Your Cricket Zorax's Tennis Ball Cricketing Exploits/Bowling Practice Diary Like Thread Thingy

Karachi Xpress

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Jul 25, 2005
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Canada
Yea, I am counting the steps I take.

It's that I keep shuffling my feet when I bowl, trying to stop myself just as I get to the crease because I'm trying to avoid over-stepping. This throws off my whole runup and action. I avoided it in the practice before this, but it re-occured. And my arms starts going ronud-arm instead of straight when I'm tired too. So I really should work on all these features to make it smoother. I need more practice, a lot more.

Cricket tommorrow, I'll be going down half and hour earlier for practice!
Well..Im a fast bowler and I had that problem alot too...Heres a tip...if you can't get your concentration off the crease, try bowling from the stumps. Like instead of taking the crease as the spot to release the ball, take the stumps as the spot to release the ball. This way even if you overstep, you will not be bowling no-balls. Also another way is to slow down your run-up. I slowed down my run-up. But when I go with a fast run-up, I still do have the slowing the run-up down as I get to the crease problem.
 

JD10

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North England/Melbourne
Well..Im a fast bowler and I had that problem alot too...Heres a tip...if you can't get your concentration off the crease, try bowling from the stumps. Like instead of taking the crease as the spot to release the ball, take the stumps as the spot to release the ball. This way even if you overstep, you will not be bowling no-balls. Also another way is to slow down your run-up. I slowed down my run-up. But when I go with a fast run-up, I still do have the slowing the run-up down as I get to the crease problem.

my problem is stuttering
 

ZoraxDoom

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Yea, I stuttered too. Do what he says actually. Just try and forget about bowling no-balls. Ignore or make an earlier mark so even if you overstep you are fine. Then you start stuttering/slwoing down as you reach the crease less
 

ZoraxDoom

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More cricket planned for today!

Frankly, I'm a bit worried about this new action, and hope to test it out fully.

I plan to first see if I can bowl every delivery from it without much trouble - leg break, googly, topspinner and backspinner. Just need to get in position to bowl it correctly, accuracy isn't an issue yet.

What I noticed from the last practice was that yes, I got drift, but thats what worries me. When I bowled it was with a flattish trajectory, yet the ball was just kinda floated out. It wasn't really flighted, but it didn't zip off the pitch or anything.
Infact, a lot of my deliveries just kinda died after pitching. Now, where I bowl there are a lot of sand and rockes and some old carpets covered in sand. Deliveries die after pitching there all the time. But I want to make sure that it isn't my bowling action causing it. If it is might not be bowling with a full-arm action and using my body in it while bowling, which is another concern. I feel this action is very right-arm dominant and doesn't use my left arm alot, as each ball puts some stress on my right arm and lower back. Now this is fine for me as it is still fairly comfortable to bowl and is an action and runup I can repeat frequently, but it is going to be a problem if what I bowl ends up being floaty rubbish that doesn't bounce well. Maybe I'm not following through completely, or maybe I'm overreacting, I don't know, but I want to get to the bottom of this...
 

ZoraxDoom

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I had cricket today!

Bowling practice first. Some warmups, then I bowled.

And it went great.

I put more effort into bowling so that my deliveries 'hit the deck' more, so to speak. My legbreaks were nearly flawless, great line and length, so I went to work on the topspinner.

It went wayward at first, flotaing down the legside, but after some practice I got it right. I had to kinda sling my arm around more, which led to me getting some wicked drift just before the ball pitched and jumped. Guess that might explain how I got it drifting earlier, must have been bowling more round arm (Which happens to me if I'm a bit tired).
Then I worked on the googly. Bowled it a few times, but got it spot on after a few shots. At this point, another guy had arrived and so was batting against me, and after I treated him to a pearler of a topspinner, I unleashed the googly. It pitched on a nice line outside off, and bounced and spun back in sharply. Brilliant.

I want to practice more as soon as possible, and work on all three balls and see if I can keep this up!

