Great Waltham cc Batting wagon wheels

G.Reed RHB No.3 Great Waltham cc 3rd XI

G.Reed RH bat. Batted at No.3 in this match and hung around till the end. Looks to be a relatively cautious player, not looking to smash the ball out of the park other than loose balls - full tosses. These he tends to hook for 4 through the fine leg region, in the case of his game off of one of our junior players who I think was bowling Leggies? 

Most of the shots were straight and in the V, but none of these reached the boundary although the outfield was slow. He was dropped off of Debond's bowling (I think) at Mid-wicket when two of our fielders went for the catch without calling and put each other off.

I bowled at him (See below) all the pink entries and he only scored 5 runs off of my bowling which was a little unorthodox but effective today as I bowled Flippers for every delivery except for 2 (See the other blog for an account of the game here).

Looking at the bowling analysis, it doesn't look as though he dominated anyone with the bat. Full balls he presented a perfectly straight bat, not necessarily over-reaching and always maintained his position in the crease with a stable base and doesn't look like a candidate for a stumping. The straight bat defense might be an option to exploit when we play them again. But the most interesting aspect of his play is the lack of leg-side flicks down to the fine leg region, which might indicate a weakness. If you look at his wagon wheel here there were 3 significant shots for 4 that came about as a result of the bowler bowling full-tosses. If it wasn't for them there wouldn't have been a single run in that region. Additionally, several of my balls were close to the stumps on the leg-side and he didn't get a bat on any of them.

G.Reed RH No.3 Bat - Great Waltham cc

So, off the basis of the analysis today and what we've seen I reckon the field below might be a starting point.
The light area indicated by the B (below) is his primary scoring area. It was noted that the ball didn't bounce a great deal on this wicket and stayed low, so if you have the Flipper as one of your variations it might be the variation you can turn to or use, as I did in this game as your stock delivery? As mentioned there is a perception on first look at this bloke that there is a weakness on the leg-side, so unusually I'm going to advocate bowling around the wicket targeting his stumps, keeping in mind that the ball isn't going to bounce a great deal because of the nature of the wicket. If you've got the Flipper make sure you fire in a few from the leg-side too because he struggled as mentioned before getting the bat onto these. Bowl them on a good to full length mixed in with your Leg-breaks. 

The bowler that had the best figures who bowled at Reed was Debond who may have been bowling Leg-Breaks - from where I was fielding at Fine Leg I could see that he was varying his speed and flight at least and this seemed to do the trick. It wasn't for the full tosses his figures would have been pretty good.

There's also an obvious case for bowling good line and length Leg-Breaks on and around the off-stump with a slip and potentially a gully because of his straight bat defense and proclivity to play through the V as indicated. An over-spun ball with one that has more side-spin could do the trick or any straighter delivery (Flipper or Orthodox back-spinner) combined with your Leg-Break.

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Joel Barker RH No.2 batsman Joel scored 52 before being bowled by T.Edmunds. As you can see by his wagon wheel he's got plenty of shots and that his main area for scoring was off-side via either a lofted -on-drive or one along the ground. Strong striker of the ball and times it quite well. Anything short and he's on to and puts it away. Admittedly our bowling attack lacked the kind of pace you see at 2nd XI and 1st XI standards and it might be the case that this bloke at 17 may be on his way up to the 2nd XI and might be a different prospect with a faster bowler like my son Joe Thompson?

Joel Barker No.2 RHB- Great Waltham cc 3rd XI

That said though, if we look at his wagon-wheel we can see that, like Reed above there's little evidence that he's good at anything on the legs unless it's short - as with Reed he pulls it for 4 through square. With regards my bowling which he faced a fair bit, he struggled and admitted so once he'd score a single off me saying... "At last I've got a run off you, I can't get you off the square"! I doubt like anyone he's had a bowler bowl Flippers at him let alone consecutive Flippers over after over! A far more aggressive and positive player in comparison with Reed and possibly not so susceptible to the classic Wrist-Spinner approach seen elsewhere on the blog. If we look at the Wagon wheel there was one cover drive for 4 and 1 off-drive for 4. Most of the shots were through the region B.

