11/5/24 - I don't this as much as these days because some people took exception to me making notes between the overs.
12/6/21
Basildon & Pitsea 5th XI v Eastwoods 4th XI
It'll be interesting to see who turns up for Eastwood for this game as I've played against them twice now and it's always been a massive mis-match. But it's on Saturday during the main season, so I'm hoping that most of their younger, better players will be involved in League games. Looking at the previous wagon-wheels the main tactic who-ever is bowling is keep it off the leg-side as they're all seemingly strong on the leg-side which is standard advice, but, not so easily executed.The weather promises to be good though.
Blimey - I've been involved in two consecutive wins and again another close and good game.
Our team was made up of mostly kids, a few of Dads, Heinricht and me. The captain was Fahran who played with us in the Lee Dutton years and he won the toss and chose to bat, which I always think is a bad move as it means if we get bowled out cheap, there's nothing in the game for the bowlers. That more or less happened, but not to the extent that there was no hope at all, but I didn't hold out much hope of bowling. The bowling was interesting - primarily really loopy and slow, but seemingly accurate in terms of line and length and we were all out for 116 off of 36 overs in a 40 overs game.
The kids were given the roles of openers and Charlie HD had a wicket with mid stump full toss. *look at the bowling figures - especially Barath's Mine are pretty good as well, but I was spraying a load of them down the leg-side and each time I did, the team were saying 'Brilliant bowling Thomo' whereas I was thinking surely that's wide, but the bloke wasn't calling them and I wasn't looking in case he was - as it was I wasn't bowling that well and to then see him with his arms wide, may have made me more tense as I was still struggling with my run-up despite spending some time this week trying to address the issue. If you look at my bowling figures I bowled 6 overs, took 2 wickets (LBW's) with one maiden and went for 14 runs. But... of the 14 runs 9 were wides!!!!!!
Fahran's son Armaan took a wicket as well. They got off to a decent start in comparison with use going along at 4 an over, but by about 40 off of 10 overs 25 or so of the runs were off of wides. Then I was thrown the ball and bowled one of my best spells in recent years from the 'Seaside end'. One of my first balls took the edge of the bat and was dropped at slips by 'Jack' looked like an easy take to me, but he said it came on to him quickly. A bit later I got a top edge that was in the air between point and covers and easily caught in some instances, but our nearest player Reece, didn't get to it from point.
The 2 wickets I took were both LBW's. One of them took a 2nd appeal as the umpires face was one of uncertainty as to whether he should give it. From where I was it looked like the bloke was trapped in front of the leg-stump, but it wasn't going down leg. I could see the look on the blokes face kind of saying I think that's out but, so I appealed again and the finger went up.
Wickets fell at regular stages and with my spell it seemed that I'd got us back in the game, we just needed to continue taking wickets and field well and we did. There were further good bowling spells from Heinricht and Sri, but the bowling was backed up with good fielding and tactics just short of 80 with about 38 runs to get off of about 10-12 overs they had a bloke who looked like he was their last real hope. But against him was the fact that he was probably the last of the recognised bats and the fact that the outfield was so slow. We used the tactic of allowing him the single and then bringing the field up and not allowing the other bloke to get any runs and this worked exceptionally well despite the fact that in the meantime at 20 overs in we lost Charlie HD so were fielding with 10. All of us tried to bowl on outside of the off-stump. With a decent group of players on the offside. Martin fielded well in the covers and Barath fielded well at Square leg.
With 5 overs to go they needed 5 an over and I started a count down so everyone knew what we had to do. That 36th over went for 5 as the better bloke and their number 11 moved to close down the game, but now trying to strike the ball harder the risk factor increase and the inevitable happened and Fahran took the last wicket. The ensuing celebrations were quite exhuberent as it had been a close game and we'd bowled them out within 116. Fahran did a little speech/team talk at the end to the kids using me as an example of commitment saying that I'd showed the whole team up with my skills and commitment in the field despite the fact that I'm 60 - 'Dave's shown us by example - what's required to win a game, that's how we've got to play like in future.