Then the cricket. I got a shot to open the batting. 6 a side (Reduced to 5 vs. 6 when one of our players stormed off pouting like a baby cause he wasn't running well as he is a literal turtle between the stumps, and costing the team runs so we forced him to use a runner. Only reason they bother to let him keep playing is because he calls everyone up.). So, first ball, shortish outside off, I lined it up well, and smacked it off the middle bat. I was sure it was four, except that the guy at midwicket stuck his hand out and caught it...:(
I really did hit it well, but the bat must have been crap. Didn't get any power behind it, other team mates agreed that it would have gone far with another bat. Turned out I used the crappiest bat there. Ah well, golden duck :(
We ended up getting 106 in our 10 overs, and I put in a lot of effort as runner. Me and our teams skipper are the fastest ones there, we make a lethal pair behind the stumps. We ran off pretty much everyball, and stole twos consistently. Great fun.

So then I got a chance to bowl with them 32 after 4 overs an their dangerman gone. I didn't bowl great, but didn't bowl badly. I even got a caught an bowled. And I got another batsman bowled...off a no ball.
Infact, I overstepped like 4 times in that over!! I couldn't believe it. I resorted to using rocks to mark a new crease well behind the old one and using that for the last two balls of the over. When I was done they had reached 49 after 5, but still had a long way to go.
And we won fairly well. They needed 42 off 12 balls and I returned, got the last guy caught and bowled as well, and that was the end of that.
 

6 x Afridi

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Gaddafi stadium
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aww that sucks

well when i played with a tape ball
i made 122 balls off about 30 balls. and the boundaries were not small at all. i was playing with people my age.

good to see that u can do a lot of deliveries by spinning . what do u mean by u changed ur action? also are u the best batsmen there. and are the people there competetive , or just htere to have fun?
 

ZoraxDoom

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I used to kinda stop before bowling, due to my shuffling feet and such, and didn't have a real followthrough. Now that I'm running in correctly, my action is more fluent and with a follow through and such.

I'm far from the best bat there. I do okay, but I'm not as talented as the others there. And many are competitive, some come for a laugh, and some come for, as far as I can see, to refuse to field and bowl and demand to bat, only to throw a tantrum if they get out early. And it is a sandy pitch with a tennis ball, so hitting isn't easy at all. The tennis ball does hang in the air when you loft it, and the outfield can be quick at places and sluggish at others. And rocks get in the way. Not to forget the pitch has inconsistent bounce and a lot of turn, and the wind makes the ball swing a little. It's a miracle we even get 100+ scores! :P Shows how good these guys are at batting here. If we were playing on tarmac we'd see scores in excess of 130 in 10 over games...
 

ZoraxDoom

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Cricket today, after a long time!

I was a little sleepy and stiff when I came down, so did a few looseners. I got some good accuracy considering I wasn't putting much effort in, but oddly enough ended up bowling offbreaks! Was;r getting my wrist to turn. Quite strange.

Anyways, then the match. 5-a-side, although one had to leave early, so I was their subsitute fielder and kept for a few overs as it was batting-team keeper. 9 overs.
We had a good start, and progressed at a steady pace against a weak bowling side. A fifty run opening stand, then we lost our first wicket, and quickly lost our second. We were a weak batting side. I walked in with about three overs to go, and got out playing a horrible shot. Tried to sweep a fullish delivery pitching outside leg, missed, it hit my inner leg and rebounded onto the stumps! I haven't been able to hit full deliveries lately, I need a lot more practice. Anyways, our skipper took the attack to them in the last few overs with a flurry of boundaries, before top edging a pull which I held as a keeper to end it at 89. They needed 90 to win.
They had a decent batting side, but sent out the best two bats right away to start. First over from another bowler was good, 4 singles and two dot balls. I bowled the next over. I started to their best batsman, who -in light of KP's switch-hitting- took a left handed start to certain bowlers despite being a righty, in order to target the legside boundary, as it was shorter for lefties than the legside boundary for righties. So instead of bowling quick to him like I normally do, I bowled spin like I do to all left handers. It worked, first ball a dotball, and second just a single. Then the righty.
Since I had been overstepping when bowling quick recently, I marked my own crease with a few rocks well behind the normal crease, and bowled from there. Another single. 2 runs off 3. Then the lefty again. I bowled it just a touch short, a good length, and spun it away as normal. His eyes lit up and he went on the back-foot seing the length, but tried to hit it over the top on the offside. He didn't middle it, the shot was never on as he was going lefty, and it was an easy catch. First wicket down. 2 balls left, bowling quick to the other opener, and a wide, but then two good dot balls to end the over. One didn't spin in, one did. Only 3 off the over, they were 7 after 2.
Next over from the skipper yeilded another wicet, and it was 14 after 3. 4th over from the opening bowler, and 2 runs later another wicket fell with the score on 16 and the last man batting! They ran the risk of probably the biggest defeat ever on the ground. And it was a bit too late to sneak in another match, and a few kids weren't up to it, so there was no decleration and it went on.
The 5th over was from our best bat, kinda rubbish. He's normally a good bowler, had a bad one here, and so when I returned they needed 48 runs from 4 overs. The fourth and fifth overs had given away 38 runs...
Bowling quick again, started with a single, and then he lofted it in the air, straight to our skipper, a dolly of a catch, and dropped! They took a run. Then a low fulltoss, he played all over it, and it somehow missed the stumps! Pitched right in line, must have spun or drifted past it! Next ball was a higher full-toss and slogged for six, but the next ball sealed the deal as he just chipped it to a fielder in the deep to end a good game.

