Custom Bats Cricket Forum
General Cricket => Cricket Training, Fitness and Injuries => Topic started by: tommo256 on April 13, 2010, 08:12:59 PM
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Hello,
I can bat against pace and that but the minute a short ball is dropped in my reactions die and I get hit and just lose it. Can someone help guys?
x
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Im guessing your already wearing a helmet as they can boost your confidence, regarding the short ball decide either to play the hook or not ? if not then just get out of the way and don't play a hook shot bud just duck or sway out of the way. Once your confidence returns then practice playing the hook and pull with a tennis ball.
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Yeah I never bat without a lid. Er I work on the theory a dot ball is a wasted ball so I try and play everything.
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one short i have been working on to combat the short ball, is to step slightly to the off-side and stand tall and flick it backwards
Although I wouldn't recommend this, requires quite a lot of confidence, I just find it easy to play than the hook.
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That's why your getting hit then bud unfortunately unless your Tendulkar then you cant score off every ball and if a shot is getting you hurt then its pretty simple stop playing the shot until you can work in the nets on your technique. Steve Waugh wasn't a great player of the short ball and look at the runs he scored as he adapted his game to suit.
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Look at kallis, he has developed the upper cut over the keeper for short balls
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And when I try to block I still get one n the ribs so I dont know :/
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this one helped me with the back foot to the quicker bowlers :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6IuI85HRNw
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Best advice is throw downs from a short range (10-15 yards), with you batting with full gear on in the nets, just get someone to feed you 10 overs worth of short balls at varied paces, that way you recognise both length and speed, either that or get someone to serve some tennis balls at you from the same distance at your body, again teaching yourself to cope both with pace and the short ball length.
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Good advise from Watson and Choppy. Practice on concrete with someone hitting tennis balls at you with a tennis racket. I did that for years as a youngster with my older brother and swear that is why i love fast bowling and play it well.
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Cheers guys..I am gonna go down tomorrow and work on it with a mate :)
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Im guessing your already wearing a helmet as they can boost your confidence, regarding the short ball decide either to play the hook or not ? if not then just get out of the way and don't play a hook shot bud just duck or sway out of the way. Once your confidence returns then practice playing the hook and pull with a tennis ball.
This makes perfect sense. I struggle against the short ball so I practice with tennis balls. Batting in nets last week the first half I didn't wear a lid and it affected me alot, second half I wore one and was back to normal.
It's perfectly normal to not want to get hit but sometimes you might as the bowler maybe too good. Just watch the ball all the time and if it's going to hit you then take the required action to move out the way or just defend it, I've been hit a couple of times and it doesn't hurt as much as you expect. Just gotta get on with it and make sure the bowler doesn't get the better of you :)
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to be honest unless the ball is very high i try and play the pull or hook to every short ball. i find that whenever i tend to attempt the shot even when im low on confidence, i time the ball well becuase its based on natural instincts. this also boosts your confidence against the short ball to attempt other shots such as the upper cut, late cut etc....
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to be honest unless the ball is very high i try and play the pull or hook to every short ball. i find that whenever i tend to attempt the shot even when im low on confidence, i time the ball well becuase its based on natural instincts. this also boosts your confidence against the short ball to attempt other shots such as the upper cut, late cut etc....
This is a pretty interesting approach - as you play a higher standard you may get found out a little, I am not saying you definitely will, but certainly once you start facing guys who are properly fast (78+mph) you need to have a strong defence to get your eye in before you take them on. Playing a defensive shot out of the middle of the bat can give you as much confidence as hitting one for 4 early on - while smashing one out of the park can get the blood going a lot and could cause over confidence. These are obviously my views only and from a top order batsman. If you bat at 5 or 6 when the ball is softer you can take a bolder approach.
Personally I tend not to go after the quicks especially early on when they dig it in as I prefer to hit the ball of the front foot. As a result I try to let the quicks waste a few short ones by knocking them for one or letting them go and getting them to pitch it up to me. Obviously a longhop goes the distance.
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good points there buzz. i see what you mean. i do have this problem when facing one bowler at our club, some people reckon he bowls at around 75 and i often face him on a quick artificial and i sometimes tend to get half way into the shot and the ball ends up getting big on me and i lob it in the air. i suppose its all about picking the line and length of the ball as early as possible and picking the right shot to play....
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what is the name of that bowler?
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my approach let me down tonight in the nets, pinned on the upper arm OUCH!
