This analysis comes off the back of my second look at Franklin. This 2nd time around (July 2018) I got him with my 2nd ball LBW.
In the previous game earlier in the 2018 we visited their ground at Hutton. 2018 was a bad year for our club with regards getting a full team out and we only managed to field 8 players, for some of the players it was their first game with us.
Franklin saw the opportunity to score big and when Hutton batted Franklin looked to exploit the situation, hitting the ball all around the park with impunity and scored a quick fifty or so not out. The analysis of that game can be found lower down in this post.
Franklin saw the opportunity to score big and when Hutton batted Franklin looked to exploit the situation, hitting the ball all around the park with impunity and scored a quick fifty or so not out. The analysis of that game can be found lower down in this post.
This game (July 2018) was on our pitch at Holy Cross, Basildon. 2018 was one of the hottest summers on record here in the UK and the pitch was baked dry. Our captain won the toss and decided that we'd bat first despite our weak batting line up, knowing that the surface was going to break up and make it more difficult to bat second. The other key factor in this game was that we were able to field 11 players and so Franklin's game was very different in this 2nd meeting (The Green spokes in the wagon wheel) . We hadn't posted a big score 114 and all they really needed to do was bat sensibly. They had plenty of overs and time to do it in.
In-game analysis July 2018
Franklin's approach in this game batting as the opener again, was to stay in and choose his shots carefully, putting away the loose ball's for 4. Almost all of my balls (Leg-breaks) were targeting the stumps and threatening them, Franklin chose to play safe and block, staying well within his crease.
With more of a level playing field, Franklin played me very differently to the game below. I'd made the observation in the previous game that he had a good cover-drive and it appeared to be his preferred shot. I can only imagine that he either remembered me in the previous game and knew that I had the ability to turn the ball off the pitch. Or he read the situation whereby I was bowling with the wind over my shoulder from the off-side - potentially adding drift to my attack, either way I didn't get to see how he'd play me as I bowled a decent ball first up and then another targeting the stumps, which deployed more over-spin (Top-Spin). The dip caught him out I think and he played the ball too early and missed it. Massive appeal and he was sent on his way.
Franklin opened with another bloke who was out for 9 and the no.3 I got LBW out for the same figure. Franklin was then joined by another competent batsman Mike Astles who played a watchful innings, slowly building the win with Franklin.
In-game analysis July 2018
With more of a level playing field, Franklin played me very differently to the game below. I'd made the observation in the previous game that he had a good cover-drive and it appeared to be his preferred shot. I can only imagine that he either remembered me in the previous game and knew that I had the ability to turn the ball off the pitch. Or he read the situation whereby I was bowling with the wind over my shoulder from the off-side - potentially adding drift to my attack, either way I didn't get to see how he'd play me as I bowled a decent ball first up and then another targeting the stumps, which deployed more over-spin (Top-Spin). The dip caught him out I think and he played the ball too early and missed it. Massive appeal and he was sent on his way.
With regards to observations and planning before I'd bowled at him, I'd been watching him all the while and the observations I'd made back in May still stand... It looks as though his favored shot is the cover-drive, supported well by a range of shots through the leg-side. The key thing you shouldn't do is set a field with a plan to get him out on the off-side and then bowl balls down the leg-side. If you're a youngster learning wrist-spin have a look at this drill here for ideas about improving and monitoring your accuracy. The same would apply to anyone bowling at Franklin.
The image above is the zone that I recall Franklin scoring through this time around. As I'm writing this a few weeks later (Bad mistake) this might be really flattering, but it may be true as the bowlers we had in this game are pretty decent for the most part and may have kept the ball away from the leg-side? What I do recall is the fielder at 6 was pretty weak, so a lot of runs would have been made through that region potentially? But be warned, anything leg-side and like most batsmen he'll be putting it away for 4.
For a fielding plan, see the diagram below, over the 2 games I've not seen anything that would change my mind. If you've noticed that the fielding plan and the actual placement of the fielders in the image above differs, you're right and I made the mistake of not looking at my notes here for Franklin and didn't even know he'd be playing! As it turned out, the captains field was fine except for the balls being leaked through the covers region and as I said I'm not 100% certain that all the fours were score through here. As usual see the warning at the end of the post.
