Your batting and bowling?

[Flem274*]

What are your batting and bowling styles and how do you operate?

I'll use me as an example

I'm primarily a bowler, Right arm medium pace. Seam the ball in and out quite reasonably. Have an off cutter as my variation. Works quite well when batsmen attack me. If I have the sun behind me I float the ball up high so he/she has to look into the sun. I'm mainly used if everyones getting smashed and/or to piss off agressive batsmen.

As a batsman I have a few strong shots. The pull shot and any drive bar the square drive. I leave any with outside off stump because I can't cut for ****. I like to hit the ball on the ground because there's less chance of getting caught. I'm used as a blocker really as my main thought is to protect my stumps.

Your guys turn.

 

[adharcric]

Used to be a bit of both in high school. Bowled as an opening/first-change seamer in my first season of league cricket, then lost it all due to lack of practice. Got promoted up the order and now I'm either a top-order or late-middle order batsman and part-time bowler.

Play my best drives through the off-side square region and use my feet against the spinners. Love facing leg-spinners in particular and I usually do better against the really good bowlers than I do against the decent ones. Very limited leg-side game, need to work on that.

Bowl medium pace with variation and I'm working on my off-spin and leg-spin currently.

 

[Richard]

Bowl right-arm seam. Can bowl outswingers to rival most, provided I've got a decent ball (and I usually have, because I refuse to allow anyone not to keep it in good condition for the duration of my spell). Can't bowl inswingers to save my life. Rarely get much seam-movement except on extravantly-grassed surfaces, nor bounce - both of these due to being exceptionally short. This, naturally, means my length has to be spot-on otherwise I'm easily driveable or cut\pullable. Sadly, it's off more often than not, but I play at a standard which means that as often as not I get away with it and concede a decent economy-rate. My usual spell is 4 or 5 - occasionally even more - decent or excellent overs, then complete breakdown and total inability to hit a remotely decent length. These problems are almost exclusively down to lack of commitment on my behalf: I do loads of weight-work at the gym but little cardio, which means I'm not very fit; and I haven't been to nets (other than the 2 or 3 pre-season "hello, how are you after all this time?" ones, and even those I missed last year) for 4 years now. The only way to get better at bowling, as we all know, is to bowl. I can bowl an off-cutter, but it's not as good as it would be were I to practice it at, oh, you know... nets. I've long been intending to a) get myself some proper bowling-boots (bowl in trainers, which is fine on dry ground but means I have no hope when it's a bit damp) but haven't for 3 seasons now; b) do some cardio; c) go to nets, take my camera, do some video analysis, and generally bowl more and think more than I do about my bowling; d) take more care about my cricket, ie, not go out the night before, and make sure I eat at good times (ie, not 3 hours before play starts, and not 20 minutes either), and keep properly hydrated, and wear kit that's always as comfortable as possible, from head to toe. If I did all of these, I'm fairly confident I could become a pretty decent third\Sunday\midweek opening bowler. I always bowl any overs I do bowl (sometimes manage to make my full allocation - usually 8 or 9 - but less often than more) straight off the reel, so almost always keep a ball in decent condition. I'm not as young as I once was, so it's a case of "take it seriously or pack it in".

I don't bat.

 

[Woodster]

I'm probably classed as a batsman that also bowls. I've opened the bowling for my club this season for the majority of the season, however, that probably says more about our lack of options rather than any major talent I have in that department.

Batting I take more seriously, and just enjoy batting and batting and batting, be it in the nets, on the outfield, or in the middle. Be more unfair in the middle mind, cos when your out thats it, day runied.

My main problem this season has been getting in, once I'm in and set I've accumulated some decent scores, but the old feet in cement early doors has been my downfall. At 6'6" I have been known to be susceptible to a full ball early in my innings, something I continue to work hard at eliminating.

 

[The_Bunny]

Bowl medium pace out-swing, can bowl in-swing, but I send down alot of leg-side wides while attemting it.
I have a very much structured batting style, no flair whatsoever, so I'm reasonable vs spin and medium pace, but anything fast and my stumps go flying in a hurry
But I havent been playing for long and my bowling is getting pretty acurate and I'm starting to get a bit of pace.
But definatley more of a bowler

Edit: also working alot on my leg spin, more because I enjoy it then actually being any good

 

[Pup Clarke]

I'd probably call myself a batting allrounder at the moment but give me a couple of solid years really working on my bowling I could turn into a genuine allrounder.