*The bloke wrongly name on the scoresheet spoke to me afterwards asking 'Why couldn't I get you away down the legside (I'd bowled a tight line on the legside) because normally that's my shot down to fine leg and I couldn't get a bat on it, the ball seemed to be skidding through? I explained what I was doing and he said "Yeah I knew it was unusual".
Won again today in the 5ths another really close and good game. Fahran - remember him from a few years ago was the captain. Decided to bat first. We walked off in the 36th over having been bowled out for 116. Looked like a lost cause, I wasn't even sure I'd get a bowl. He had all the kid bowling we were had then 40 for 2 after 11 over, but of that 40 - 25 were wides bowled by the kids. Then he threw me the ball at around 50 and bowled probably one of my best spells ever, I've not looked yet at the figures, but the scoreboard didn't move much during my spell and I took 2 wickets - both LBW's and had 2 catches not taken or dropped by a couple fat lads. But after the kids had gone the rest of us bowled tight and got the wickets one by one. They had 5 overs left and had one good bat and one wafty bat and they had 5 an over to get, but we fielded really well moving the field around and we got the last wicket in the 36th over. Twas a really good game - 2 wins in a row!
Updated July 16th Aug 2020 52 views
2nd look at the batsmen of Eastwood in another friendly game and yeah it was friendly - a nice bunch of blokes. It looked like it was going to be a rain affected game and it rained here in Basildon before I set out for the game at around 11.00 and we're only about 10 miles away from Eastwood, but by the time I'd arrived at their ground, the weather looked okay, just a bit grey and windy.
The wind was coming from the 'Coast', so anyone bowling from the A127 end would be bowling into the wind. The wicket was in the centre of the square meaning the boundaries were pretty much equal either side of the wicket. The wicket was green - really green (See image below), but the outfield which is used for football was rough. The wicket was dry despite the earlier rain.
There's three wicket at this venue and we were on the southerly one. The toss was had and we were put into bowl and we had a full team of players which was okay. The balance of their side old blokes v young blokes was similar to ours, but their young blokes were in their 20's whereas our are all U16's with the exception of Steve and Luke who only plays once or twice a year.
Talking to their captain the writing was on the wall from the outset "This is probably the best 3rd XI we've ever had". Whereas looking at our team my assessment would be we're probably more of a 4th or 5th XI especially with a Non-Specialist wicket keeper and players that only turn out once or twice a year to help out.
Unfortunately, we never got to see if we could get anywhere near chasing down their score of 232 off of 35 overs. To be honest I don't think we'd have had a chance in hell and I reckon we were lucky to have been put in to bowl, as we at least had a few hours bowling and fielding! Whilst we were having tea, the rain which had been light and intermittent, got a lot heavier and the captains decided enough was enough and we were spared the inevitable trashing that would have ensued if we'd have got to bat.
T.Ward - No.1__________________________________________
T.Ward played well against us. He had a good range of options, but primarily off of A.Keeps accurate bowling (Marked in red) which generally targets the stumps, he was hitting the ball to leg. His approach was positive and he was looking to rotate the strike frequently and keep the runs ticking over. With so few runs made through the off-side and some of the balls going down towards 3rd man, it looks as though he's either edged these and they've evaded the slips? He therefore looks as though he might be susceptible to balls on the off-stump or just outside. I seem to recall the shots through covers were pretty decent, so it's potentially a shot he's going to have a go at if offered? A plan that might be an option would be as below in figure 1
1. Set a strong leg-side field with your fastest most agile players in positions 5,6 and 7. The bloke at 6, ensure that he's fast and willing to run around and a capable catcher too. These three players on their own should have an impact on Wards ability to score runs at the rate he did in our game. But, I think the main aspect of the plan would be to bowl an off-stump 'Corridor of uncertainty' line if possible with a gaping great hole as indicated by the diagram (Fig 1). I recall the 3 shots that were scored through the 3rd man region were sketchy and these were accompanied with a few play and misses. He can play through the covers region as well as straight, but it appears to not be his preferred approach and it may be a weakness? So, make sure your slips fielder (3) is a decent slips catcher as well as Gully and Point.
Leave the blue zone empty and see how he gets on, vary the line, remembering not to stray on the legs, try a few wide of off and see how he deals with it, but I reckon he'll struggle with this approach. See this link here for other tactics (Starts about 2 mins in), especially if you're a slow bowler.