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That confidence a little...uh....bruised now? hehe
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no not at all haha! i played a pull shot right off my nose the next ball! my arm is rather bruised though......
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Good article on playing the short ball...
http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/475277.html
with salient point: More importantly, he shows he is comfortable against the short ball. That is the key.
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Here is Steve James (in today's Torygraph)- not normally one of the "back in my day" brigade - but in this case I think he has a point
Pakistan bowler Shoaib Akhtar breathes new life into cricket's fast show by Steve James
For many palpable reasons it has been a miserable cricketing summer. Only occasionally has the on-field temperature risen above the tepidness a crazily congested schedule permits.
But when Australia’s supremely fast bowler, Shaun Tait, was summoned belatedly for the one-day series against England, the mercury certainly shifted.
And there was another glimpse of similar frisson at Cardiff last Sunday. There he was, the ever-controversial old-stager, Shoaib Akhtar, strutting his stuff for Pakistan. Barrel-chested, lips pouting, nostrils flaring and locks flowing, he charged in. He bowled short and he bowled fast. The speedometer climbed well above 90mph.
And he was not short of advice for the batsmen from the moment he bounced Craig Kieswetter first ball. Soon he was blowing a kiss to the same batsman as Kieswetter made his dejected way off. It was pure, exhilarating theatre.
Indeed, though Akhtar rather surprisingly sported “Akhter” on his back, it should of course have read ‘Actor’. For that’s what most of these fast men are. They feign their aggression, talk the pugilistic talk but deep down most are pussycats.
Take Hampshire’s Dominic Cork in the recent Friends Provident t20 finals day. He hit Somerset’s Kieron Pollard a nasty blow on the eye. Suddenly he transmogrified into Florence Nightingale. He couldn’t have done more for the injured party. He was clearly deeply affected by the whole episode.
I actually think that the once incredibly irritating Cork has matured into a decent chap, but it did make me laugh. Didn’t he and others of that ilk often scream “I’m gonna kill you!” at trembling willow-holders like me?
But not all are soft underneath. Australia’s Jeff Thomson was legendary for a nastiness that bordered upon barbarity. He was once quoted as saying that he enjoyed hitting batsmen and didn’t mind them “rolling around screaming” or leaving “blood on the pitch”. His partner in crime, Dennis Lillee, was scarcely less vicious.
When the West Indian Andy Roberts once hit Colin Cowdrey at Basingstoke in 1974, while concerned fielders huddled around the felled batsman, Roberts stood alone simply awaiting the next man in. Cowdrey had simply been another victim of Roberts’ famed one-two bouncer trick: the first at a pace that might encourage a hook shot, the second much, much quicker.
Courtney Walsh could do something similar. Once at Swansea against Gloucestershire I hooked him for four. It was the end of the over and wicketkeeper Jack Russell strolled past. “Big mistake, Jamer,” he growled. It did not take long to discover what he meant. For his next over Walsh changed to around the wicket, and peppered me.
For a moment I knew how Mike Atherton felt in Jamaica in 1994 when Walsh famously produced one of the most sustained and ferocious spells of fast bowling in the game’s history. Atherton, heroically, lasted two hours. I did not linger quite as long.
It is with some relief that I can recount that I never faced Surrey’s magnificently menacing Sylvester Clarke. But I faced a few others, and have a few war wounds to prove it. Was I scared? Maybe not, but I was certainly very apprehensive. Not that I backed away or anything, but sleep was certainly elusive in those days.
I could identify with Somerset’s Mark Lathwell, who was once asked privately about his thoughts as the bowler approached. “It’s going to be a bouncer,” he said.
“In my day” is often not a pretty policy, but in relation to fast bowling it is true. There simply are not many fast bowlers around today. For good reason no one seems to wear armguards anymore. Russell used to wear one on each arm!
One stalwart county opener told me recently that last season in the First Division he faced only two ‘proper’ bouncers. Goodness, if we got only two an over it was a relief. The first over I faced in first-class cricket was from the South African Garth Le Roux. The first three balls? Three bouncers, of course.
Just in county second-team cricket you would face the likes of Allan Donald, Patrick Patterson, George Ferris and Tony Merrick. In one such match at Leicestershire I faced another West Indian, Winston Benjamin, who was unhappy with the condition of the ball. So he bowled me two overs of bouncers. Yep, every single ball whistled past my nose.
