Print

[pacman75cricket]

Kept yesterday for the first time ever at a youthful 36(lol).

A couple of byes. A few stops/takes down the legside.

No chances fumbled a few.

Is this a good start was pretty pleased needs practice.

[MPingJ]

Nice! Similar situation with me. Captain asked/ordered me to keep wicket as usual keeper was away for a month. Never done it in a match before. Took an edge 2nd over fairly easily but then dropped a skier. I blame the howling wind 
Felt it in the quads and hamstrings in the evening after standing up for spinners! never really appreciated how hard it is tbh. also got ball and bails in the face after one of the spinners bowled someone. needless to say I got a helmet on straight after that!

[pacman75cricket]

Opposition got them for one didn't have any chances only one over of spin so will see if I need to keep again

[Butterfingerz]

Good effort, you plan on doing it again?

[pacman75cricket]

Would like to see if I can take chances as seen others look ok then drop when chances come.

But it seemed ok.

[shazz]

On the chances front the best thing to do is to stay relaxed when the ball is edged, so many keepers tense up, and hence drop the ball...

[Butterfingerz]

chances will come you just need to stay focused on the basics...

1. Soft hands -
2. good feet positioning and movement - good foot work reduces the need to dive
3. stay low for longer - hands come up with the ball
4. Practice, practice, practise

[BakarooBonzai]

chances will come you just need to stay focused on the basics...

1. Soft hands -
2. good feet positioning and movement - good foot work reduces the need to dive
3. stay low for longer - hands come up with the ball
4. Practice, practice, practise

Right on the money; my keeping really improved after I started working on my foot work and staying low till the ball had pitched.  I would also recommend some drills to improve foot work and hand to eye coordination.  I found some on youtube that worked out pretty well for me.  I'll post them if I can find it again.

[pacman75cricket]

Looks like I may have the wicketkeeping gig for the foreseeable future as kept again today did ok. Then took my first take diving in front of first slip for a diving catch.

Any drills for standing up as that's where I think keeper shows his skill.

[Butterfingerz]

Looks like I may have the wicketkeeping gig for the foreseeable future as kept again today did ok. Then took my first take diving in front of first slip for a diving catch.

Any drills for standing up as that's where I think keeper shows his skill.

Set up two stumps representing both sides of the return crease, start from the centre line and move 'keeper style' from one to the other. When comfortable start getting lower until a point you have your hands down by your ankles. This can and will take time but dont give up

Once your comfortable moving left and right have someone knealt down at what would be a good length and 'flick' the ball towards you from ground level. You must start in a normal crouched position. Have them vary their aim from left to right. Once you feel comfortable doing this then place a batter in the way. You will now be able to practice loosing sight of the ball 

[BakarooBonzai]

I use the following drill to sharpen up my responses when standing up.  Put up stumps (even 1) and have someone throw a ball on the bounce (not very hard), and practice taking the ball.  Then place a chair to simulate the batsman and have them pitch the ball in between the legs.  So when you are standing up, the ball should disappear inflight for a bit then reappear on the other side.  After you get used to that tell the thrower to impart some gentle spin so the ball will deviate a bit in either direction.  Randomize this as much as possible.  Couple of things this works on, one is staying down as long as possible so that you can rise with the ball.  Second is to get your hands and feet moving even with unpredictable bounce or view being hindered by a wondering batsmen.  Sounds a bit silly but it works, I use this to practice for any around the wicket bowlers and the spinners.  Btw this is not my invention, picked it off some website or book, so credit to whoever it is.  One caution is, not use good chair, you will break it.  Now I use a plastic chair

[mally777]

I have found that playing Indoor Cricket (8 a side) has been the biggest benefit for my keeping of anything I have done. You have to stand up to everyone due to the size of the indoor court and the game is highly reliant on fielding sharpness, and would highly recomment this to any keepers.