M.Hare No.2_________________________________
R.Palmer No.3______________________________________
C.Hill
No.4_____________________________________
C.Hill was another busy player. He retired thankfully. Most of his runs come off one or our U15's players who wasn't finding his rhythm. So, I'm not sure this would be representative of his normal playing because of that? If you look at the bowling of Keep, Edmunds and Charlie HD (U15's) all whom bowled well, he wasn't able to score in the same ways as he was against R. Eustace. Interestingly, against all of the other bowlers his mains scoring areas were off-side, so to set a field to limit his scoring would be relatively easy. With regards attacking, probably a standard field bowling an off-stump line with a slip in place.
R.Creasy
No.5_____________________________________
A.Creasy looked like a good player and I had the misfortune of having to bowl at him which didn't go that well. Furthermore, he figured out what I was doing with the ball which is a first. Unfortunately, my knee was playing up and my bowling was pretty poor. Like the other young players he looked to run singles when he wasn't smacking the ball into Rochford! But, therein lies the possibility in a weakness.
The majority of his shots were leg-side, playing across the line with aggression (Slog-sweeps), so a couple of good catchers on the boundary, especially if there is a bigger boundary option when bowling. As with Ward above, try and defend on the leg-side and have the option of a big gap on the off-side to encourage him to try and score through the covers regions. Only 3 scoring shots were played through there, so that would suggest this isn't an area that he's comfortable hitting the ball in?
Same as for Ward, bowl an off-stump line and keep it off his legs. If you're a slow bowler you may find he steps away from the stumps exposing them in order to access the leg-side which is by far his preferred option. He had one miss-hit slog-sweep that went up and was almost caught by the keeper at forward square leg but he clashed with the fielder running in from Mid-Wicket and they clashed head despite the keeper calling for it and the ball was put down. That incident led to the player being taken off to Hospital for a check-up because of suspected concussion.
The stepping away from the stumps to the slow bowler is interesting as it provides an opportunity to use a faster ball if you have one. Variations in speed might also be useful as would be different levels of over-spin or back-spin as these might induce a miss-timed shot as with the one that went straight up.
A.Creasy
No.6_____________________________________
Armitage
No.7_____________________________________
Just to put things into perspective. The bowlers above Three of them are 60 and above one, is over 70 and another 45 plus. The rest of them are small boys U15's. 3 of the older players have knee replacements or suffering from on-going knee issues to boot! Funnily enough the best bowling figures are that of our best batsman Brian Waterman who would have been our only real chance of putting up a fight with the bat - he's come away with 2 wickets for 5 off of 3 overs, not bad for a bloke who's 70!
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.
28/4/19__________________________________________________
Pragash Galeshaningham Bat No.5
21/3/20 - Stuck at home in the Coronovirus lock-down, I thought I'd go through some of these and update them and adopt a uniform approach.
This game was played in 24/4/19. I've got records for 4 players from this club. First up is Pragash Ganeshalingham. As far as I'm aware he's a first XI player most of the time. Today he played in a 2nd XI friendly game. I didn't bowl against him, but watched him and made some notes for all you wrist-spinners. So here's the low down on a first look at him.
First game of the season and it was cold 12-15 c with a brisk wind of up to 45mph. Pragash batted at No.5 and scored a quick 12 and was caught Anthony Ayres at deep mid-wicket off RA finger-spinner John "Moondog" Bedfords bowling. John bowls a off-stump/wide off-stump line, varying flight, speed and spin. He said that today he was mixing up the spin with a lot of straight balls that were just beating the outside edge of the bat. As mentioned already, I didn't bowl at him so the analysis here is a combination of the bowling from both ends, but amalgamated at one end for illustration purposes. From what I recall his 4's were hit mostly when Debond was bowling from the A127 end and he was targeting the shorter boundary.
We had 10 men per team and the field placings were conventional, nothing odd or tactical.
He was caught Ayres (Red line) bowled John "Moondog" Bedford RH finger-spinner. He may have had a leg glance, but Bedford brought me in at a shorter fine leg, to cut that shot off and back when I was recording these games I didn't use to record the dot balls.