In-game analysis Previous match May 2018
The same as everyone else in this game, I was given 2 overs and bowled a few at Franklin and was able to beat the bat and cause more of a problem bowling at the stumps and outside of off. The ball or two that did beat the bat were those that were pitched up outside of off which he could have left, but he still went after them. Whether that would be his normal mode of play I'm not sure, but given that the field was pretty much as you can see in the image above it was pretty much a win, win situation if he'd got the bat on the ball. There were gaps everywhere.
The scoring shots played against me were a late cut down towards 3rd man for a single and the four was a cover drive where we had our youngest fielder trying to cover Mid-off, extra cover and cover on his own almost.
In a different situation I would probably err towards consistently bowling a on or around the off-stump with a field set accordingly. The impression I have and you have to remember this is based on very minimal information gathered in an unusual scenario... 8 blokes in the field, is that he favours leg-side shots. As I recall, they were executed well, pretty much along the ground. Almost all of his shots were played in the same manner, nothing extravagant, well executed and low risk. Having said that, if you look at his dismissals on play cricket, you'll see that his favourite way of getting out is to be caught. With that in mind and the observations made, next time I'll be looking to use the field below...
Overall, he's an half decent batsman scoring almost 16% of his teams runs. He's played since at least 2000 (The records only go back that far). He's score 22 x 50's and 1 x 100. He's had 13 ducks and as mentioned previously favours being caught as his main dismissal. His team respect him and see him as being a key asset to them with a good range of shots.
Strengths...
Playing leg-side; From what I saw on a wicket that had very little to offer in the way of help from the surface he's good through the leg-side - full tosses, anything slow and loopy all pretty much hit for 4 with low risk.
Late cut - This shot was used a fair bit, but can easily be negated with an appropriate field and may offer opportunities for the 50% catch factor?
Tactics
I don't think he's a player that looks to come at you, I didn't notice him come down the crease once and his dismissals from stumping's only account for 3.55%. From what I've seen over the years batsmen, especially those of the older variety love and appreciate the cover-drive and love to be able to play it and score shots off it. So much so, that it's one of the first things you should look to offer up to them and see if they'll take the bait with. Remember too, that they often dismiss us readily and see us as a joke for the most part going with the generalisation that wrist-spinners especially have no accuracy. These factors I reckon in most instances should form the basis of our bowling strategy...
1. Starve him of the leg-side shots
2. Play to his ego and offer up the opportunity to play the shot of the day with the cover-drive.
This I reckon is the key to getting him out along with the fact that his leg-side shots may be his bread and butter shots?
1. Use the field here to the left. Initially bowl over the wicket close to the stumps and see if the wicket is offering anything on or outside of off, let him see the ball turn and judge whether you're bowling slow enough for him to work with it. If you're able to settle in the first over do the Shane Warne thing and move around the wicket using the full width of the crease bowling close in on the stumps and as wide as possible. Change the pace and flight, change the degree of over-spin or side spin.
2. Dependent on how he approaches your bowling and how effective he is, bowl to your field looking to get him driving through the gap provided, even consider making the gap bigger by moving cover to cover-point and or mid-off finer, almost in line with you the bowler.
3. The field should limit the amount of runs to be made through the off-side. If you have a variation - Googly, Flipper or Top-Spinner, throw one up sporadically, especially if you're able to get on top of him and cause him problems, he should, with his 50% catching dismissal rate get himself out readily.
4. If he starts to try and sweep you, the man at 45 needs to be one of your faster fielders looking to stop paddle sweeps and Mid-on should be brought in a lot close for the top edge that goes straight up. If the sweep shot is used bowl with more over-spin, get the ball to dip more and turn less. The dip should cause him to miss-time the ball, play it too early and be caught.
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.
Mike Astles
The analysis here is based on a low scoring game where we posted 114 batting first. This was during the very hot summer of 2018 in July. The wicket was dry and by the time Astle's was batting it was very up and down and starting to deteriorate.
Astle's records on play cricket go back to1975! so he's very experienced. The situation in our game meant that he played in a particular way, but I got the sense that against spin he was particularly confident and was more than happy to come down the wicket and hit the ball on the full. In this game he was facing Brandon Debond initially (R/A finger-spin) and me. He played the ball on merit and any ball that was leg-side, as to be expected he put it away and scored runs. As I recall I spoke to him when he wasn't on strike and asked him about his primary scoring shots and he said - cover-drive and a late cut.