I did some bowling practice after this as it was still light.
Got the legbreaks going okay again, so worked on the topspinner and googly.
The topspinner took some time for me to find my range, very wayward, but soon figured out what I was doing wrong and corrected it, and bowled a few okay balls. Overpitched a tad - same with the googly - but the line was good. I'm not too annoyed, I've just started bowling them so I understand it will take a while till they are completely in my control.
The googly was good, got the line okay right away, and no horrific deliveries although no beautites either. Like shifted between close and wide off offstump, but it was outside offstump, and got some good spin in. Overpitching was an issue, but it was okay.

I then decided to test out the backspinner! Oooh! Turned out I could just bowl it like a not-very good offbreak :p So I just stood at one spot and tossed it down two or three times with the grip and trying to spin it right. I guess it will still take a lot of effort, I'll probably go down next time and before the match just stand infront of a wall and start by chucking it 22 yards with the grip and spin, before doing it with the action just standing, then with a small runup, etc. till I get it okay.

So not a bad day overall. Good developments in the no-ball issue, better understanding of my topspinner, kept my action going well, and learnt what I need to do to get my backspinner going.
 

6 x Afridi

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hahah lol

And many are competitive, some come for a laugh, and some come for, as far as I can see, to refuse to field and bowl and demand to bat, only to throw a tantrum if they get out early.

that is funny, that happens here too, the fat kids just want to bowl and bat, even though some pitch, and when it comes to fielding, they just go sit down and drink some water
 

ZoraxDoom

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Yea, it happens everywhere I bet. Many even walk out if their role in their team's runchase is over, or if the match is as good as won/lost with a few overs to go when they are fielding. Quite pathetic really...
 

ZoraxDoom

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Cricket today! (After ages!)

5 a side, we batted first. We had a nice strong team, favourites to win. 9 overs a side.

I was the umpire the whole innings and wasn't called on to bat. Our openers did brilliantly, taking us to 78 after 7 overs. From there do, a bit of a collapse. We lost 3 wickets in that over, and were about 80 in 8 overs. We did have one trick left in our sleeve - the Jack, who was the dangerous left-hander who generally opened the batting, but got stuck as Jack as he came late. He wolloped us to 94 in 9 overs, with me the next man in but not needing to bat.