There's not a great deal to deduce from this first look at him other than to make a note of the fact that he was dismissed by our finger-spinner who was mixing up his flight, length, speed and bowling arm-balls. A lot of balls were seen to beat the outside edge.
The other key observation to make is that he's a predominantly leg-side player. I've looked at his records on Playcricket and for some unknown reason there are very few for Eastwood cc and Pragash doesn't appear on any score sheets. On their own website though there's more information - click here and you can see that in a few games he batted well with totals of 114, 61 and 57.
Using the evidence here and remember it is just one game at the very start of the season in a Friendly match as Wrist-Spinner you've got two basic options. (1). See how it goes turning it away from the bat bowling an off-stump/corridor of uncertainty line. With our finger spinner he stayed very much in his crease, playing with a straight bat and he looked to be struggling with the only shot option being to turn it around the corner down to fine-leg and that was soon cut off as an option. Shortly after that, looking to be more assertive he was our caught deep-ish mid-wicket.
(2). The other option if you're boundaries are deep on the leg-side would be to gamble and look to get him out playing leg-side. Although, I have to point out his leg-side play wasn't particularly aerial, most of it along the ground, just hit hard. I'd say that he prefers to play medium pace/seam bowling and possibly struggles with spin and I reckon he'd very susceptible to anyone that bowls with a decent variation. I wouldn't personally start with a leg-side line, I'd bowl outside of off initially to see if the wicket offers any turn and bounce. If it is, then consider this option?
Personally if I get to bowl at him in the season which is doubtful as he's playing several divisions above me I'd go for this field and strategy here...
Again, I have to say that I didn't get a long look at what his strengths and weaknesses are so this is a very basic plan.
Keep the ball away from his legs because as we can see from above that's his scoring zone. Use the tactic of leaving a gap in the covers and try and get him to drive through there, as no-one was hit through that region. The other shot he had was turning the ball around the corner targeting the fine-leg region, with the ball spinning away from the bat this is going to be an unlikely approach. With the scores on the website indicating he's capable of going big, this field may only serve as starting point and may have to be adapted quickly?
One last point this wicket was pretty good and we bowled first having lost the toss. It's been pretty dry recently with very little rain. It rained lightly the night before and during the game, but the wicket was good with good consistent bounce and turn. An over-spun ball should work well. I had a knackered finger so was unable to bowl flippers and relied solely on my leg-breaks and it worked okay.
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.
Ciaran Turner__________________________________________________________________
27th April 2019
Friendly game at Belfairs park ground.
Again, another player whose shots primarily had a leg-side bias. He played one or two off-side shots including one cover-dive for 4. He did well against our 2nd off-spinner Rob Brooks scoring a good series of 4’s and one hefty 6 over the long eastern boundary towards the estate.
Having watched him from the slips it was obvious that when I bowled I’d do so outside of the off-stump. This worked well and he didn’t appear to have any answers for the ball turning away from his bat pitched on a good line and length. Any balls that I did have that went awry he dispatched for 4 through the region mid-wicket to backward of square leg. I blocked that gap though in response to a suggestion from one of our new players Sai, and was able to get him off strike. All the subsequent balls that were leg-side were thereafter kept down to singles.
Ciaran does have a cover-drive and it was seen used against our 2nd finger-spinner, so it might be teased out of him if your bowling that wide of off-stump line and then you're in the game.
Note. As with the other players from this game Pragash Ganeshalingham - R.Ruffell - P.Bartlett the analysis has been collated from one look in a friendly game. Last year Ciaran scored 2 x 50's and in this game 36, so he may be a challenge as the season goes on. See here for some basic records, again, unfortunately there's no data on the play cricket website.
His downfall came in the same way as Ruffell. Having spoken to Ruffell it seemed that they agreed (with only 6 or so overs to go) they needed to up the ante and looked to go big. In Turners case instead of waiting for the leg-side balls and playing to his strengths he had a go at one of Robs deliveries looking to hit it straight down the ground over Robs head. No doubt with the ball turning into him and dipping with the spin, it wasn’t middled and was skewed with a more Mid-on bias where it was caught by the Mid-on fielder Nindi Kaisi.
