Reading Cricket Cub

The wicket keeper is an essential and key part of the cricket team. Every team needs a reliable wicket keeper. As well as taking catches, stumping the batsmen and taking run outs, the wicket keeper is one of the team’s most important players: motivating and inspiring the bowlers and fielders to raise their game and WIN.

To be a wicket keeper you need fast reactions and precise judgement as you have very little time to react to such things as fast deliveries especially if there are changes and deviations in the balls line due to variations in swing, movement off the pitch and edges.

You need to be alert and have high levels of concentration. Like a top batsmen you want to be able to ‘switch on and off’ your concentration between deliveries and overs to avoid getting mentally tired, as it’s impossible to fully concentrate non-stop for hours at a time. High levels of fitness and flexibility are also very important for a wicket keeper as it can be very tiring because you are effectively doing hundreds of squats and diving around the field. So stay fit, warm up and down and stretch thoroughly to remain in peak condition and avoid injury.

Equipment for wicket keeping

-Wicket keeping gloves (and inner gloves),
-Box,
-Wicket keeping pads,
-Helmet.

Basic technique: Wicket keeping stance

You can stand up to spin bowlers and slower paced bowlers. The wicket keepers stance is quite straight forward, you need to stand about one step behind the stumps, making sure no part of your body or equipment is in front of the line of the stumps.

Crouch down with your left foot (reverse for left hand batsmen) inline with middle stump, therefore on you are crouched a little on off side. Try to keep your head still and eyes level during the delivery to help you judge the pace and line. You should be balanced and relaxed with your weight slightly forward on the balls of your feet. Be alert and ready to react to the delivery.

Catching the ball

When you are catching the ball, aim to get your headeyes above the line of the ball and your body behind the line of the ball. As the ball rises from the pitch, rise from the crouching position with the ball, so you mirror the height of the ball. Watch the ball into your hands and catch it with your fingers pointing downwards. You’ll need to cushion the impact of the ball hitting your gloves when catching by ‘giving’ with your hands. If the ball continues to rise as it reaches you, step with your outside foot backwards and across, rotating your body outwards, taking the ball on one side of the body. To catch a ball delivered on the off side or leg side, move your feet and body across immediately to get your head back into line with the delivery. (Move the outside foot first and follow with the inside.) Rise with the ball as discussed above and ‘give’ with hands to reduce the impact.

If you are standing back which you should be to medium and fast bowlers take your stance as discussed above, however stand in a position so that the ball is taken once it begins to drop.

Sometimes you may have to dive to take wide deliveries or thick edges, always try to take the ball in two hands if possible, roll after the dive if you can to reduce the impact of landing and changes of injury.

Stumping

You can attemp a stumping if the batsman is out of the crease after you have caught the delivery. Once you’ve taken the ball move your body weight towards stumps and move hands fast to break the wickets.

The sweep and the reverse sweep are two batting shots which are not commonly used, especially the reverse sweep which is rarely used. However both shots can be used in certain batting situations and are an effective way to score runs and keep the score board ticking over.

There is a high element of risk with the sweep shot, so good judgement and excellent timing is essential. Avoid playing the sweep and reverse sweep early on in your innings especially to straight deliveries, as it is not a good idea to play it until you have your eye in and know how the pitch is playing and what the bowler is doing. As for example, if the ball stayed low it would be quite easy to misjudge and get out LBW or bowled which you definitely want to avoid, so be patient and play yourself in first.

The sweep and reverse sweep are both cross batted shots and should ideally be played to slow deliveries which are of a good length and not too full. To play the orthodox sweep shot, first wait for the ball to be released before making any movement – DON’T PREMEDITATE THE SHOT!

Once you have determined that the ball is there to play the sweep shot to, move your front foot as far down the wicket towards the pitch of the ball as you can. As you are moving forward bend both knees simultaneously so that you whole body is low down, let your back knee touch the ground to act as an extra base of support. Try to stay balanced and relaxed. Bring the bat down from the off side and across the ball towards the leg side and aim to hit it either in front of or behind square leg. You can roll your wrists over the ball as you hit to help keep it on the ground. Aim to have your arms fully extended when you contact the ball.

