Just had my last session of work related indoor cricket! A record showing of three turned up strangely, so we just had a single wicket competion. Two overs batting in the innings - one against each of the other two bowling. In the time we had we managed to get in three of these games, so not too bad, six overs of batting, six overs of fielding (read running around like a headless chicken), and six overs of bowling.
I was keen to try out a few of the bits and pieces from the coaching course. Obviously, I've been doing a bit myself - knocking a ball against a wall to practice driving, and a bit of one-step bowling. But I was surprised, nay shocked!, by how well I did today. In the 6 overs, I managed to score 47 runs, (and get out twice, but I'll forget about that until we've done the forward defense ;) ). In the bowling, I was trying to include the hip-drive, by pushing the front knee through - this resulted in a quicker ball every time I remembered to do it! Picked up a few wickets clean bowled with this, along with a reflex C&B off a slower ball.
The big difference in the batting, I think, was that I was more relaxed since I had an idea what I was trying to do - and that I was using the "backswing and step". These both contributed to a more fluid, straight, and powerful shot. It was a bit bizarre, in that I felt like I was hitting the ball with less effort and still getting it to race away to the back wall :/ I guess that's how timing works :)
I did hit a bump in one of my middle overs where I was trying to force the ball away, and reverted to swings and misses; edges going in the air; and driving the ball straight into the ground. But I recognised the issue, made myself relax - just watch the ball - and react ... and things came good!
Hopefully with a good winter re-inforcing the basics I can go out next year and do some damage. Priority going to beating this years average of 1 :D
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4 comments:
That sounds good Ed 47 in 6 overs! It says you practice knocking up against a wall. Where do you do this and using what kind of ball?
Anywhere I can tbh! Out the back of our house in Dublin there's a little bit of room to practice with a tennis ball in the garden; down home, we've a gable end with no windows - so I can have a go with a hockey ball; and recently I've been trying to play with a table-tennis ball in our kitchen - don't want to piss my housemates off too much though, so this is limited to when there's no-one about ;)
It's 11.30 at night and in our house the bedrooms are all downstairs and I've just been flicking the ball and a couple of times I've missed catching it and it's gone clattering round the furniture and making a lot of noise, luckily no-one woke up, so I've had to revert to going downstairs in the kitchen and throwing a foam ball around - it's not quite the same.
Ed haven't heard anything from you for months, but noted you still have a look in on my blog. Have you given up on cricket or are you just too busy?
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