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.