To play the reverse sweep, get in to the same position as for the orthodox sweep, however this time, bring you bat down and across from leg side towards the off side, so you are aiming to hit the ball through the gully area. This shot requires very good coordination and timing as you have to twist the bat round so that the bat face faces the off side at the point of contact without altering your grip.

Common problems:

-Premeditating the shot- deciding to play the shot before the bowler has bowled the ball. Wait until the ball is released from the bowlers hand before deciding to play the shot.

-Playing the sweep too early in the innings before getting your eye in. Wait until you are set and know how the pitch is playing and what the bowler is doing before attempting the shot.

-Trying to hit the ball too hard. Good timing and technique is better and more effective as you need to reduce the risk as much as possible.

-Playing the shot to deliveries which are either too full or too short, so good judgement of length is required.

Remember that the sweep and reverse sweep are quite hard shots to master and carry quite a lot of risk, so make sure that if you intend to use them, practice the shots in the nets and in training to get a feel for the shot and so you know when to play it; so that when you come to use them you are confident and skilled enough to do so.

If you are a cricketer and want to improve your bowling technique, especially with your pitching, then there are a few methods you can try.

The line is one important consideration as this dictates how much room the batsman has to play with. As a bowler, you should ideally focus on bowling towards the off stump and really concentrate on bowling in the ‘corridor of uncertainty’. This means that as long as you keep bowling in this region, you will always be putting pressure on the batsman to either play a shot or get caught, or if he misses then he will get bowled or caught behind. It is not easy to bowl a good line but this is something that can only developed with lots of practice.

The length at which you bowl is also very important. Ideally a ‘good length’ is a delivery one which does not allow the batsman enough time to hit the ball for a big shot. It should not be too close to the bat but not too far away either, this means that when the ball bounces it can either turn, or pitch in whichever direction it is required to.

As a bowler you can use the length to your advantage by bowling a various line of deliveries to confuse the batsman. You may want to start with a few short balls followed by a full length delivery and hopefully either get a leg before wicket or bowl him. This is another thing that requires a great deal of practice and can only be achieved once you have absolutely full control of the ball.

Remember, bowling isn’t just about speed. If you are a fast bowler then in order to achieve optimum speed, you need to perfect your line and length first. This can take several years before you can confidently bowl at a quick pace, start off slowly perfecting your run up and building up the power gradually. If you want to look at good line and length then your best bet is to look at Australian bowling legend Glen McGrath who has been one of the finest examples of line and length bowling. Furthermore, don’t forget to look at your run up and try to tweak this so you are confident of getting the right amount of pace and power in your follow through. Some of the world’s best bowlers do this by counting the number of strides so they don’t under or over stretch themselves.

Z Fazal

People put a lot of effort over complicating things when it comes to batting. As a result they tend to focus on the less important factors of batting when in fact they should be focusing on the obvious. It’s probably human nature to think the obvious is too simple and will not work, when it is usually the simple things that only really work.

We will review some of the basic tips when it comes to batting, and getting these simple things right will take your batting to the next level.

Good Defensive Technique

The top cricketers of the world play fantastic cricket shots, but they also have a solid defensive stroke. You don’t see the best players trying to score off every delivery. That is because they can’t and play the ball on its merits. You always try to score off the bad deliveries if you can, but when you get a good ball, it is a matter of survival with a good defense technique.

Keep Your Eye On the Ball

This sounds quite easy to do, but you often find that those players that actually do this consistently will tend to be playing more correct cricket shots, and place the ball where they intended. This means looking at the ball from the moment it leaves the bowlers hand, to where it strikes your cricket bat. A lot of the time players do not look at the ball just as it is close to hitting the bat, which can lead to bad strokes.

These are just two simple but very effective batting techniques, that when perfected can really improve your overall batting ability.

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