One of the great challenges for bowlers is bowling at good batsmen when the wicket is slow and easy paced and there is minimal assistance for the ball – no pace, no bounce, no swing, nothing!

The first thing to realise is that there is nowhere to hide, so you need to accept the challenge for what it is – to get the other team out!

It is of critical importance that you keep this in mind throughout your performance. This risk of forgetting that you are there to get the batsmen out is settling for containment and, although tight bowling can be associated with wicket taking, you must never accept that you cannot get the batsman out. If you are aiming to contain and you succeed you will slow down the runs, whereas if you are aiming to take wickets and you succeed you’ll get players out and stop the runs – so be careful what you wish for!

The next step is to identify the best way to get the batsman out. In this situation the same principles of good bowling apply as in all conditions and you will need to be aggressive and relentlessly accurate in attacking the ‘top of off stump’.

Bowling to this plan gives you the maximum chance of taking wickets, as this strategy allows wickets to fall bowled, lbw and caught behind the wicket which are the most frequent ways batsmen are dismissed. Playing the percentages and persisting with this approach will give you a good chance of success. Additionally, bowling this line and length makes it difficult for the batsman to score freely as it does not give the batsman room to work with in terms of line and length.

However, there is another important dynamic that you will need to be mindful of when bowling on unhelpful pitches. If you are bowling all of your balls full and at the stumps (which is essentially the right idea), you may find that the batsman is settling into a routine of prodding forward. If you identify that this is the case you need to change the game. Batsmen love to settle into an easy routine of getting onto the front foot. If this is happening, you need to take the batsman out of his comfort zone and you can do this with use of your variation.

Here are some ideas:

• Make use of a few selectively used bouncers – Aggressive, short-pitched bowling with a surprise element is a great way to unsettle a batsman and force him onto the back foot. When you have pushed him back then you can look to attack at a fuller length again but the key idea is not to let the batsman settle and get comfortable. The bouncer is a great ball on a flat wicket as it may keep low and surprise the batsman, but most importantly it demonstrates your aggression and lets the batsman know that he can’t have it all his own way. You should aim to get your bouncer head high at the least!
• Vary your release points on the crease – Slight and subtle changes of the angle of release of the ball will, if nothing else, put the batsman on notice that he can’t get too comfortable against you and may lead to an error in judgment, particularly if the batsman is getting tired and lazy in terms of propping onto the front foot.
• Use your slower balls, cutters and Yorkers – Again, make the batsman work for his runs, don’t let him settle and the Yorker is a great ball anyway if bowled well, as if the batsman misses and you hit, you have a wicket. Cutters and slower balls help create errors in terms of catches to mid-on, mid-off, mid- wicket and cover and will break up a batsman’s rhythm.
• Attack new batsmen – The hardest part of a batsman’s inning is the start and no matter how flat the wicket you need to grab the opportunity to attack while it’s there by challenging the stumps, attacking fielders and channeled aggression.
• Set straight fields – If you are bowling the majority of your balls at the stumps you will need a straight field, including the key positions of mid-on and mid-off (these positions can be set a bit deeper than usual to let the batsman know he will have to hit the ball hard to score straight, which may cause him to make a mistake trying to overhit the ball), mid wicket, cover, first slip (no mater how flat the wicket is and how unlikely a nick may seem you never know your luck and don’t want to miss the opportunity should it arise) and fine leg.
• Bowl around the wicket – A change of angle will again make the batsman adjust to the different line and angle of release and going around the wicket is a very good variation for left arm bowlers to right hand batsmen and right arm bowlers to left hand batsmen when there is no swing.
• Be aggressive – Your job is to get the batsman out and you will need to be aggressive in your intent to dismiss the batsman, otherwise he will walk all over you. Show him with your body language and actions that you are after him and let him know he will have to bat very well to score runs against you.
• Be open to ideas form your teammates – Seek out the advice of you teammates in particular your captain and wicketkeeper, they may have some ideas or a different view of the game that may help you get a wicket.
• Enjoy the challenge – Although it will be hard work, knowing that you are able to compete with and dismiss batsmen when the conditions don’t suit you will be tremendously satisfying and great for your confidence.

Good Luck

Mark

Despite the fact that most of our cricket grounds are sporting football posts, there’s still plenty of cricket to be had.