When I face him again in the future, I’d adopt exactly the same field and plan as for his partner the No.4 batsman Ruffell...
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R.Ruffell______________________________
R.Ruffell. This bloke batted at No.4. Initially he played a few late cuts as well as leg-side glances to the seamers, but once the spin bowlers came on his game switched to almost exclusively scoring shots through the leg-side as per the diagram below. He struggle against John Bedford’s off-breaks especially once he’d seen the arm-ball variation. Anything that was on or outside of leg-stump and he was onto it looking to score runs and I’d say that 70%-75% of his runs were scored through that region, so initially you’d be looking to have a strong leg-side field to cut off opportunities for him to get off the mark.
Against both our off-spinners he stayed well within the crease careful even when at full stretch trying to get bat on ball he was careful to leave his back foot planted as our wicket keeper Daniel Vanderputt was on his game with taking the ball and whipping the bales off.
I got to bowl at him in the last 12 overs and he was always looking to get me away on the leg-side, but any balls that were on or around the off-stump he was struggling with. I quickly adopted this line and tried to stick to it and it worked with the ball only just evading the edge several times as he came forwards to defend against the turning ball. His undoing came about seemingly after the other batsman Ciaran Turner had a conversation in the middle with him. Turner was scoring at a fast rate off of Rob Brooks our other ‘Offie’ and it looked like it was agreed that Ruffell should also take a more aggressive approach and this was his un-doing. The next ball of the over Ruffell came out of his crease walking down the wicket as I speared in a faster ball which may have drifted a little. The ball pitched on about leg, spun and went through the gate and hit the off-stump. I’d kind of guessed from the fact that there’d been a conversation between the two batsmen that Ruffell would change the tempo of his approach.
Going on the evidence provided by this encounter and the wagon wheel, I’d start with the field here below…
Rationale; We didn’t see a proliferation of off-side driving shots to any bowler, there may have been one good one, but that was hit, so he has it in his locker. What we did see was that he struggles with the ball turning away from the edge of the bat on a good line and length targeting his off-stump and the corridor of uncertainty. What do know is that he’s far stronger on the leg-side.
Tactic No.1 do not bowl leg-side. Set a defensive field initially as per the plan here below to keep any leg-side shots down to one, although ideally we don’t want any balls down that side as it will allow him to rotate the strike and get someone like Bartlett on strike and upset the flow of play P. Bartlett
Tactic No.2 bowl a tight off-side line primarily using your stock delivery, from what I saw with a slip in place and a good keeper this will probably do the trick – you’re very likely to get him caught behind edged.
Tactic No.3 leave a gap in the covers to encourage the drive, there was no evidence that this was a favoured scoring zone, but he is able to produce this shot and with all his other shots negated this might be his only option and how good would he look if he could score a series of 4’s through there? He might see himself put up the order or promoted to the 1st XI? Has he got it in him against Leg-spin?
Tactic No.4 the second most prolific shot we saw was a late cut against the faster bowlers. Have your 3rd man deep when you’re standing at the top of your mark to give the impression that there’s a single there at least and maybe a boundary if the ball is struck wider of his position. Then as soon as you look like you’re about to set off he needs to walk in rapidly shutting down both the single option and the angle and increasing the chance of a catch.
Points to remember…
· He’s good through the leg-side off of leg-side balls.
· He’s not good against the ball moving away from the edge of the bat.
· He’s stays in his crease and appears to value his wicket.
· If it’s the last 6 overs or so and there’s wickets in hand – he may change his approach and look to go big.
Bowl leg-breaks with varying degrees of turn. If you have a straight ball – Top-spinner, Flipper, Orthodox Back-spinner or some form of nothing ball (Even a seam-up delivery) use that to show that the stumps are under threat. Vary speed and flight and if the wind is in the right direction try and get the end that is going to help with attaining drift.
