joe had to track back a little and took a good full stretch catch.

Nishant then took 3 and we bowled them out in the 37th over.

I didn't think it was going to be a walk over for us to beat them and we eventually won by just one wicket. Tony Harms scoring the bulk of our runs as the opener (28). 

Old Chelmsfordians cc

 Played 30/7/22 at Wickford Memorial Park on pitch 3 as indicated in the image below.

Game was against their 5th XI, but there were 3 players of note that you need to be aware of.

No.1 Matthew Cranfield (No picture).

His records go back to 2005. He's played at all levels including recently 1st and 2nd XI games, but generally in the last 2 years has played primarily in 3rd and 4th XI games. Averages 27.30 and has a high score of 95 not out against Oaklands 1st XI and a score of 90 in 2018. Some years has contributed with 23% of team runs. Has seven 50's to his name.

In this game I dropped him off a dolly of a catch at mid-on off Paul McKeon in the first over and he went on to score 23 before being run-out, up till then he looked good and may have made the difference between a win or a loss.

No.5 George Hellen (No picture).

*Note This wagon wheel is an approximation based on memory and looking at the scorecard.

Younger bloke (18?), athletic, good fielder and bowled really well in this game with 4 wickets. His records go back to 2019. Has some decent scores and looks promising as a batsman and therefore a threat to bowlers and your team.

No.11 Alan Ball (No picture).

This bloke was an older player and looking through the records, A.Ball has records that go back to the 1980's. In more recent years he's played in the 4th,5th and 6th XI. This current year his best score is the one in our game (Wagon-wheel below). 

*Note This wagon wheel is an approximation based on memory and looking at the scorecard.

If you look at this blokes stats he's better than the figures suggest. This year if you look, you'll see that he's 50% not out which suggests that, as in our game, he bats last as a choice, possibly as he's not as agile as he'd like to be, but don't be fooled. if the bloke at the other end rotates appropriately and stays in, Ball will take the attack to you, don't be fooled by his age, he's an adept batsman at the levels he plays. 

Billericay St Johns cc

 Work in progress 31/05/22

I've changed the way I'm doing this for 2022. I think what I'll be doing in future is only recording the wagon wheels up to the point I start my spell, so it'll probably only be the first few batsmen going forwards. Unfortunately, I seem to have mislaid Neil Hadgrafts wagon wheel if it turns up I'll add it. 

Bat No.1 Anil Kumar (No picture)

This is how he did against the openers e.g., all blokes that bowl pretty straight and at the stumps, Tony sometimes throws in a off-break ball. I didn't get to see how he'd play me as I got him stumped within a few balls, he may have hit a one through the off-side, but to be honest I don't recall it and I wasn't overly concerned. But it's pretty obvious how you'd set a field initially for this bloke based on his wagon wheel. Our field wasn't anything unusual, admittedly some of the better players where in front of the batsman and the fielder at A was probably too fine.

I reckon an offside field along these lines would be a good start... Try and bowl that off-stump line and see if he plays straight. If you look at his data on Play-cricket the most likely way of dismissing him is catching. Without doubt his favourite shot based on these observations is a cut shot or similar through the A zone, so perhaps if he continues to play this shot, get another bloke in around the 4th slip with a gully?

Historically he's a pretty good player and has been around this club since 2015. 

Kumar's played 139 games and averages 23.78. Over this period he's hit 123 4's and 10 sixes and scores 14.8 of the teams runs.

He's played in their 1st XI but most of his best play is seen in the 2nd XI. 

Bat No.3 Alfie Ward

There's a couple of runs missing from this account, but I reckon this is pretty much his main shots. He's played for this club since 2013 according to Playcricket  and has played in 129 games. Over this period he's scored 1371 runs and has a high score of 56 and averages 12.58. He's scored 5 x sixes and 141 x fours. His most consistent method of getting out is bowled which is the method in this game with his wicket falling to Paul McKeon 

Based on this data and admittedly it's limited a standard in out field would probably do. He's scored a fair few 4's in his time and this data is limited in terms of setting fields to negate his strength. I need to get a better look at him, but that's subject to me playing in the team when they play our home game. 

Bat No.6 Ricky Taylor

This blokes data is better than the two blokes above. Played for this club since 2014, played 110 games and has scored 2264 runs averaging 26.02 which constitutes 12.87 of the teams runs. In this period has scored 15 x fifties in which 156 fours were scored and 22 sixes. 

Most common form of dismissal - caught as per the pie chart left. 

I was bowling when Taylor came out and he strode out looking like he meant business. My immediate thoughts were to set the field deep and let him have one and get him off strike. The captain Michael had other ideas. He brought most of the fielders up on the one, possibly sensing that he'd go for a big shot and try and assert his authority on the spinner as the mantra goes.

Whether one of the other blokes said... "He's a leggie" or not,  I sent down my stock ball, which is a cross-seamed Flipper, he stepped back exposing his stumps opening up his shoulders to hit the ball somewhere into the next county and the Flipper did what a Flipper does and he was back to the sheds. Michaels plan had worked. I sighed a sigh of relief, because he looked like he had intent. Plan for this bloke... Not sure, but it looks like if you're a spin bowler he has every intention of coming after you, so have a variation up your sleeve and maybe use it first up? 

Willow and Herbs cc 2nd XI

 First game of the season (May 1st) following on from one of the coldest and driest Aprils in the last 50 years or more. Still cold with frosts overnight and the ever present NE wind. So I went prepared with long Johns and 3 layers on top and 2 coats for when I'd be scoring.

Thankfully it was a 1.30 start as there was a football match on the pitches either side of the wicket as I needed the time as a delivery of 2 tonnes of cobbles arrived at about 10.00am that I'd been waiting for, for the last month or so. So I had to get all that off the street into my garden before the game started and that set me back time-wise. Anyway, arrived at the game just as the whistle blew on the football game. 