Akhtar will be in action again on Tuesday night at Cardiff. Catch him while you can. He’s an endangered species.
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Good article there Buzz!
I'm the first to admit I'm not good against a quick short ball, got pinned a few times earlier this year playing two leagues above my normal standard and facing a couple of guys who were far too good for me - they both spent some time in South Africa over the winter with the Sussex Academy. For some reason the chaps on the team I was playing for weren't too keen on opening so I got the first ball of the innings which was a bouncer that I tried to hook it and I didn't get near it with my bat, although my lid proved quite useful. The other chap got me on the arm and one into the gut, my decision to try to smash everything didn't really work out! If I ever have to face them again I'll have to adopt a different approach to batting :-)
When you aren't used to face bowling that is much faster than 65mph (I think most bowlers are a lot slower than they imagine) playing the short ball off someone who allegedly bowls at about 80mph isn't easy so god knows what facing someone properly quick would be like....
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I have found being hit by a few hockey balls works wonders as you learn not to be afraid just watch the thing and move out of the way quick
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Facing any type of bowling becomes easier the more you face it as long as you have some ability. Face as much pace as you can and just play your natural game but don't be too expansive early on until you feel its becoming easier. If you are having a particular problem with a certain shot then just don't play it until your confidence is there.
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I have found being hit by a few hockey balls works wonders as you learn not to be afraid just watch the thing and move out of the way quick
:) damn right, being a post man at short corners I guess I should adopt the same strategy as facing a drag flicker....watch the ball all the way.
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I face some fairly decent quicks opening the batting for my club. I find the short ball is a lot easier to play than something full and swinging, I'm a back foot player tho so that's always going to be the case or me. Something i always try to remember is that if your not in position to play the shot, the ball isn't going to bowl you so you always have the option to just sway or duck under it, as has been mentioned before the longer your there the easier it gets. Very satisfying to hear a quick bouncer slap the keepers gloves when you've just ducked under it and the bowlers gotta march back to have another go lol. As for getting hit, once the adrenalin is flowing i rarely feel any pain getting hit, just forget it and don't let it make you pre meditate the short ball.
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:) damn right, being a post man at short corners I guess I should adopt the same strategy as facing a drag flicker....watch the ball all the way.
Same here standing on a post when someone is trying to hit you you learn to watch the ball which is the key to playing fast bowling and hockey balls seem to travel faster than cricket balls especially when they raise a hit
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Was reading this and thought I would post it here...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/may/10/county-cricket-live-blog-durham-somerset
12.26pm: Mike Selvey writes:
Last winter, quite by chance, I found myself travelling out to Australia with Viv Richards, who was on his way to do some 'King and I '-type gigs with Rodney Hogg, the former Australian fast bowler. We've know each other a long time, Viv and I, but I'd never got round to asking him one particular question. So I did. "If you had to choose four fast bowlers of your time with West Indies, which would they be?" " Well," he replied," I would have Malcolm. And I would have Andy. And I would have Mikey." Then he pondered a little longer. " And I would have Curtly." So there you have it, Viv Richards' dream attack: Malcolm Marshall, the slithering genius; Andy Roberts, cerebral, calculating, the Godfather of the modern West Indian pacemen; Michael Holding, Ferrari or Rolls Royce, and quite possibly the most beautiful athlete to grace a cricket field; and Curtly Ambrose, surging relentlessly in. Look at the paucity around the world today, and understand what daunting really means.
Those four never played together of course, but then consider those that failed to make Viv's list. Take for example that photograph, snapped in 1981 in Port-of-Spain, of arguably the most chilling pace quartet of them all, standing, arms folded and unsmiling, in echelon, in height order: first Roberts to the fore; then Holding; next Colin Croft, the smiling assassin who, he once said, would bounce the crap out of his grandmother if it meant a wicket; and the Big Bird, Joel Garner, gentle and jovial in reality, who could pepper your ribcage or bust your foot with equal felicity. Neither Croft nor Garner got onto Viv's list. Nor did Patrick Patterson, the only man to make Graham Gooch genuinely fear for his well-being; nor the faithful indefatigable Courtney Walsh who took more wickets than any of them. Sylvester Clarke, considered the nastiest of the lot, scarcely got a game for West Indies and neither did Middlesex's Diamond, Wayne Daniel. Both would walk into any other international team of the past three decades. Such times of plenty and never to be seen again.