In this game I had a stiff wind blowing over my shoulder which assisted me and the wicket was offering some turn off the balls that I got out of the hand with some revs on.
The field set above was Lee Dutton's (Captain), which I was okay with. The key with anyone like this who is strong off their legs is not to bowl leg-side, so you need to be as accurate as possible which is pretty obvious, but easier said than done! If you're a kid that bowls spin click here for ideas about how to improve your accuracy when bowling spin.
I wont be playing him again this season (2018), but if you're local to me and play in our league or recognise this style of batsman, this plan below might be of some use. (See the disclaimer at the bottom of the page though). The plan is pretty basic and probably suits the majority of orthodox batsmen, but as above the key is to keep the ball away from anywhere near being wide of the leg-stump and is reliant on a degree of accuracy.
This is how I would approach him in the future. Ideally try and get a look at how he's playing other bowlers when you're in the field. His dismissals are primarily from catches
45.27% at the time of writing so varying the amount of over-spin to side-spin might be a useful approach - your top-spinner dropping short encouraging a miss-timed shot especially if he's batting aggressively. If you do notice that he's not timing the ball too well, you might want to vary your line slightly and go for a more attacking leg-stump line. As always vary your length and line slightly and if you've got variations that you're able to control... use them, but sparingly - they are variations!
He's got a lot of experience - been batting since 1975, so he seems quite happy to walk out of crease and hit you on the full so watch that. If you've got a keeper who you work with and who knows your game, maybe look at bowling a off-side wide if that becomes a problem?
With this field you're looking to get the edge and have him caught at slips or gully, or miss-time a ball to the fielders in the covers or mid-off.
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.
Keval Suchak
SEDCB region Right Handed batsman
SEDCB region Right Handed batsman
SEDCB Region
July 2018 - (Hopefully I've got the right bloke in the photograph)? Suchak's innings was short and sweet see here below...
From the outset he looked like a walking wicket with one shot - a big heave - playing across the line to the leg-side. Which, goes to explain why on the Play cricket website (Click here) he's recorded as being caught more times than any other dismissal (55%). No doubt they put a few blokes in the deep on the Leg-side and he hits it pretty much straight to them?
Not having seen him before, we didn't know how he'd bat, so it took a few balls to work him out, but it was pretty straight forward and after the first over in which he hit all the balls pretty much through the same area see here below, the trap was then set.
Above are his in-game scoring zones...
The field setting for Suchak was changed slightly when I bowled at him, the slip came out and the leg-side reinforced. The bloke at 9 was pushed deeper, 10 was brought up to a conventional square leg position.
Above are his in-game scoring zones...
The field setting for Suchak was changed slightly when I bowled at him, the slip came out and the leg-side reinforced. The bloke at 9 was pushed deeper, 10 was brought up to a conventional square leg position.
The first ball was full and was a dot ball and the 2nd ball I got him LBW with a flighted and full-ish Leg-Break that didn't grip and he'd already played through the shot - again trying to hoik it over mid-wicket.
So, if you come up against him, you know what he's going to be doing, having said that looking at his records on play cricket he's had 50+ this season in a game against SLH, so he may have more shots in the locker? But as a starting point - perhaps try this...
Bowl a line that targets the leg-stump, so that he has to play it. Have your best blokes on the leg-side in the positions shown, make No.6 at Deep Mid-Wicket your most athletic catcher and have him on the boundary. Try this for the first over and see how it goes. I got him with my 2nd ball, so didn't get to see him once he'd settled. All 8 balls we saw were in the 90% zone indicated or were intended for that area. If you're bowling spin to him look at bowling from the end that gives your a deeper boundary on the leg-side.
Your stock leg-break should do the trick, have some blokes in close for the one that goes straight up and a bloke down at 4 for balls that get squeezed through or evade the wicket keeper. If he really hasn't got any other shots, bring up 9 and 10.
You should get him by varying the amount of side and over-spin, with the use of over-spin (Top-Spin) the balls going to dip on him and the ball's going to be in the air for a catch, have your better catchers on the leg-side.
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.
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