No.1 - M.Jones____________________________________

Their opener M.Jones played a good innings for 41. Solid defense, with the usual approach of if it's a loose ball he's on it and looking to put it away. Looked strong on the leg-side, but our young bowlers kept the ball on the stumps for the most part or outside off. He stays in his crease and plays off the back foot from what I could see and doesn't move around... "Stays in the box'. 

One area that could be exploited was the fact that he's not one of their younger players and wasn't someone who races down the other end sliding his bat in, so some sharp fielding could see his undoing. I bowled primarily outside the off-stump and at the stumps and did okay against him. You can see from the wagon wheel his primary shot is through the covers. We we had a good fielder in the covers (Arvind) and he stopped a lot of runs, so one of your better players there is a definite tactic. If your bowlers are accurate and can keep the ball anywhere from on the off stump and wide of it it might be worth bringing in another fielder on the off-side to dry up his runs and possibly force him into doing something out of his comfort zone?

If you have good fast bowler who can bowl in the channel, a couple of slips and a gully at the start and perhaps consider leaving a reasonable gap in the covers region to try and get him to play through the gap for 4 and you might induce an edge? 

Personally, if I come up against him again this season and as someone who can bowl a ball that can go away from the bat, I'd probably bowl with a 7-3 field as above. The key is to bowl to your field. Jones is definitely looking for the short ball to hook or the ball on the legs. Our bowlers as mentioned above initially were being hit by the No.2 leg-side for runs, but adapted. Jones rotates the strike well and goes for more of a slow accumulation of runs approach, while the other bloke looks to strike the ball hard. He was good down the leg-side clipping the ball really fine but we had a fielder in the in a long stop position half way up and he cut off those runs really well. 

* Note I dropped him at mid on quite early, but generally he kept the ball on the ground playing it late and timing it well. 

No.2 - Harry Keys _____________________________________________

Harry Keys bowled by me for 42 runs. Played really well alongside their No.1 and took a more aggressive approach.

As with the No.1 batsman, Keys was strong on the leg-side and possibly quicker to pick up the length when it was short, hence the 4's in the square-leg to fine-leg region. Generally a lot more aggressive and looking to hit the ball harder rather than going for a deft approach. As with the opener, the solution was simple, get the ball up there in the off-stump to wide of off region and you'll dry up his bread and butter shots. Unintentionally, I got him with what the commentators would describe as the classic Flipper delivery. The variations that I bowl differ in the amount they bounce off the wicket, but generally they don't bounce a lot and they're usually quite full. This one went down and keys spotted it was going to be short, he stepped back and wound up to hit the ball into the next county and the ball skidded through really low and he played over the top of it. 

With regards how I'd go about bowling to him, it'd be the same as Jones keeping the line on the off-side and starve him of runs. He played and missed at a few, so if you have a fast bowler a couple of slips might work at the start of his innings? 

Plays the ball quite late and times it well generally, so not a lot was in the air other than the leg-side balls. 

No.3 Joe Owen _____________________________________________

This is interesting, there was another Joe Owen who I came up against some years ago who played for Benfleet CC who was an amazing bowler and who batted quite well see here  he'd be about the same age as this bloke. (Apologies for the poor picture Joe, if you're checking this out and by all means contact me and send me a better version and I'll swap it). 

Here's a link to his Play Cricket data 

I was only used for a few overs against Joe and the No.4 below and it looks as though I went for a couple of runs against both of them combined, I used the exact same approach of bowling on or outside of the off-stump, so as above if I came up against him again I'd use the same approach but with a 7-3 field as illustrated above. Scoring at a rate of nearly a run a ball and with a century to his name (See link above) he's obviously no slouch with the bat. As with the No.1 and No.2 he pretty much stayed in his crease. The data below from Playcricket shows that he's never been stumped.

Click on the image for the web page this was sourced from (Playcricket). 

Having looked at Joe's data and his bowling figures here below, I've got a feeling this is the same bloke I played against at Benfleet. 

3/6/22 - Playing this team tomorrow - so have over-laid the two games I've seen this bloke play in...

Looks like, the best option will be to bowl outside of the off-stump and some decent players at Cover, extra cover and mid-off. 

Scores 23% of teams runs.

Averages 60.32

In 28 games - scored 39 fours

29% Not outs

Caught 33% of the time and bowled 26%

If he's playing he needs to be dismissed early. 

No.4 - M.Murray _____________________________________________

As with Joe Owen Above, I only bowled at Murray for a couple of overs and went for a run or two before being pulled off for the next bowler. 

Pretty much identical to Joe Owen in his approach. His Play cricket data is interesting though, never been given out LBW and is generally caught or bowled 50/50. See here . Looking at his wagon wheel it looks as though a conventional field would do the trick? In this game we were short of a player when we were fielding as our wicket keeper had to go to work at short notice. The wicket keeper Ben Edmonds had never done it before and did the job well in Batting pads! Well done Ben!

As with Owen and the others, I wouldn't change anything - same field and same approach. All I do is bowl 95% Flippers, I bowl cross seamed and mixed seam variations, both have the tendency to move in the air erratically a bit like a baseball players wobble ball, my upright flippers in certain conditions swing massively. In addition to varying the seam on release, I bowl a variation that has a tendency to come in to the RH bat like an off-break and another that goes the other way which is Clarrie Grimmets 'Wrong wrong un'. As well as all of that, I vary the speed and move around the crease changing the angle of attack subtly. Oh and I can bowl a conventional Leg-Break and Top-spinner which I rarely use these days early in the season, but if I'm bowling well I use them later in the season.