Joel Barker LH Bat - Great Waltham cc 3rd XI

With the lack of shots through the cover-drive region, this has made me consider that perhaps he's avoiding that region for a specific reason? I have to admit it's not an observation I made during the game and only now looking at the diagram I made during the game and converting it to this, that this is now apparent. This coupled with lack of shots through A (Behind square) gives us options. 


With this first look at Joel, it looks as though we should deploy the Shane Warne approach to starting our spell (See here). Start over the wicket and target the stumps looking to turn the ball. Get a sense of whether it does turn or not. *Note, in this game I was bowled off a turning off-break from Joel bowling RH Orthodox finger spin, so the wicket does turn at their 3rd XI ground. If it turns try different positions on the crease with your stock delivery threatening the stumps - have a slip in and leave the gap, in this case initially a big gap,

Joel Barker, Great Waltham cc 3rd XI

Cut off his scoring shot 4's with the your fielders at 8,9 and 10, this should bring his run rate down and keep him down to singles, it may even induce a catch? Bowling over the stumps turning the ball away from the outside edge of the bat, he may still look to hit the ball either straight or through the on-side. If that's the case, the chances are he's going to edge one through to the keeper, slips or Gully or mis-hit a shot to be caught at cover or backward point. 6 is there for the late-cut or anything that evades the fielders on the off-side as he might go at it hard. 

In the first over definitely consider coming around the stumps and bowling full on the leg-side turning the ball into the stumps especially if you're getting it to turn off the wicket. As with Reed, Barker does look lacking with shots through here and many of my leg-side balls totally evaded him yet they were only just down the leg-side for most of the time. Even the wider ones that most batsmen would sweep he kept well away from. So it's worth a punt mixing your Leg-Breaks with straighter deliveries (In my case Flippers). 

16th July 2022 Update Joel Barker

Played against him at Holy Cross on a hot day just a few days before the UK record for the hottest day ever. 

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P.Rolfe LHB No.6 The last bloke we have a look at here is P.Rolfe who was a totally different prospect. The word was that some years previously he'd been a 1st XI batsman and this season was his return to cricket. He scored 16 off of 9 deliveries only dealing in 4's two of which were powerful reverse sweeps down to 3rd man. This was primarily against one of our better bowlers - Alastair Hayton who in the previous week took 3 wickets for 1 off of 4 overs 

almost. As I recall he didn't hang about either to have a look, 3rd ball and he was pulling out the reverse sweep! 

Not much to go on though if we look at this wagon wheel. I guess we have to consider that he was a 1st XI player and that he's going to come at us hard. He stayed in his ground and almost without exception every ball was bound for the next county or the North sea, no boundary was safe!

P.Rolfe LHB No.6 Great Waltham cc 3rd XI

P.Rolfe Wagon Wheel LHB Great Waltham cc

Bowling plan for P.Rolfe - Great Waltham cc

Not having seen much of P.Rolfe as he came in at the end of the game, there's not a lot to work with. The impression we have is that he's going to come hard at you if you're a slow bowler which may play into our hands? Be prepared though to change tack and adapt to the situation as it may turn out that he plays differently in accordance to the game situation.

The basic idea here is to attack the stumps. Come round the wicket bowling leg-breaks and your straight variations if you have them. Have a look at whether you're getting the ball to turn and if it is vary your deliveries and the width that you bowl. One tactic is to bowl relatively wide and full outside of his off-stump especially if he's swinging at it, looking to get a toe end mis-hit. If this looks viable you might want to get a fielder into Gully? 

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Please note - You set these fields at your own risk. The owner of the blog is in no way responsible for you getting carted around the park for 4's and 6's. Seek professional advice and guidance if in doubt.

Check out my other posts here...

Cricket scoring – Dot balls & runs

Cricket scoring – Wides and No-Balls (No runs made)

Cricket scoring – Byes and Leg-Byes

Cricket scoring – Wides with runs made

Cricket scoring – No-Balls with runs made ‘Off the bat’.

Cricket scoring – No-Ball Byes and Leg-Byes