Preseason has finally come to an end. I am happy where my game is at the moment, and based on Ben’s feedback from last week, the club is too. My bowling finally clicked the previous night after diagnosing the problem to be my run-up. While the consistency is still in progress, I managed to at least make the batters play by going wicket to wicket and occasionally trying to get a ball to curve to hopefully force a rash shot.
The good thing, though is that from next week, I’ll be paired up with someone else who will investigate my ‘pitch map’. This was an initiative by our coach Trent English which is designed to make us more match ready. I’m looking forward to it as it hopefully could guide me to become more consistent.
After the session with Keegan with the bat last Monday, my batting has become a bit more confident. More so on the front-foot, while I’m hoping to become a bit more aggressive with the fast short deliveries. At the moment, I’ve resorted to ducking underneath them, but whenever it’s well-directed at my body, the ball pops up after I hit it tamely. I’m hoping some fine-tuning with my backlift can assist in that regard especially when we’ll be training on the hard wicket nets next week and more importantly if I am going to bat in either the C1 or C2 grade on October 12 (as the limited-overs only sides have the bye).
Basically, I am at a functional headspace with bat and ball and with catching. Last night, I decided to join in the slips cordon drill and caught all but about 2-3 chances that came my way. I try to get my head over my toes so that it helps my reactions, but I need to be careful that my hands don’t follow suit. This is because, ideally, the hands should be giving with the ball to develop soft hands.
Diary of a Grade Cricketer 