I bowl Right Arm Leg Breaks from quite a high action which enables me to get a hell of a lot of bounce, my accuracy has always been semi-decent but I'm not a huge turner of the ball so batsmen do try to get after me early in my spell. I can also get the ball to drift to leg (a la Warne) but this isn't terribly affective as I haven't got a massive leg break.


I'm primarily a batsmen who loves to play on the front foot and my best shots are the cover drive and the straight drive, I've always played these shots well as I more often than not present the full face of the bat with my head still, I've also got much better on the on side in the last year as 2 seasons ago I never really got in line of the ball and tried to hit leg side delivieries on the off side. I'm not great when the ball is short of a length for whotever reason.

 

[cpr]

Not played for too long. At school was a wkt batsman. Could murder a poor bowler, really go at them. But weakness was always poor off side timing to a good bowler, and a lack of defensive strokes (off side, always have a swing at it, on me legs always try and flick it away).

Bowling was quite hit and miss. Could bowl accurately and hold a good length easily enough, but lacking any sort of pace, so wasn't that effective. Could get some leg spin, but the accuracy dissapeared, decent turn of a googly, once the ball came down (any overhead wires meant that ball wasnt used)

 

[Chubb]

I'm a left-handed batsman with an open stance. I hold the bat a bit like Shiv Chanderpaul. My trigger movement is to bring my front foot across into a more orthodox position. I find that really helps me move my feet because ever since I started doing it my cricket has come on immensly. My best shot is the pull, but I prefer cover drives off the front and back foot. I prefer to open but will bat anywhere except 5, I really hate 5, it's a bogey position for me and I never do well there.

Before I came to the UEA two years ago, I had never made a score of more than 40 in a match. I thought I'd just carry on as badly as that, but, in my second innings after I returned to my club, I scored 48, and I haven't looked back. I had a problem getting past 50, but finally managed it in the last match of 2006. This year, I've scored a further four fifties, including my highest score of 91, as well as a maiden fifty in the Devon league, which gave me the most pleasure.

I bowl really slow flighted offspin, which usually gets smashed all over the place, unless the batsmen are kids- I'm good at getting kids out. Whilst every other aspect of my game has improved dramatically, my bowling is stuck.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Bowl leg-spin, turn it miles on just about everything. On a good day I'll bowl accurately too, on a bad day I'm all over the place - there's very little in between. Have a good wrong'un, and have recently gained enough to use a sort of leg-spinner's arm-ball in a match - swings in to the right hander. Like to give it a lot of air - my slowest delivery is extremely slow indeed, of Snape proportions. Can fire it in very quickly, too - however this is telegraphed slightly, and after a while batsmen start picking it.

Batting - hmm, score a few quick runs occasionally. Have an eye but little technique or temperament.

 

[adharcric]

Try this - who do you bat and bowl like? Try to make it realistic in a relative sense - if you dominate your competition with big scores AND bat like Ponting, you can say Ponting. This is based on your style and your ability at the level you play in. Please don't call yourself Lara just because you're left-handed and have been bashing kids half your age.

Let's see ... bat like Dinesh Karthik, bowl like Joginder Sharma (used to be Agarkar).

 

[shortpitched713]

I have deffence like rahul dravid,and off spin like vettori.

Pretty much sums it up for mine.

 

[Richard]

Try this - who do you bat and bowl like?

Batting - it'd be flattering to compare me to Chris Martin. Flattering Martin, that is - his legendary crapness would be legendary no more upon someone seeing me.

Bowling - I modelled myself on a combination of Dominic Cork and Darren Gough (with more of the former than the latter) and have recently seen elements of Michael Kasprowicz creep in for some reason (without the no-balls though). Beamers I'm probably Tino Best-esque, fortunately not anywhere near as quick, and unlike Tino, not deliberate. The Cork\Gough outswing remains, however, and the Kasprowicz added-pace hasn't yet appeared.

Here's a comparison of myself and my hero:

 

[Pup Clarke]

I would compare my batting to Mohammed Yousuf as I'm quite lethargic at the crease and with my shots and I'm a decent timer of the ball.

