Joe Owen
Joe Owen - More of a bowler than a batsman, In the game I played against them he was the best player with both bat and ball, so deserves a plan.
You should check him out on Play cricket with regards his bowling as he's very effective and yet he's only about 17 or 18 (2019). He's accurate and it's a case of - you miss - I hit. So be very wary - he deserves some respect - play straight and watch for his variations. I faced him at Benfleet cc on the pitch furthest from their pavilion - late Aug 2017, on a wicket that offered little in the way of turn, so the ball wasn't doing much. Our best batsman Frank McLeod who watches the ball out of the hand said that he was bowling cutters, finger-spin and an over-spun leg-break, getting the ball to deviate either side of the bat, but nothing that was too worrying. What he was doing though, was every ball was at the stumps forcing you to play the ball. He varied the speed, length and flight massively, but still got it on a difficult length. But watching from the boundary it looked like slow medium pace.
As a consequence two of our more aggressive batsmen fell foul to him - simply through not showing any respect for him from what I could see. Our better batsman dealt with him fine, but was dismissed by the bowler at the other end. When he got back he said that Owen was a good bowler and that anyone going out there to face him needs to be exceptionally watchful.
Here's his bowling stats...
In-game analysis
As a batsman - he was okay, as you can see from my pitch diagram and based on other people's observations he either favoured or only has pull-shot that he's happy to play. The obvious conclusion looking at this and from the results of bowling at him is not to bowl legside. We were playing with 9 blokes, so setting a field was a little tricky and many of these runs could be negated by having your better players at fine-leg about 1/2 to 1/3rd of the way in from the boundary as the shots were in the air. Similarly a bloke at square leg, in a more conventional position and another bloke at deep mid-wicket sweeping. In theory, then cutting off his runs and dependent on the need to make runs he's going to be forced to play through the off-side which he did on a few occasions playing straight drives bringing the potential to find the edge of the bat.
I found on that wicket the ball didn't turn much at all and didn't see anyone else turn it in any significant way. Although, as I said in the account of the match here I wasn't getting any real spin on the ball, so on a better day it might turn? If it is turning and you're able to bowl a reasonable line, the usual mantra applies... keep the ball off of anywhere leg-side, if you're able to do that, you're going to cause him problems, especially if you've got either a top-spinner, wrong-un or a ball that goes on. With the ball not turning, he struggled to get the ball through the covers (B) with the fielder intercepting the ball the majority of the time, again this will need to be one of your players that's willing to put their body on the line and dive around a little.
With the field set like this I reckon you're going to cut off most of his primary shots as well as reducing the run rate and keeping him on-strike. Anything that is a little off-line on the leg-side he is going to look to pull, so the potential for a wicket is there for that shot. But a stock Leg-Break on the off-stump varying flight, speed and the amount of spin is going to cause problems... edging it through to either the keeper or slips or with a variation such as a Top-Spinner cramping him up the close in fielders and you yourself are going to be in with a chance.
As a batsman - he was okay, as you can see from my pitch diagram and based on other people's observations he either favoured or only has pull-shot that he's happy to play. The obvious conclusion looking at this and from the results of bowling at him is not to bowl legside. We were playing with 9 blokes, so setting a field was a little tricky and many of these runs could be negated by having your better players at fine-leg about 1/2 to 1/3rd of the way in from the boundary as the shots were in the air. Similarly a bloke at square leg, in a more conventional position and another bloke at deep mid-wicket sweeping. In theory, then cutting off his runs and dependent on the need to make runs he's going to be forced to play through the off-side which he did on a few occasions playing straight drives bringing the potential to find the edge of the bat.
I found on that wicket the ball didn't turn much at all and didn't see anyone else turn it in any significant way. Although, as I said in the account of the match here I wasn't getting any real spin on the ball, so on a better day it might turn? If it is turning and you're able to bowl a reasonable line, the usual mantra applies... keep the ball off of anywhere leg-side, if you're able to do that, you're going to cause him problems, especially if you've got either a top-spinner, wrong-un or a ball that goes on. With the ball not turning, he struggled to get the ball through the covers (B) with the fielder intercepting the ball the majority of the time, again this will need to be one of your players that's willing to put their body on the line and dive around a little.
With the field set like this I reckon you're going to cut off most of his primary shots as well as reducing the run rate and keeping him on-strike. Anything that is a little off-line on the leg-side he is going to look to pull, so the potential for a wicket is there for that shot. But a stock Leg-Break on the off-stump varying flight, speed and the amount of spin is going to cause problems... edging it through to either the keeper or slips or with a variation such as a Top-Spinner cramping him up the close in fielders and you yourself are going to be in with a chance.
The other thing you might want to consider if you're a risk-taker and the game is either set in your favour or requires a more attacking approach is the tempter approach...
With this field, you do need to be bowling well, getting the ball on an off-stump line. Leave both areas A and B empty. The idea here is that you'd be tempting Owen to try and drive the ball through the off-side, or revert to a higher risk approach and attempt to fetch the ball from the off-side looking to hit it through zone B. Again, I reckon this may work if it entices him into playing aggressively looking to hit fours through the empty regions A and B. Combine stock Leg-Breaks with over-spun Leg-Breaks and Top-Spinners. 11 and 6 need to be your fastest and more agile fielders and six might mover round into a more mid-wicket position. I think this might induce a miss-hit leading edge of the bat that'd be caught by the close in fielders or if he manages to get something on it - one that might go up in the air a long way for the fielders at 11 and 6.
John Hearn
Update March 2020 during the Coronovirus pandemic. With a bit more time on my hands I've had another look at the Benfleet page and updated it and hopefully added a bit more info. Much of it gleaned from the Play cricket website - John's details can be found here but there's a summary below. In the game these notes are from he scored 47.
His records on play cricket go back to 1995, so he's experienced. He played well in our game as you can see from his wagon wheel. He was able to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps with some really nice shots. The late cuts I thought were pretty deft.
At no point did he look like he was going to get himself out and as you can see he had a good cover-drive. Unfortunately I didn't write this up at the time and I've had to play catch up, so some of this may be a bit vague. As I recall he didn't move his feet that much, but played me with soft hands fending the ball off into the pitch if it looked threatening - he may have stepped or reached forwards to the ball, but never left his crease and historically if the Play Cricket data is correct he's only been stumped twice since 1995. Anything loose and he had the ability to manuovre the ball into very precise gaps. Several of my balls went through the 3rd man zone via a nice little late cut that he has.
At the end of the 2019 season he averaged 28.3. Over the time he's played he scored 44 x 50's and 23 x 100's. His contribution to the side is 12.84% of the team runs and has an all time high score of 120.
How to get him out
Historically he's been caught 45.5% of the time and bowled 29% of the time. In 2019 this changed a bit - Bowled 44.4% of the time and Caught 22% of the time.
Check out some of my other posts here...
