Swining ball vs Ball Stopping

India vs Newzeland 4th ODI started the debate about Indian Batsman trouble against the moving ball.
India all out for 92(https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/india-in-new-zealand-2018-19-1153688/new-zealand-vs-india-4th-odi-1153694/full-scorecard) .one of the other instance in recent past was against Srilanka in dharmshala (https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18074/scorecard/1122726/india-vs-sri-lanka-1st-odi-sl-in-india-2017-18) . Some of the batsman truly out due to swinging ball but at least two dismissal was due to slow/damp nature of the surface.

Rohit sharma & Shubman Gill got out caught by Bowler/Trent boult & both instance , I believe ball swing and stopped. At the same token, kedar jadhav's dismissal wad due to swing .

Kedar Jhadhav played some good inning in Australia , He is not power hitter but street smart cricketer. I was disappointed with his technique here . Let's take Kedar Jhadav's dismissal.

You can see that before the bowl,his head is falling on Offside which does not give him the chance when bowl swings back in. Majority of the right hand batsman will struggle against left arm bowler swinging the bowl in from the middle/off stump.

Now you look at the identical dismissal of Rohit Sharma & Shubman Gill. They both adjusted well to the swing . Look at their Front Foot/Left Foot it's on Middle & Leg so you rule out two mode of dismissal (LBW & Bowled) if you look into the recent Past(Asia cup against Junaid) , lot of Indian top order put their foot across too far (off and Middle & head falling to Offside) which caused the trouble for them(Right Handers).

First image is Rohit Sharma where second frame is Shubman Gill. You can clearly see the middle & off stump , they adjusted well to the in swinging ball but ball stopped it hit to higher part of the bat & created caught & bowled dismissal. I think this is hardest thing to adjust as you need to delay your shot for fraction of seconds. You can feel sorry for the Shubman Gill as this is his debut game. He Played reasonably well. He played lag glance for the 4 which suggested that not all the bowl stopped . Shubman Gill got hit by Trent Boult bouncer earlier but side on angle suggested he was early on the pull.He was not late on the Pull .

As the game progress ,damp surface  becomes better, where you still get the movement/swing but ball does not stop . This has happened mostly on damp wicket . India vs Srilanka game against Srilanka where India got all out 112(http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18074/scorecard/1122726/india-vs-sri-lanka-1st-odi-sl-in-india-2017-18) .

This is just to point out subtle difference between  mode of dismissal.
Last Year we found twice , Charlottesville pitched behaved same where ball was stopping & gradually pitch eased out.

Richmond T20 One Last Hurdle

I was really happy with batting efforts . Devang & Bhavin Played really well. Big innings was complemented by Jamai & Rahil's Cameo. 165 was par score but our bowling & Fielding was big letdown.  We eventually won with 2 runs so talks shifted about bhavin's reluctantance to run third run final over.  We should have won with 20 to 50 run margin.

Devang's Batting : 55 from 41 bowls :

     Though  Devang got 2 life/Dropped ,I personally feel that not much wrong with the shot he played. If I deduct 4 and 6 , Devang scored 35 runs in Singles/doubles from 37 balls . This is 3rd time during T20 seasons I felt that he was mentally switched on. more than technically , Mental make up made the big difference. 

    Final will be annother challenge . RICC bowling is more discplined. Normally, They bowl stump to stump line which forces opposition to hit longer boundary.  If you  play across the line than you will get out either LBW/Bowled . Also I found older video( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgGyDns-Gpo&t=7198s ). they are bowling majority ball on way outside offstump(Syed Ali & Akram )  but not short enough .

 On Technical front, make sure his head does not fall over offside,specially againt fayaz. This will allow to hit in the V . Your offside play will come more into play against other bowlers .if they bowl in leg side(specically fayaz) than you will not miss it. using depth of the crease will help against Syed . Because of the big ground , you can maniuplate the field.

But for me more than Technical, I want devang to mentally switched on .

Devang's Bowling :
   Apart from few bad balls early in the inning , I do not feel like anything to change in the bowling.

Match Report TACC vs TWCC 2016

Match Analysis

our batting was ok. as far as wide bowl is concern,bowling was much better .
we gave more extra due to left & right hand combination,

Fielding was really bad. Apart from some good catch, it needs more improvement.
we are making basic mistake & panicking .


