Keep getting out by top-edging my flick shots

KK70

School Cricketer
Joined
Nov 10, 2019
I'm posing this question if this has plagued someone else out there and could help me. I seem to keep getting out by top-edging my flick shots or even lofted shots where I seem to be closing the blade of my bat, especially early on in the innings since I usually open the batting. Even when I last further down the innings my mode of dismissal, more often lately, has been the aforementioned way.

The flick shot used to be my favorite shot early on in my playing career. I have tried changing my grip to where the bat face tends to be more open than closed at address but that has not really helped me. The only other thing I just thought of, was the slightly open stance that I have adopted in recent times. Perhaps, that is causing me to close the bat face a bit sooner than I intend. I haven't yet tried to make my stance a bit closed to see if I can get rid of my bane of the mode of dismissal.

But any pointers would be helpful if my problem strikes a chord with any of you.

Thanks,
-KK
 

Aislabie

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Okay so I had a phase of being quite a strokeless opening batsman. I only really had three shots, a block, a cover-drive and a leg-glance (flick). If I was out of form, I would generally be early on the block and I'd get a leading edge on the leg-glance, which left me only the block. It was a dark time for all concerned, but especially for the people who watched me bat.

After that, I began a slow migration all the way down the batting order.

In the end, the thing that enabled me to put my batting back together, and to relearn how to play off my legs, was a big change in my stance. I went from an open stance to a slightly closed stance. I also started with my weight forward over my front foot. My trigger movement is just to slightly flex my knee, and because everything is still at the point of delivery I rarely miss a shot off my legs, and that's despite a generally unorthodox technique.

If I were trying anything, I'd do that: a closed stance with weight forward, and you can push back from your front foot if the ball is short. But there's no one size fits all for batting. Personally I'm very tall (6'5" or 1.95m) so anything I do with my batting has to work around that.

  • I am a "bat-up" as opposed to "bat down" batsman, so if you tap your bat it would presumably be between your feet if you were to use this stance.
  • The big toe of my front foot points towards roughly extra-cover.
  • The big toe of my back foot points towards roughly cover-point.
  • My feet are roughly 25% more than shoulder width apart.
  • I take a middle-stump guard: the end of the big toe of my back foot is on middle stump, and the end of the big toe of my front foot is on off stump. (This means anything outside my toe I can leave.
  • My front knee is slightly bent, which forces my body weight forward. Don't let your front knee bend out in front of your front foot though.
  • My head then ends up roughly over the heel of my front foot. This puts me in a slightly crouched, forward position meaning that to play front-foot shots I only need to make small movements.
Some things to consider:
  • I am tall, so I play more front-foot shots than back-foot shots. If you are shorter than me, this may be less effective.
  • I find that this stance can make it more difficult to play certain back-foot shots. But that might just be me because I've never been very good at the pull shot.
  • It is possible that this stance might lead to you being LBW more often, so if you start missing your leg-glance then it's not an ideal option. If you've got good hand-eye though, it should be fine.
  • It should be comfortable. If you're in this stance and feel like it restricts your movement in any way, then don't force it.
 
Last edited:

KK70

School Cricketer
Joined
Nov 10, 2019
Okay so I had a phase of being quite a strokeless opening batsman. I only really had three shots, a block, a cover-drive and a leg-glance (flick). If I was out of form, I would generally be early on the block and I'd get a leading edge on the leg-glance, which left me only the block. It was a dark time for all concerned, but especially for the people who watched me bat.

After that, I began a slow migration all the way down the batting order.

In the end, the thing that enabled me to put my batting back together, and to relearn how to play off my legs, was a big change in my stance. I went from an open stance to a slightly closed stance. I also started with my weight forward over my front foot. My trigger movement is just to slightly flex my knee, and because everything is still at the point of delivery I rarely miss a shot off my legs, and that's despite a generally unorthodox technique.

If I were trying anything, I'd do that: a closed stance with weight forward, and you can push back from your front foot if the ball is short. But there's no one size fits all for batting. Personally I'm very tall (6'5" or 1.95m) so anything I do with my batting has to work around that.

  • I am a "bat-up" as opposed to "bat down" batsman, so if you tap your bat it would presumably be between your feet if you were to use this stance.
  • The big toe of my front foot points towards roughly extra-cover.
  • The big toe of my back foot points towards roughly cover-point.
  • My feet are roughly 25% more than shoulder width apart.
  • I take a middle-stump guard: the end of the big toe of my back foot is on middle stump, and the end of the big toe of my front foot is on off stump. (This means anything outside my toe I can leave.
  • My front knee is slightly bent, which forces my body weight forward. Don't let your front knee bend out in front of your front foot though.
  • My head then ends up roughly over the heel of my front foot. This puts me in a slightly crouched, forward position meaning that to play front-foot shots I only need to make small movements.
Some things to consider:
  • I am tall, so I play more front-foot shots than back-foot shots. If you are shorter than me, this may be less effective.
  • I find that this stance can make it more difficult to play certain back-foot shots. But that might just be me because I've never been very good at the pull shot.
  • It is possible that this stance might lead to you being LBW more often, so if you start missing your leg-glance then it's not an ideal option. If you've got good hand-eye though, it should be fine.
  • It should be comfortable. If you're in this stance and feel like it restricts your movement in any way, then don't force it.
Thanks for your response. Very valid point and I was thinking of trying the same thing, i.e., slightly closing my stance to address the problem since I remember having opened my stance slightly and started to think that to be the root cause of my problem. However, in my match today I did not do that but instead I elected to close my grip to address the problem. I basically watched this video by AB Devilliers:
, which is not how I used to grip the bat previously. And that worked like a charm and I was able to flick the very first ball I had received (I open the innings), an inswinger on my legs, down to short fine leg. So, the grip change seems to have solved my issue and I went on to score 45 runs in 31 balls with 7 boundaries and 1 six, to give my team a firey start to kick things off. I eventually got out to a corker of a yorker, which is another problem I need to try to solve. The bowler had bowled 2 slower deliveries and followed that up with the yorker which I think beat me for pace but still I should have been able to fend that off. But thanks for your suggestion. I will try to incorporate that also the next time around.
 

Aislabie

Test Cricket is Best Cricket
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You really needn't feel that you have to incorporate anything I say. After all, cricket is a game in which both Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs were able to be successful doing basically the exact same role in two polar-opposite way
 

KK70

School Cricketer
Joined
Nov 10, 2019
You really needn't feel that you have to incorporate anything I say. After all, cricket is a game in which both Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs were able to be successful doing basically the exact same role in two polar-opposite way
Good point! There are many ways to skin the cat ;-) At any rate, thanks for taking the time to respond to my issue which has been bothering me for a while now. I'm glad it's behind me now!

Cheers!
 

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