Am I bowling crap and more?

I didn't seem to bowl that well today, well I wasn't that happy with it. Before the match I'd had a look at the wicket and thrown the ball down it to get a sense of whether it'd spin or not and it did even with just a little bit of spin, but the worst aspect was that wasn't a great deal of bounce. When I practice I get shed loads of spin and bounce, but then this is on a rough surface, so maybe I'm making assumptions about my bowling prowess based on bowling on a surface that assists the image of doing well with both these aspects? But I've also got to consider that the game today was a lost cause and that those batsman had nothing to lose. If they were chasing a much higher score perhaps they'd have played in a different manner showing a lot more respect for our bowling? I've also got to take positives from the fact that we (Wizard and me) slowed down the run-rate considerably and that The Wizard was the only bloke to take a wicket and again this is in a situation where there was no pressure and against an opening batsman. Again I'd argue that surely there might be room for some experimentation in these friendly matches and try a Warne/McGrath opening bowling attack. It would have been interesting to see how unsettling it would be to have the opening batsman facing Tom Hills coupled with either Wizard, Callum or me (All spinners) at the other end? Surely this approach wouldn't allow the batsmen to get their eye in so readily and therefore pay dividends with wickets? It would also allow a side by side comparison of how affective fast bowlers are compared with spinners in opening the bowling against their opening and supposedly best batsman. Even the intransigent and spin sceptic Simon Hughes in his book 'Jargon Busting - mastering the art of cricket' concedes...

Bringing on a spinner early is quite a bright idea, because top order batsmen are not used to slow bowling and, with the new ball, some spinning deliveries might grip and turn and others, pitching on the shiny part of the ball might skid straight on. Jargon Busting - mastering the art of cricket; Simon Hughes; Channel 4 Books, London; 2002; Page 101.

As a consequence, I'll mow the wicket on the field across the road as that's a lot flatter than my current practice venue and see if I can get the ball to turn on there. That'll give me a truer picture of how my bowling is going at the moment and whether I'm losing the ability to turn the ball.

Cricket on the field with the kids.

For the first time this summer the kids on the estate and my son Joe asked me if they could play cricket on the field. Of course I said yes and was quite pleased because, yesterday I'd decided that I wouldn't continue to maintain it because the kids showed no inclination to use it. So 6 of us went over and had a game. What with them all being another year older they all played quite sensibly with some sense of what the game is about. It was quite good to see that they were all taking the fielding quite seriously and all bowling fairly straight and correctly. One kid in particular - Jojo bowled really well and if he could catch would have had 3 bowled and caughts but he put down everyone of them and they were all dollies! We had a good game with my son Joe winning with the most runs and showing a bit of improvement with his bowling (He bowls round arm like Malinga) where he was getting his arm almost back to vertical and when he did so he was taking wickets. So what with this sudden desire to play cricket on the field and my need to have a closer look at my own bowling I'll be mowing the field tomorrow at some point and I'll also mark out crease lines using the 'Round up' plant killer.