If the game is played at their home ground on the most westerly wicket the chances are the ball is going to turn and bounce. The bounce in this match was good and consistent – spin it hard! For a general match report see here
P.Bartlett_______________________________
P.Bartlett. I don’t know what I was thinking with this bloke, but I got it completely wrong and didn’t adapt to the situation and it cost me a lot of runs and ruined what would have been good figures. Bartlett replaced Turner and joined Ruffell. All of my focus had been on Turner and Ruffell, particularly Ruffell, as I’d been watching him for what seemed like most of the game, so when Turner went, what with Bartlett being further down the order there may have been an expectation in the back of my mind that he’d be manageable for some reason and would take an over or two to settle? How wrong could I have been! Rather than stay in his wicket he took a more proactive approach and advanced down the wicket and simply hit the ball on the full for four through the leg-side. Having been hit for a number of 4’s I tried spinning one harder trying to get it to drop more dramatically, the ball came out of the hand wrong and was hit for another 4. I’ve got a vague recollection that none of the deliveries were particularly off-side and that they were all pretty straight (Middle)? and never got to land.
Normally I’d have paid more attention and in my defence I’m going to say because I was so cold I wasn’t thinking straight. Thankfully, this was one of the last overs and I didn’t have to bowl at him again as I recall or I’ve shoved the memory somewhere dark! The next over I was bowling at A.Wade who was also quite aggressive in his approach too… skipping down the wicket and running straight past a ball that allowed Dan Vanderputt to stump him and that was the last ball of the game.
Bartlett, I didn’t see much of him and what did see was all bad for me and good for him. The only observation with regards his batting was that he was a positive player and was aggressive in his approach – lofted drives through the regions indicated in his wagon wheel below and one really well executed sweep shot. He differed totally from all of the others, not staying at home at all, stepping out of his crease to hit the ball on the full against me and our 2nd off-spinner.
With only a couple of overs to face, I’m not sure whether this would be his normal mode of batting, but it’s all we’ve got to go on after this first brief meeting.
Next time or if you’re charged with bowling at him at the same stage in the game, you need to keep in mind that this may be the approach that he’ll take. In which case…
Assume that he is going to be aggressive and don’t play to his strengths based on the evidence here. Hide the ball outside of the off-stump and try him out to see if he has anything to deal with that approach from you. Have all your leg-side fielders in front of square out initially to protect the boundary and you might want to make these your better fielders. He didn’t hit any sixes and their home ground isn’t that big, most of the balls were in there air initially having been hit hard and flattish. With the fact that you’re bowling wide of the off-stump a small over-spun leg-break mixed with your top-spinner or another straight variation will be worth having a look at. If he does struggle with the off-side approach – look at how he’s playing it – Straight bat or cross bat? Modify your approach in accordance with the strokes he plays… More over-spin or flatter deliveries. If he appears to have no idea where his off-stump is move your delivery/release position on the crease as well and see how that works? If you have a ball that comes in Googly, off-spinning flipper or some other variation use that as well sparingly.
The plan here is basic - given the fact that there's so little to go on. But the basic rule, as with most batsmen it seems is initially... don't bowl leg-side.
If he is looking to hit the ball hard and is managing to do so and you’re leaking runs, push everyone out on the boundary and get him off-strike. Have a re-think and go to plan *2.
Because the evidence at this stage is so flimsy we don’t know where his weaknesses are, so it may be beneficial to explore the option of coming round the wicket if you feel you’re bowling well and bring your length back and bowl faster flatter deliveries targeting the stumps. There’s a massive caveat here; he might, from the first ball be up to it and smack you for 6, so it’s up to you.
Always watch the other bowler from the other end and look to see how he plays him or her. Try and keep a record of all the batsmen you potentially have to face and watch what they do and how they play the different bowlers looking to identify their strengths and weaknesses. If you’re a young bowler and your parents or grand-parents watch your games, try and get them to record the batters names and where they hit the ball and how far they hit it. This will potentially enable you to identify where not to bowl or where to set your field. Even the most basic of plans is better than no plan!
As with all these plans they’re not set in granite, especially in this first season when I’ve only been able to have a look at these blokes on one occasion at this point in the year. If you pick up on these blog posts and you are a leggie that bowls against the same teams as me, by all means get in touch via the comments and share your own information, as these blokes are looking to destroy us and put us out of the attack!
*Plan 2 - keep an eye on the blog over the summer ready for the next encounters and I'll come up with another plan.
Other features on this blog include these resources with regards how to fill in the bowling analysis in a score-book
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.