I was needed to bowl though. They got 9 off the first over, then I came on. My over wasn't that great, a bit wayaward, but it was going allright. Last ball to their in-form bat was a fulltoss. He missed, I hit! Early wicket, w00t! Like they say, when you are in form, luck goes your way! This was the third time in a row I've taken a wicket in my first over, and have got my team and early breakthrough. 7 off my over, it was 16 off 2.
The next over brought another wicket, and they were 19 after 3. I came back, and had a catch dropped by our skipper! He is normally such a safe catcher! Evne then, just sic off the over, and they were 25 after 4 and out of it.
Well, not quite. Some parttimers then came on to bowl, and a lot of wides and boundaries meant they needed 46 off the last 3 overs with two wickets in hand (Three actually, since they were playing with the Last Man rule). Their Jack had come and gone, so it was their skipper (a good bat) and two bad ones left. It was getting real dark, and we were trying to get this done quick. Next over was costly again. 35 needed in 2. I came back to bowl, and got one guy runout, but gave a couple of boundaries. I ended tightly though, and there was 17 needed off the last over with the last pair.
Another wicket in the final over, then a few singles, and a runout ended the match giving us a 14 run win. Woohoo!

Good game. My bowling was good, and my fielding brilliant. No-one chanced any runs off my fielding everytime the ball came to me, one guy noticed that they were scared of my throw! Didn't need to bat, so that's good I guess? :P

I went down a bit late today, and when we were done it was dark, so no bowling practice today sadly :( I've also become quite busy, and the heat means my cricket will be reduced a bit...
 

ZoraxDoom

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Some more cricket today!

I got a little bit of bowling practice in before the match, to a guy who was willing to bat.
He did an odd thing, which was to stand very, very wide of the stumps, leaving all three exposed. I though about telling him to move closer, but figured it would be an interesting challenge, so thought I'd try to bowl close to him (Which would have been very wide off legstump)

Safe to say I wasn't very successful. Also lacked some pace behind my bowling, wasn't really following through. So not a good start.

We won the toss and chose to bat. 8 overs a side. Our batting was real weak, 2 good bats and 3 tailenders, one of who opened the batting and got out quick. I was sent in at one-down, with one good bat there and one left to come.

I tried my best, but my batting is pure horrible. Got a few singles, played quite a few dot-balls, and was looking good till a delivery pitched around leg and went past my thigh. Thought it was a wide, it hit legstump. I have no idea where my legstump is, how the hell am I supposed to bat?? I was getting my eye in and was feeling okay, getting bat on ball, then this. Next match, I am standing well clear of legstump and playing normally. I need to use my feet more, so I'll start by standing right back and walking down the crease...

So anyways, we got a pretty poor score, 71 in 8 overs. The match got held up a bit in between, the ball got lost and the guy had to go and buy a new one! And he ended up buying 2 crap ones instead, so another guy had to go home to bring his tennis ball!

Needing 72 to win, we started well, 2 early wickets! But two dangerous bats in, with the score 13 after 2 overs.
And I enter the attack.
And I get walloped.
2 sixes and a four, with a no-ball came off that over. The first 3 deliveries were horrid. I didn't have the pace behind my bowling, and some bad luck and good strokeplay saw me get demolished.
I got real riled up, and steamed in for the last few deliveries, which were all dot balls.

We ended up losing in 7 overs (I was supposed to bowl the 8th). We needed one wicket, they needed 4 runs, didn't end well. Blame myself for that loss, bad over.

Tried to do some bowling practice after that, but just couldn't get it right. My body was too tired to allow me to put in the full effort after each ball. Really frustrating, when you know you can bowl better but you just can't. It's days like these that make you feel that for every step forward you take, you end up taking two steps back.

So in an effort to get something productive out of this day, I tried to make my backspinner work. I stood 8 feet from a wall, threw it down off one step to get it to work, then moved back a foot and started from there, and kept progressing. It kinda annoyed me that my backspinner kept ending up as an offbreak. It didn't bounce much, which was good, but kept spinning in when I felt it should have been spinning away. I realised that it makes sense if it spins in though, since it is basically a topspinner in reverse, the spin would be in the opposite direction too.
Anyways, I got up to 12 feet before it got dark. I need to be able to toss it down from about 19 feet I guess, then I try it with the full-runup.

So, a bit of a dissapointing day. But I did learn something valuable. If I'm going to bowl, I need to steam in bowl with energy and vigour, otherwise I can forget it. It is summing up the engery to bowl this way that I need to work on. Kinda leads to my crap stamina, which I really should work on sometime soon. I'm just not sure how to go along doing that.

Cricket planned for Saturday now, maybe I'll do better then!
 

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