It is great to have Test cricket back on the agenda after a long break and despite the big hitting of Twenty20 cricket, Test cricket still can’t be beaten for entertainment for me due to it’s ebbs and flows and the genuine contest of skill and temperament between batsmen and bowler.

Australia’s earned a hard fought win against a resurgent West Indies to go one up in the series. It was great to see a close contest played out over the full five days and from a coaching point I think it is worth taking a close look at two of Australia’s key performers in the Test.

Ricky Ponting bounced back to form after a forgettable series in Australia against India and in the IPL tournament, with a brilliant century. Significantly his performance was built on a lot of hard work, prior to the tour, in the nets at the Brisbane based Centre of Excellence using a giant video screen to analyse and then fine tune his game for peak performance.

Stuart Clark’s Man of the Match performance was engineered with meticulous preparation and his relentless ability to execute the basic skills of his game under pressure. Champion players, such as Clark, have the ability to execute the basic skills consistently and well and there is no better role model for a fast bowler than Clark in terms of relentless excellence in delivering line and length and although perhaps not spectacular, the pressure brought about through his level of skills enables him to dismiss the world’s top batsmen time and time again.

Importantly in addition to his wonderful command of line and length, prior to the Test, Clark made a point of studying video tape of Glenn McGrath’s previous outstanding performances in tours to the West Indies which underscores the value of preparation and shows no matter how good you are you can always keep learning.

The IPL is reaching the final stages of competition and has well and truly put Twenty20 cricket on the map. How Twenty20 will change cricket is yet to be seen, but it is clearly an exciting form of the game and is certainly here to stay! For those players who’d like to have some fun playing this exciting form of the game, Elite Cricket will be holding a Twenty20 tournament in January 2009 – details and entry forms will be posted on the website in the coming months.

Elite Cricket has our annual pre-season Specialist Fast and Spin Bowling and Wicketkeeping Academy programs running in July, August and September. I will be running the Wicketkeeping Academy and I’m very pleased to let you know former NSW spinner and current NSW coach David Freedman will be one of our spin coaches and Mark Cameron NSW Blues speedster will be coaching in our Fast Bowling program. The event and enrolment details for these programs will be posted on the website shortly.

The cricket season will roll around quickly and keen cricketers should soon be thinking about and planning their preparation for the season ahead. With this in mind I have posted a new series of articles on the website to help you think a little more about your cricket and would suggest you take some time to read them leading up to the season.

Cheers

Mark

Balance is a critical skill for successful stroke execution

The aim of a batsman is to score as many runs as possible as quickly as possible in order to provide their team with the runs to set a total to allow the team’s bowlers with the maximum amount of time in which to dismiss the other team or to chase the opposition team’s score.

In order to achieve this aim, a critical skill that a batsman must master is to understand the characteristics of the ball (line and length) and then to play the best possible stroke in response.

How does the batsman obtain the information about the ball? The batsman watches the ball out of the bowler’s hand to determine its line and length. Consequently, it is fair to say that visual skills play a very significant role in the success of a batsman. If you don’t know where the ball is, how can you play the right stroke in response?

Given the critical importance of visual skills, I would take this opportunity to parallel another daily life application where you need to use visual skills to interpret and understand precise information: reading!

What does your body do when you read? It remains stable. I believe we do this to enable our head to be still to allow our eyes to follow the letters and words on the page. This has a significant implication to batting as, if you agree that your eyes are critical to obtaining the important information when batting, it makes sense that a batsman remains as stable as possible to provide the eyes with the best possible opportunity to sight the ball, just as you do when you read.

This means that a batsman should hit the ball from a stable base. Although footwork is another vital component of batting, your eyes are more important, as your feet cannot see the ball! Your footwork must enable you to get into the best position to see the ball. If your feet are moving when you are trying to hit the ball so are your eyes! You don’t see people running down the street reading books! Additionally, when you have your force stabilised you also allow your power to be channelled through the bat.

Conclusion: A stable or balanced hitting position provides you with the best opportunity to watch and make judgements about the ball and delivers maximum power to the stroke. Balance demonstrates a greater degree of control of the quality of your skill execution. How can you expect to control the ball if you can’t control your own movements?

Good luck

Mark