Holding, Roberts and Garner were among those who attended Monday evening's premier of Fire In Babylon, the socio-documentary that tells the story of West Indies rise to dominance in the second part of the 70s and through the decade that followed and what it meant to the region. I did an interview for the movie while in Antigua, but like others who witnessed it at first hand, but were not from West Indies, it did not make the final cut. Instead, the director chose to tell the story exclusively through West Indian eyes, which is understandable, but to my mind, a pity as well because there are those who would be able to place into proper perspective quite what it was like to face these bowlers for a living (" Dying ain't much of a living" as the Outlaw Josie Wales said), and what was in the mind, not least in those days before helmets offered some measure of protection from the most serious of injuries.
So to redress the balance, I can try to convey how a tail end batsman, without the requisite skills, or indeed reactions, of the more celebrated willow-wielders, coped, or more often than not, failed to cope. I can say, without fear of contradiction, that never in my life had I played in a match with a bowler as swift as Michael Holding. From the Old Trafford dressing room, side on to play, it was almost impossible to follow the flight of the ball from hand to the gloves of Deryck Murray. And it was this that I walked out to face. Holding was bowling from the Warwick Road end, and as I took guard, was standing at the end of his run, in a different postcode. As indeed was keeper and ring of slip fielders. I imagine there was a short leg (for the life of me I cannot remember) but that apart it was a lonely place, with non-striker the nearest point of human contact.
It was not until other occasions that I realised that a trick was not to focus on Holding until he was actually approaching the crease. For now, in the distance, I saw him duck his head in that way that a thoroughbred might on the Newmarket gallops that he inhabits now whenever he can, and begin his majestic run. It was mesmerising, for as he strode, Holding's head, held high, just swivelled slightly from side to side. Cobra, I am told, hypnotise prey in a similar swaying manner. He reached the crease, and the ball flew from his hand. A split second later, the ball exploded from the middle of my bat and ricocheted (there is no other word for it) back past the bowler, and we scampered two runs. It even drew some applause. The thing was, here was a bowler of such purity that you never lost sight of the ball, yet who could propel it at such velocity that although in vision all the time, it was too fast for the reaction of someone of my capabilities. And that is the most chilling part of all.
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Beautifully written from old Selvey... well spotted Buzz
When will the movie be available on DVD as it wont be in the cinema over here?
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Great article Buzz!
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After. Yeaterday batting 20 overs on intresting pitch getting hit on grill shoulder (hat might do the jobv sometime s you need to take a few blows for the team
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I used to be crap with short bowling. I would try to hit them all the time and normally get out, then i tried to leave them which i did find i was missing alot of runs, as my reaction to get out of the way soon as possible. When a bowler with half a brain see's this, the normal thing to do is to keep it there.
With the help of one of our players/coach of past (Chris Gladwin), he set up a bowling machine and i had between 100-200 balls at a continually short pitch, with my backfoot tied to rope to i could only move back. I had this for about 3 weeks. I found with the help of the coach, the continuing short ball and the knowing it will be at a short pitch, i found my position in the right place. I know that knowing where the ball is going to pitch is a good advantage, but in a game situation where you can't tell the bowler where to pitch, i found it to be a great help as my position was perfect for me.
Another tip he gave me was to leave my position to the last possible minute due to my style of play.
So, the age old saying made true to me, practice practice practice.
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I used to be crap with short bowling. I would try to hit them all the time and normally get out, then i tried to leave them which i did find i was missing alot of runs, as my reaction to get out of the way soon as possible. When a bowler with half a brain see's this, the normal thing to do is to keep it there.
With the help of one of our players/coach of past (Chris Gladwin), he set up a bowling machine and i had between 100-200 balls at a continually short pitch, with my backfoot tied to rope to i could only move back. I had this for about 3 weeks. I found with the help of the coach, the continuing short ball and the knowing it will be at a short pitch, i found my position in the right place. I know that knowing where the ball is going to pitch is a good advantage, but in a game situation where you can't tell the bowler where to pitch, i found it to be a great help as my position was perfect for me.
Another tip he gave me was to leave my position to the last possible minute due to my style of play.
So, the age old saying made true to me, practice practice practice.
I've done the same thing recently minus using a rope and can say much the same as you. The more I've practiced it the more comfortable I have become.
It's helped my fielding as well, as I used to fear fielding close to the bat, but now knowing that I've practiced the short ball, I actually am beginning to relish being close in to the action.