Bowlers Union: Southend EMT cc - Batting wagon wheels

Steve Laflin No.3

This bloke doesn't play in the T-Rippon League, but I've included him anyway.

Laflin has records that go back to 1983 He's played 174 and had 165 innings at an average of 24.15. That's included 28 not outs and he's scored 3308 runs (As of 2019). The records show 15 x 50's and 1 x 100 with the score being 105. His contribution to team runs equates to 12.63%. Most popular form of dismissal - bowled at 39% followed by 36% caught. A low LBW count of 3.03% and according to play cricket he's never been stumped! In this game he batted at 3, so perhaps he's not usually around when the keeper comes up to the stumps at the bowling changes?

In the game here indicated by the wagon wheel he scored 29 runs, which doesn't correlate to my diagram, but this is a basic indication of his scoring areas and has been gleaned from a diagram I did 2 years ago when I started putting this blog together. If you read on there's further indications of where his scoring areas are...

I've bowled against Steve a few times now and got him once a couple of years ago. He looks to go big with almost every ball and the one time I did get him was at his own ground in Southend - caught deep mid-off by my son Joe in a 4th XI match.

He has a few shots in the locker, the predominant straight drive mainly on the off-side as indicated by his wagon wheel diagram below, a decent late cut through backward of point/Gully region and one that's not indicated here, because I remembered being the victim off it in one of the previous games... a Leg-glance down to fine leg which he gets a decent amount of bat on that cost me a few too many 4's.

Wagon wheel. This is the scoring zones for Laflin during the game In this game I remembered the Leg-glance shot and made sure I kept it off his legs -so watch out for that when bowling to him. As you can see if you don't give him a chance and you bowl off-side you can easily negate that shot.

He doesn't come out of his crease too much if at all, I didn't see him doing it,but he may take a step forward, as I recall their were some stumping opportunities that our wicket keeper looked interested in.

Bowling plan

Key to this plan is not to bowl leg-side and deny him those leg-side off the hip glances that run away for 4. With that option taken out of the equation he looks to hit straight down the ground. With the ball spinning you'll be in the game as he looks to hit it hard either through the fielders or over the top. He does play it late and this is where he is susceptible. The fuller balls are driven hard through the off-side hence 8, 7 and 9's positions.

In the last game (Wagon wheel) he took a calculated risk and played several late cuts through point/backward point, in part because the fielders I had there. (They were not Paul Collingwood-esque) He was put down 3 or 4 times in that area! Additionally, when the ball turned more than he was expecting, he was getting fat edges through that region as well.

In the game thatI got him, the captain (Lee Dutton) positioned my son Joe slightly left of the deep mid-off in-line with the '9' but close to the boundary and then said to me to bowl with more over-spin (Top-Spinner). Again, Laflin was looking to drive the ball late through the mid-off region and with the over-spin it didn't get there - instead it dipped at the last moment and he was already playing through the shot and scooped up high for Joe to pouch it moving to the off-side a little.

Summary

Bowl off-side
Have someone who can catch whose quick on their toes at deep mid-off.
Bowl your stock Leg-Break
The wickets will probably come at point/backward point, Gully and slips if you're varying the flight, speed and amount of turn you get off the wicket - from a thick edge.

More data and stats for Laflin here

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Richard Hawkins_______________________

The wagon wheel here is based on Hawkins facing Wayne Morgan (Medium fast) and me. Wayne's field was different to mine and as far as I can recall he was bowling at the stumps and the majority of the leg-side runs were scored off of Waynes bowling.

Having never bowled at Hawkins before or at least not recalling having done so, I went with the same strategy that I was using for the bloke at the other end Laflin - bowling on and outside of the off-stump.

With me he stayed in his crease and played with more caution as opposed with Wayne, who he walked down the wicket to and hit it off his legs.

Similarly anything I bowled that was erring towards being being middle, he was on those and looking to score through the leg-side.

You can see from the wagon wheel below that he seemed to be restricted to two zones which is unusual, I spoke to him about it and he didn't give much away, I think he alluded to struggling with the variable bounce.

Richard Hawkins - Wagon Wheel

Given that this looks so easy to deal with and set a field to, I'd be cautious with implementing a plan that addresses it and going with the idea rigidly. I'd start with something that works with this wagon wheel, but be ready to adapt to the situation that arises. It's a shame in a way as I wont get to play against him again as I'm in a different league now, but it would have been interesting to see if these are really his strongest regular shots?

The plan

I'm writing this almost 4 months later using some very minimal notes taken on the day. I don't recall his shots on the off-side and whether they were high-risk in the air shots or thick edges like Laflin's . I know the fielders were less than agile that day for us and I had a number of opportunities go to hand but not clung on to. So, if you implement this plan get your most agile and athletic blokes at 5,6 and 8. Your fastest and most likely to dive and stop the ball bloke at 3 at deep mid-wicket.

If you look at the wagon wheel diagram above, you'll see that the position of the cut strip meant that the furthest boundary was on the leg-side. Despite this, Hawkins was constantly looking to get the ball through the zone marked B. This is despite the fact that we had our younger and better fielders on that side. But, to be fair his shots that side were executed with power and accuracy. He looks to be far stronger playing leg-side shots.

Therefore, with me, he was having to hit against the spin with the ball dipping with variable bounce. This produces opportunities for the ball to be top-edged and I had at least one almost caught at 10 on the wagon wheel diagram (Lee Dutton). Initially, when thinking about this I had 9 and 10 pushed further back, but I'd start with them in this position exactly for a top-edge because he does want to hit the ball through the leg-side.

So, with this in mind, I'd be bowling outside of the off-stump varying the amount of turn and mixing leg-breaks and top-spinners. If you have a straight ball (Orthodox back-spinner) or a Big Leg-Break that you can get to land on the smooth side so that it skids on, these will be really useful balls as would a Wrong-Un, as these would give him another thing to worry about. I have a Flipper that I don't use that much as I need far more practice with it. But I was bowling so well in this spell I used it a couple of times with limited success. Any of these variations with the potential to target the off-stump or come in from out-side of off, would be really useful in this situation. The other thing to do is to bowl from different positions on the crease, but I would be cautious about looking to attack from around the wicket into the legs.

Summary