Your Cricket KP's Season Diary

[King Pietersen]

Had a couple of bad games of late, lost 3 on the trot. Last 2 B Team games have been hammerings. Not got a wicket, got 3 runs in 3 games, been awful. Went at over 10 an over in both the B Team games as well. But I found some rhythm yesterday. I've made a few changes to my action, and gone back to a more natural, side on action after tinkering with it in the nets and in the garden. Seemed to come out nicely, was getting it down at a decent pace, getting abit of swing and some bounce. We were only defending 89 though, so I only got 1.4 overs, bowled well though. Hopeful for next week!

The changes to my action were needed. I'd been bowling far too short, and just putting the ball down and been bowling far too many deliveries down the leg-side. Yesterday I was off-stump or just outside every ball, except one which came out abit short, but still outside-off. Better pace as well. My pace has dropped as the season's gone on, bar 1 or 2 spells in the past 2 games where I really cranked it up. So it's nice to be bowling abit quicker and getting it right, looking forward to working on it abit more in the nets on Thursday.

 

[King Pietersen]

Never got round to updating my Diary after that last entry, so got abit of time, so thought I'd do it now.

The few games went pretty well after that tough middle period. Didn't get any wickets in the 2 games that followed, on some fairly flat decks, but contributed more with the bat. Made 12 batting 3, then 19 batting 4 which was followed by a quickfire 18 off 5 balls at the end of the innings batting 6 to fire us up to a pretty big total. Was nice to get a few runs, and also bat fairly high up the order.

The bowling went ok, I was definitely injured though. Could only manage 1 game a week, and struggled in net practise with a groin injury. The last game I was really feeling it after my batting innings, I must have twinged it. I could barely walk, so how I managed to bowl 6 overs off the reel I don't know, but I did. Glad I did too, as I managed to pick up 3/30 to secure the B Team Leading Wicket-Taker trophy with 14. Getting the trophy was a real nice way to end the season, was cool meeting the England ladies captain Charlotte Edwards too, was a surprise getting a big name like that coming down to our club. We've had Ravi Bopara (before I joined the club annoyingly) and James Foster in previous years as well.

I am pumped for the new season. My injury seems to have fixed itself nicely, and I've felt good whenever I've had chance to have a bowl in the garden. It has actually been coming out really nicely recently, especially today. Managed to get a few deliveries in, and my action has just come back to me naturally, was getting some swing, some bounce and bowling at a far better pace that the tail end of last season. Really looking forward to getting into the Nets for the Winter sessions which start on the 14th of Feb. Can't wait to do some proper bowling again, and also feel bat on ball again.

I've also been impressed by the fact that I've managed to avoid buying loads of new kit for the new season I will need some new boots for next season, and will probably buy a pair of Adidas Mid III's, but I don't need to get them until April time. Was tempted over the winter to buy some new gloves and a new helmet, but they can wait, if I actually need them during the season I'll buy them, but the kit I've got'll do for now. Just hoping my bat holds up for the whole of next season. Got a few cracks on the edges, but it's been knocked in abit more in the build up for winter nets, oiled and re-taped, so it should be all good. Roll on the new season!

 

[Jakester1288]

Gun, good stuff. I can't avoid buying new gear, it's too tempting. Next season, I don't plan on buying any myself, either.

 

[King Pietersen]

Gun, good stuff. I can't avoid buying new gear, it's too tempting. Next season, I don't plan on buying any myself, either.

Cheers bud. Totally agree, it is just too tempting to buy new gear. I tell myself every winter that I'm not going to buy any new gear, but that soon changes as soon as I start playing again, then the need for new gear suddenly appears, and I instantly give in to the temptation Last season I didn't think I'd need any new gear, but ended up spending ?160 on a new bat, ?40 on a new bag and ?15 on a new thigh guard; the only one I needed was the bag. Whoops =D So it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll end up spending some money on more than just boots before the start of the season!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention 1 thing. Sponsored by Owzat, here are my season stats:

Batting: 11 innings, 120 runs, 2 not outs, average of 13.33 with a top score of 24.

Bowling: 74.1 overs, 5 maidens, 16 wickets for 404 runs at an average of 25.25, a strike rate of 27.83 and a best of 5/61.

Next Flintoff tbfh.

 

[King Pietersen]

Had my first winter net session of the season last night, and it went surprisingly well. First delivery I bowled couldn't have come out better, swung away beautifully at decent pace and it moved late. Second one was a yorker that took out middle stump. Pretty nice start to the season that. I couldn't get the inswinger going at all though, just kept sliding down the leg-side. Was generally pretty accurate, and maintained a decent pace for the full 2 hours though which was nice.

Batting went really well too. I started off just blocking and plodding around, but after about 5 minutes just decided to up the pace a bit and starting bringing out the shots. The last 10 minutes were spent just walking down the pitch to all the bowlers. Was smashing them all over the place, played a few lovely shots straight down the ground. Got out once, trying to advance down to a spinner, inside edging onto my stumps, but that was the only time I got out. The next ball I faced from him I skipped down the track again and hammered him through mid-on.

