Well I suppose I might as well make the most of one of these all-nighters with a bit of a wrap-up for the 2013 season...
Let's start statistically:
Innings: 15
Not Out: 3
Runs: 467
Average: 38.92
For reference, at the start of the summer my lifetime record (yes, I've been keeping track since I was 12) was 757 runs @ 9.71. Let's just say that keeping a detailed statistical track wasn't difficult in the early years.
Over the winter, as well as investing in a new bat from B3, I spent a good hour every Wednesday afternoon facing up to the bowling machine in the school gym, with the help of a fellow teacher who plays at an altogether higher level than me - which immediately gave me two options: (i) train at the same level as him, or (ii) go to the effort of altering the machine every ten minutes. Inertia can be a wonderfully profitable thing.
The big technical aim over the winter was an attempt to cut out the counter-rotation in my hips that was leading to my squaring up when aiming to drive straight, consequently playing inside the line (and generally getting bowled). Plenty of buckets of balls later, I'd lost off peg several times, but had no doubt that I was striking the ball more cleanly and more consistently than ever. I'd continued to read plenty of literature about coaching and player development, the growth mindset and clear thinking, and I had complete determination that this season was going to be different. I put my hand up to open the batting, and our season began on a green deck at Hanborough.
Facing two left-arm bowlers, I spent the majority of the first hour blocking, leaving and nicking things through the cordon - it took 20 overs before I scored in front of square - but, as I discovered over the summer, the art of getting runs is about seeing off the new ball, and the opening bowlers, and getting stuck in to the change. The pressure dropped, the field fell back, and the runs started to come: and a pull shot took me to my first ever fifty. I went on to 69, including a huge six over long-on (which I was aiming far, far squarer) as we posted 220+. Sadly, our bowling attack wasn't equal to the task, and Hanborough recorded an easy win.
This, however, was just the beginning. I've read quite a bit about ironic processing lately (in short, a child heading out to bat thinking "don't get out, don't get out" is going to be heading back again fairly shortly), and this summer these thoughts - which plagued my mind before - were absent. Watch the ball; hit the ball. Simple game.
A couple of T20 games brought low scores as I aimed too large too early, but the next Saturday game only yieded a scratchy18, compiled in almost 24 overs on a painfully slow track. It was, however the longest crease-occupation on any side in a low-scoring game and ensured our middle order could finish the run chase.
Next up was a Cup game against Kilkenny, flying high in the division below, and their opening bowlers (incredibly including a guy who went to primary school with my little brother) gave us as much - if not more - of a test than any other pair managed. I had a life on 5: plumb LBW only to be saved by a phantom inside edge, but we ground onwards, waiting for the change bowling, and when it came, we cashed in. I am still far from sure what bowling left-arm medium pace half-trackers without any cover on the leg side boundary was aiming to achieve, but I didn't complain. A middle-order collapse saw 88/0 turn into 125/5, and I decided it was time to start farming the strike.
I was dropped more than once: but when you hit the ball, hard, at tired fielders then you will get luck. I had little idea of my own score; I just wanted to get the team score up to 160, and once we were there I thought I'd just go for it. With an over to go, someone yelled out that I was on 96. I wasn't facing. I got back on strike (thanks to my partner sacrificing his wicket), skewed a two over midwicket, played and missed and then, with a refreshing lack of thought for the circumstances took a single. Fortunately, the new batsman was aware of the scoreboard, was alert to the scrambled leg bye from the fifth ball, and was backing up sufficiently aggressively to be able to make it home even though I mis-hit my drive to cover point. Less than a month after a maiden fifty, I'd finished 100*.
The next game brought another fifty - 83 to be precise - but it was once again in vain as we fell short of our target. On sheer volume of runs, I ended up in the first XI for the rest of season - and whilst this rather put an end to my run of form, the good fortune that helped me on my way to my ton deserted me; LBW off the inside edge, or full tosses hit straight to fielders rather than a yard to their side. I also developed Shane Watson-like tendency to plant that front foot across the line of the ball that both (i) led to more LBW decisions than I'd have liked and (ii) made it very difficult to pull any pace. I managed a couple more half-centuries in friendly cricket - 57 from ~40 balls in a T20 game having (for arguably the first time ever) been picked, effectively, as a ringer and told to bat at three, and 69* from ~60 in an end-of-season club friendly match that finished the summer on a high note.
I'd never have imagined a chain of events like that for the summer, and it just goes to show the value of purposeful practice and training to develop skill levels. This winter, I know I can tell the boys I coach that anybody can make 100 if they work hard enough, and know that it's true. I've also got to work on that front foot planting, and develop my back foot game, but if 2013 can pan out like that, who's to say what 2014 might bring?