Batting :
We have a good opening partnership. TWCC is average bowling side.
Bowl was skidding after pitching , Lot of bowl we could not touch & some we could not
pierce the field. Most of the ball was way outside. Due to pace of the bowl, all my shot was reaching to the fielder very quickly.
Some mistime shot did not reach to the fielder we took some singles.bowling outside off with back/short of length Devin packed the offside with third man.
Field Placement was good only problem that they bowl lot of wide ball .
Apart from one shot Pappu did not loose the shape, Luckily pappu did not hit that ball.
Lot of people do not get this but when you try to hit too hard you loose the shape. JD Was angling across from the Leg.
 Pappu got out because of natural angle & late swing.
JD was angling across from the leg.As a opener we both are susceptible to leg side bowling .
Mine is work in progress. According to JD ,He tried to swing the ball around my leg but bowl did not swing
I flicked that to six. All the run I scored , Ball was full.


One of the risky single I took, Luckily it was weaker fielder/Brijesh.
This was  error on my side & jay was running on the danger end.

considering first game jay was nervous. He was asking me about which way ball will move. From my personal
experience, even good bowler bowl few bad ball. Play ball according to it''s merit & watch the ball
as closely as possible.If this sounds simple it's most difficult thing to do.

Though good opening ,we fell short of playing 40 Overs. Hint to the Captain : Do not worry about the run rate.

Devang's was in full flow. He did not try to over hit & hold his shape. They did not set long on or long off which allowed
me & Devang to take a chance to clear the fielder. Devang used the depth of the crease & played some cracking cut shot.
His LBW was marginal call considering the height. But We need to deal with this.

Vimalbhai survived couple of close calls. Short pitch stuff almost worked. After some jittery moments,He settled it down.
I also noticed that He was moving away from the batting crease between the delivery that's good way to calm down
& focus on next ball. He played some cracking shots in the off drive but I was most pleased with his defensive shot.
Just reminded me that what great sunil gavaskar told " Left Handed batsman is always Elegant "

Jack's wicket felt at very crucial time. Bhavin was looking determined but got out to good delivery.
Brijesh was bowling that akward length & He did not offer bad ball. I was not sure about the nimeshkumar's position.
I wanted him one down as he can continue his good form from the tennis. He needs to make sure his bat needs to be ready.

Nimesh kept the scorboard tickking but got out at wrong time. After one hit JD also threw his wicket.
Just like tennis , We need to consider the batting order where we need somebody to play with Doctor to complete 40 Overs.

Myself/BK/vims/ may need to bat down the order with Doctor. I saw JD got irritated with the single refused by doctor.
Stakes are very high when you are last wicket vs plenty of wickets. I hope JD get this .

Overall it was decent batting efforts. I will consider TWCC gave extra 30 runs more in byes. For future game we need to assume
we will get only 20 runs in extras, anything more will be  Bonus.


Bowling :
Our bowling was more disciplined in terms of line. I saw the signal for bowling short for JD but It's hard for him.That's not natural length for him.
We wasted fielder at square leg.We still need to identify the new ball bowler who can swing . it's not the pace but awkward length & some swing
that makes difference.We got lucky with few soft dismissals.

Jack's Bowling :

 After shoulder injury jack's length has been superb.He use full length bowl occasionally .
Natural angle that makes ball go away for the right hander works wonder for him.
He should be change bowler because he does not need the New ball to swing, provided other bowlers are going ok.
I was surprised by finishing his overs but that was right call as he removed well set batsman .

Doctor bowled excellent first over but he lost the rhythm or he was tired. I felt in last few overs he bowled
too full to Sam.I am still searching for his stump to stump line bowling.

For left handers pappu is better choice because he brings the ball in. Pappu & Doctor is rhythm bowler so it's hard to tell when they will bowl great spell but I always felt that it's near by.JD bowled with his usual line & length.
With his natural pace & inward movement, JD could be dangerous bowler once he figure out where to pitch the ball!!!

I was surprised that Bhavin did not bowl enough.Bhavin may go for more run but primarily reason for his going for more run is bowling full, If he use depth of bowling crease that could be easily fix.our ground offers extra bounce so it's not easy to cut slower bowlers.

Our ground has some extra bounce & when you flight the ball you may end up bowling full toss. To me it's easier to hit full toss than short ball of the spinner. Bhavin should  use the depth of the bowling crease.This will help the length & due to extra bounce it's not easy to hit the slow bowler's short ball. Sam was perfect candidate for the slow bowler.