My bowling is alot like Ramesh Powar as I'm willing to toss the ball well above the batsmen's eyeline, I also get the ball to curve and dip while in the air.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I'd reckon myself to be a pretty decent batsman, and a pretty good leg spinner on my day, and **** when it goes wrong.

My batting is all based around the square cut, which is my best **** by a fair margin. I'll look for anything slightly short and wide and it will go for four, always has done. Pretty strong off anything short, with the pull being a favourite of mine. My weakness is full and straight, and off my legs, where I am fairly hopeless. It's easy to get me out when I'm just in and you bowl the exact right ball, but once I'm set I'll nearly always go on to 50, and then more. I'll either get out <10, or make a 50, I'll be sure.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Beamers I'm probably Tino Best-esque, fortunately not anywhere near as quick, and unlike Tino, not deliberate.

Speaking of Tino, he played against our second eleven a couple of months ago (what the hell he was doing playing in the 2s I don't know), beamed a batsman, broke his ribs and didn't apologize. ****. Luckily, he didn't stay for much longer after that, went back to the Caribbean.

 

[Richard]

My batting is all based around the square cut, which is my best **** by a fair margin.

Got the i and the o mixed-up?

 

[PhoenixFire]

Got the i and the o mixed-up?

Must be, I'll leave it like that I think.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

I was a legspinner, but I don't think I will be any more.

I bowl from fairly wide on the crease, which causes problems stepping on the wicket, generally bowl an off-stump line. I don't turn it a long way, just enough usually, but on a hard pitch I can get a fair bit of bounce. When I get into my action, I can roll out 4-5 decent leggies an over, but more often than not last season I got affected by the yips, to the extent that I could go from bowling a decent spell to not being able to get the ball down the other end on the cut strip or with a suitable number of bounces... work it out for yourself.

Next year it looks like I'm going to bowl a bit of medium-pace, stump to stump a la Ganguly, nipping it away slightly (which I think is because I'm still bowling with a faint legbreak action). But that is next year...

Batting wise, I've never been up to much, top score is only 26*. For the most part I'm a blocker, at best a nudger and nurdler, seeing as I have no power and no real timing. Aside from a solid defence, the only real shots I have are working the ball down the third man off the face, a strong leg-glance and a decent sweep off the offspinner.

 

[Neil Pickup]

I have absolutely no idea what I am. I'm capable of bowling inswing, outswing, offspin and legspin, but all to a very low standard. Between the ages of 11 and 20, I bowled leg spin almost exclusively, however it has got more and more and more inconsistent and, whilst I can produce the occasional unplayable (usually when bowling at a fellow CWebber), the length went to nuts totally this year. Ended the summer bowling slow offspin for the Sunday XI with varying success. Spent last Sunday bowling medium pace off one step at a load of 11 year olds and hitting them on various body parts.

Kept wicket quite seriously for most of the summer - 5/7 catches and two stumpings, holding a place in a Devon League team. Do have a rather awkward technical flaw down the leg side (left hand closes too early and presents my fingers head-on at the ball) however, which has caused two broken fingers in 2007 and will probably cause more unless I fix it over the winter. Which I thoroughly intend to, as I've tried bowling for half my life and I'm already better at keeping than bowling despite having only done it seriously for five months.

Batting wise it's almost always entertaining. I have two gears - "handbrake" and "full throttle". My first two scoring shots of the season were 4 and 6. There was one stage in July when I batted an hour for four runs. When my weight is moving forward properly and the trigger movement works, I can actually hit some nice looking shots. Other times I get trapped on the crease and bowled horribly when I can't decide what shot I'm playing in advance. Much prefer a keeper standing back as I can bat out my crease and take a huge trigger forward without fear of stumping.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I do still play, though injuries seem to occur all too easily these days, and I have to say I don't bowl with quite so much HeathDavisSpeed as I used to. Occasionally I unleash the fury, but if I bowl full pelt, I tend to either overstep or bowl a beamer these days.

I actually have to rely on guile more these days, varying release on the crease and from the stumps to prevent the batsman timing the ball. Also bowl a mean off-cutter and slower ball.

With the bat, as good as ever. I think I averaged 6.3 last year. A step up from Richard 'Chris Martin' Dicken-borough it seems.