My team are in a rut too. We are bottom with only one win. We are a third team so we will get shafted in the summer holidays when more people are away in the higher teams and our own.
As others have said it is amateur cricket so there is usually loads of room for personal improvement with practice etc but not many have the time or desire.
I've noticed our warm ups are very lacklustre which gets carried into the game. I do question the captain's decisions more and more but I know he cares and is doing his best.
I'm usually a keeper but the other night I fielded in the outfield, I realised how easy it is to switch off and had to really get myself up for each delivery so I could attack the ball when it came to me. It explains to me why we can be so bad in the field and that ultimately costs us wickets and lots of runs.
The other problem we have is batting second, we start so cautiously, I'm guessing because we are low on confidence but that just lets the bowlers settle into their groove and the run rate climbs, then we have to be aggressive and lose wickets fast. I wonder if we would be better sending in two pinch hitters to get a quick 30-40 runs and make their captain do something he doesn't want to.
We don't do warmups and never really have. A few times I or another player has tried to introduce it, but the captain and a few of the older players just sit watching us from the pavilion.
We lose a lot of games simply through dropping catches, failing to make easy stops on the boundary.
I had a friendly argument the other day with a bloke who said the best way to chase a total was to score slowly and keep wickets in hand and then blast you way over the line in the last 10 overs. I said I've been playing league cricket for 20 years, I've seen 100s of teams try that tactic, and it never works. Chasing 200 off 40, getting to 60-1 off 20 will never, ever win you the game. You only need to lose a couple of wickets and suddenly you have 2 new batsman at the crease who have to try and score at a run a ball from the off. 60-1 off 20 can easily become 65-3 off 22, and becomes 90-3 off 30 as the new batsmen try to play themselves in, and now you need 11 an over with the best bowlers about to come back on and it ain't going to happen.
The best way, the only way, to chase a total is to try and get on top of the run rate within the first 5-6 overs, and aim to win the game with 5 overs to spare. That way, if you have a little wobble, you can use those 5 overs to rebuild. and still stay ahead of the rate.
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Topic: How does one stay motivated during a bad team run? (Read 8692 times)