Overall Our bowling is still lack luster.If we can crack the code with new ball bowling than we will be difficult side to beat. I am hoping that Nick
can bring some freshness to our bowling. I played two overs of Nick in practice . He adjusted the length quickly but did not force me to play.

I was looking for the scorecard of VAK vs UICC(http://macc.chauka.in/match_details.php?match_id=34897&team_id=6707). Nisar abdul took 7 wickets & all of them bowled.Good bowler can make weak team stronger. we need to invest more time in new ball bowling.

Fielding :

Our fielding was really bad, part of the problem was weather. Field placement for initial few overs & When sam was batting was not good. Rest of the time, in/out field placement was great.

Just like batting , watching the ball all the way is the key for fielding. Unlike batting surface outfield is not that smooth. You need to bowl watch extra carefully .In effort to save two runs how many times we ended up giving 4 runs.

One area that we definitely can work is to hitting the stump from 30 yard circle. I saw warm fielding practice by TWCC. We could use that.

We also need to be precise about our boundary fielder. NIMESH/BHAVIN/JD/JACK is our Main boundary fielders. Nimeshkumar/BK is excellent with sharp catches.
I need to draw the field placing diagram & identify Key position for each bowler .

Batting Improvement List :

1 Do not complicate the game, watch the ball as closely possible , Count 1 to 3 is one drill or watching the seam of the ball is another drill.
2 Sort out the Batting orders to make We use of 40 overs. Just like tennis we may need two players to bat 40 overs.
3 Practice leg side full & short ball to hit. This needs some technical adjustment but risk is less & rewards is high.
3 Practice Cut & Pull & back foot punch for openers.play slog sweep to the spinners if bowl is coming in.

Bowling Improvement List:

1 New bowler needs to bowl with different grip during the practice to see how we can utilize new ball better.
2 For each bowler identify key field placement where catch is likely to go. come up with field placement diagram.
3 Work with Each bowler to understand what is their natural length & their thought process.


I like to compare cricket with Chess. We are team of 11 pawns. Pawn in itself is not powerful but with support of another pawn
it can become Wazir.We just need to look at the last year game with CFCC where Phupha played played gutsy inning.

Swing Bowling

My Personal View is Bowling is more complicated than Batting. This time I have collections of the Swing bowling video from the Internet.

1 This is from Cricket ka tadka

 Some Interesting Points from the Video;

1 For outswing emphasis on Middle finger

2 For Inswing emphasis on 2nd finger.

3 some bowlers can bowl inswing/outswing with upright seam

  some bowlers may need to adjust the seam position to first slip for out swing & fine leg for in            swing. 

2 Below Video is from Geoff Lawson's

Some Interesting Points from above Video:

1 Apart from Seam, emphasis on Posture & Wrist Snap .Make sense, below is the picture from the Video Capture of JD's bowling action.

I do not have Doc's bowling image but his posture is for outswing.

I do believe posture & wrist snap is hard to change so I want our bowlers to try different grip to see if this makes any difference.

Now Below Video is Science & Cricket

Interesting Points from the Video:

1 Science says cloudy weather is not conductive for the swing. Dry air actually is good for the swing.Now this is really interesting because in the cloudy environment we have seen the bowl swings a lot.

2 Wasim talks about the Snap of the Wrist , I wish there is HD video about this.

Apart from the conventional & Reverse Swing, Cutters are coming back to the game thanks to Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur. Below image for offcutter & leg cutter.
Offcutter                                                                       Leg cutter

Cricket Batting Trigger Movement

I wonder how International Batsman handle the faster bowler. I struggle to move my feet for medium pace bowler in the League. Everybody have different technique to cope with the pace bowling  & Each individual need to find the technique that work for them. Below is collection of  video from the Internet which explain different technique .

1 Mark Ramprakash's View On trigger movement. Interesting comments that some players (sachin  did not use this trigger movement , also back & across movement ).

2  Below video talks about Back & Across Movement ( Ramprakash made very good point about Heads falling on the Offside for him )

3 

Video below VVS Laxman explains trigger movement/second stance & Focus Area for the Batsman.

One of the Comment that Surprise me that without this trigger movement even the slowest bowler feel fast for him.

Below is External Link 

VVS Laxman's View On Trigger Movement 

Key point : 1 second stance before the bowler 2 yard away & timing of trigger movement
                   2 Head position or balance . Never had a big front foot stride.

4 Below is from the Joe root .

 Another Video from Joe root's trigger movement.

5

Below is another Video which explains when you are not able to judge length & fishing outside.