Hi Folks,
You may remember a few weeks ago I purchased one of Asads plain clearance bats. It was a 2'7 in weight and despite some staining, Asad thought it went well. Taking the man on his word I bought the bat for £65+postage. Asad kindly threw in an additional bat grip which because I have small hands I wasn't going to use, but having seen the thin handle decided to stick it on. Initial impressions were good, the photos provided were a true representation and the bat seemed to have alot more meat than I was expecting.
One thing I did notice was the edges weren't even, I think 1 edge was 38mm and the other was 34mm. Not sure if this was part of the reason it was a clearance item and it probably doesn't make much difference to a player of my ability! What I did notice was it had bigger edges and spine than my 2'10/11 bat with a similar profile, so that was good news.
I gave it a light oiling and knocked it in for roughly 4-5 hours, maybe more before use. I used it for the first time on Thursday in a 20/20 match and scored 49. 20/20 games aren't the best games to judge a bats performance due to the huge amount of slogging that goes on, but I hit enogh in the middle to suggest it was a good investment. It was also nice to feel the ball ping off even the few defensive shots I played. Initial thoughts are that it's on a par with the heavier bats,so I'm very happy. I have changed the bat grip to a GM one and stuck a protective sheet over the bat, just to help keep the face clean of marks for the first few innings. I'll update my review when I play a proper knock with it.