Missed matches and better batting

Well, as it turned out, during Saturday I got the offer to play on Sunday for the 3rds. Unfortunately, by then I had plans and had to turn it down. In some ways I'm glad I didn't play, I've been pretty much exhausted the past few weeks and I don't really know why! I've been getting plenty of early nights, but I just can't wake up of a morning and I'm knackered all day!

Had a training session last Friday, and my worst fears came true with regard to the state of the pitch There are deep tyre tracks all over the outfield and one section where a bus or something got stuck so it was towed out by a tractor, with lots of bits of wood and sand thrown in under the tyres for grip. This left one MIGHTY big mess behind it. Luckily this was outside the boundary, but it is right in front of the changing rooms and so it would be embaressing to bring other teams to the ground with it in this state.

The 1sts home game was cancelled on Sunday, so we'll have to see if we can flatten the field somehow before next weekend if we're to have any hope of getting games in before the end of the season.

We still went ahead with the training session, making sure not to run too hard near the dug-up sections. Went pretty well, there were around 7 of us there, so everyone got to bat for around 20 minutes, and we all bowled a good few balls.

My bowling wasn't too bad, but it didn't trouble anybody too much. I've mentioned before that my bowling doesn't look up to much outside of match situations, as there isn't enough swing or seam to force wickets. Just line and length that people tend to get themselves out to. To back this up, when we set targets for the batsman near the end of his time, like 20 runs from 8 balls (with liberal scoring ;)) - the batsmen found it more difficult to get the ball away.

I was very happy with my batting though. I think my solo practice getting my eye in is starting to pay off, as I found it easy enough to connect with the ball. Previously I could just about stop a ball that was coming straight at me, but now I'm able to get it off the square fairly regularly. Probably about 30% would have gone straight to Mid-off, but when I'm happy that I can hit the ball, I'll start worrying about placing it.

One ball that is still giving me a lot of trouble is the one down leg, or on my pads. Up until now I was happy to leave it, or step inside it (I bat outside leg so unlikely to get bowled around legs). But it happens so often that it feels like an opportunity missed. I think I should be playing it with a leg glance, but I never seem to have enough time to play the shot. Most of the time, I ended up swivelling on my back foot and playing across it - which is a recipe for disaster. Some time I will manage to connect and it will either be a leading edge or a tickle to the keeper From the Bob Woolmer videos on Youtube, I think I should be playing it kinda like a back foot drive - as in with the full face of the bat, and then turn the wrists on contact. I have been able to do this on the front foot to a shorter ball in the past - where I get the bat out in front of the pad as if to defend and then turn the wrists. I'll have to get someone to feed me throwdowns on my pads to see if I can figure it out.

I'm not sure at the moment if we have nets tomorrow, our ladies team are supposed to be playing, but with the pitch in the state it is I'm not sure it will happen.