Pretty nice start to the year, looking forward to next week.

 

[mattfb]

Yeah, that's an awesome start. The first ball sounds like a real beauty. Hopefully you can bring that type of form to the early matches. Nice work mate.

 

[King Pietersen]

Cheers Matt

Had my second session last night, and it went even better, been delighted with how well I've started the Winter nets. Took a few deliveries to get into my rhythm (it's difficult when you only get 5 pace run ups indoors), but once I was into some rhythm the ball started coming out beautifully. There was 1 spell where I must have bowled 10-12 deliveries which were all played and missed at, one of which took out off-stump (which I followed with a Dale Steyn-esque fist pump celebration ). Finally got the in-swinger working as well, was probably down to poor wrist position last week, finally got it hooping in nicely last night.

My batting is what I've been most happy with though, I'm guessing it's due to having more confidence. I've basically forgotten basic technique and just gone out and had a bash. I played some fantastic strokes last night. My personal fave was one against a spinner where I just skipped down the track and smashed the ball over what would be wide mid on, came off the middle of the bat beautifully, would have carried for 6 on most grounds in my league I reckon. I managed to avoid getting out, and was middling the ball with regularity and just had fun out there. Definitely going to play like that next season, I seem to be able to walk down the wicket at any of the bowlers in my club, and still play shots and have timing, so I'll be able to do it to club bowlers easily. Can't wait for next season, I'm feeling some runs coming.

 

[Manly]

Take some tablets then old bean

Best of luck, try and get into the section a team so I can car-park you at your place

 

[King Pietersen]

Best of luck, try and get into the section a team so I can car-park you at your place

Haha. Hopefully my chances of getting into that side'll be increased this season, especially early season, as we've got quite a few players off at Uni. So you never know, we may meet at some point, and you'll get the chance to see your stumps cartwheeling after I clean bowl you

 

[Manly]

Pah!

42 against your lot last year, inc 5 boundaries and a maximum. Fell to S Higgins off of L Bedwell.

 

[King Pietersen]

Had a couple of mediocre training sessions in the last couple of weeks. Only having hour long sessions really restricts how much you can actually do. The lack of proper run-ups indoors is restricting the amount of bowling I'd like to do too. It's messing up my lengths, and I keep bowling full tosses, very frustrating. The batting's still been going nicely though, been hitting the ball sweetly in the nets.

Just started re-reading Ian Pont's Fast Bowlers Bible too, and it seems to have got me really pumped for the season. There's a few phrases that really relate to me, but the one that I relate to most is wanting to bowl fast and how you need to want to bowl fast. If you're half arsed about it, you will not ever bowl genuinely quick, and I tell ya, I want to bowl fast real bad.

Reading the first few chapters has already pointed out a few flaws in my action too. My non bowling arm definitely goes up and straight down tight into my ribs (which is what I thought was the correct method) and not out towards the batsman and pulled back in tight. I do also seem to either jump in, or have my head fall away too, which really doesn't help my accuracy. Just reading each chapter points out new things for me to try out in the nets, and I tell ya what, come Summer nets I am going to be steaming in and trying to bowl as fast as I can.

The closer it gets to April and the Summer, the more excited I am about the season starting and getting to bowl again. I absolutely love it, there is nothing better than the feeling of getting a well earned wicket in a match. Roll on April!

 

[King Pietersen]

6 overs 0-24 in my first game of the season; all those overs bowled to a bloke that smashed a hundred, 2 of them at the death when he was going mental. Pretty happy with the figures, was bowling decent areas for the first game, and picked up some decent pace early on too. Didn't really bat. Went out with 2 overs to go, tried to slog one across the line against a pie chucker and was bowled. Meh.

Had a good net session with the bat last week. Was hitting the ball really nicely, but there's definitely something up with my knee. Can run fine, but the action of bowling causes a pain to shoot from my knee down my leg, isn't particularly comfortable. Seems fine this week though, so it's probably a good thing that the first league game of the year was called off last Sunday. Hopefully I'll be all good for Sunday. I wanna keep my Leading Wicket-Taker trophy.

 

[King Pietersen]

Another good net session last night. The knee held up perfectly, so it seems it was just a temporary injury. Have to see how it goes over the season. I now have 2 games this weekend. A game for the Saturday XI away as well as the B Team game on Sunday. I'm now expected to be bowling 23 overs this weekend, and will probably be batting in the top 6 in both games too; I know for sure I'm batting 5/6 on Sunday. Hopefully the weather'll hold out.

 

[Manly]

Our track is a road. You will have to work hard for your wickets, mate.

 

[King Pietersen]

Heh, that went well. All out for 40 batting first (I made 2 batting 4) and then they chased it in about 15 overs. I opened the bowling and bowled 4 overs, 1 maiden 0-9, though I should definitely have had a wicket. Bowled a cross-seamer that skidded on and hit the batsman basically in front of middle, but it wasn't given. Terrible performance though. Easily the worst batting performance I've ever seen.