Working to a plan

1. Getting started - First 40 balls

The start of every innings will start with a main focus of moving both forward and back, sum up pitch conditions and have a lot of intensity and energy. When the ball is straight or leg side, look to defend or try and work the ball for a single. At this stage you are not planning to try and hit a boundary off the back foot with cut, hook or pull so deflections are your main go to early on.

Driving straight and working to leg is usually a strength. When the ball is a 4th or 5th stump line I will look to be tight with my leaves in 2 day cricket to make the bowler bowl to me. If straight, you will look to drop it into a gap on either side of the wicket or play a controlled drive as straight as possible as this is where you generally score a lot of your runs with the field up.If the bowling is wider then I will leave it and make them come to me.Boundaries will only come if the bowler bowls into my strong areas, which is front foot offside shots. Often in juniors the strong area will be short balls on leg stump or outside.

The first phase is about being busy whilst vulnerable, scoring whilst primarily batting to survive.

Against spin, I want our players to up the intensity. I want you to always look to have aggressive feet both forward and back, but stroke play will be measured, aiming to keep the ball on the grass and not driving unless getting to the ball on the full.When players advance down the pitch, come down to hit on the full, not the half volley (common error) and sometimes run at the bowler to draw a short ball, not to score. Conversely, you can play back defensively to try and draw a fuller ball.Wait until timing, pace and bounce of the pitch and light are suitably adjusted to before expanding your shots. I would like players to try and introduce both fine sweeps and aggressive square sweep shots at training to expand your options against spin bowling in different formats over the next few years. I suspect this is too advanced for our players at the under 13 level but should be able to be developed by players regularly playing on turf.

2. Consolidating and branching out – Next 40 balls

Phase 1 depends on form and the emotion of the day. Phase 2 is consolidating and branching out. Allow yourself to play more shots, however commit to staying in the boundaries of what you can do and not go looking to create something out of nothing. The best response to tight bowling periods will be to run, not to look for a get out of jail big shot. Batsman at the non strikers end have a responsibility to be ready. Being run out because players are casual and not focussed is the fault of the non striker, not the person hitting the ball. Parents should remember and reinforce this message when players cry poor when they are actually at fault. “You snooze you lose in cricket.”

Focus on a mixture of striking the ball to push the field back and taking the pace off the ball to bring fieldsman in. We talked about keeping the ball inside 3 metres to get the quick single. The game within the game is not to strike the ball nicely to mid off for none for example. Either hit the gap or take the pace off it.

Declare war on 30’s. Good players make < 30 or over 50. Anything from 30-50 will be seen by the club as batsman failure. (This is senior cricket – 30 is “success” in junior cricket.)

3. Recognising danger and reeling in (key to averaging > 40 over the long term) – Third 40 balls

Many batsmen accelerate their innings until self destruction. I will talk to people when the time comes about this but there is a better way.

By playing a lot of your innings at less than full capacity, you can be more consistent. By being bold enough to try and score at 3 an over, but patient enough to force the bowler to bowl to you, you should have a high percentage of runs in the V and on the leg side without taking much risk at all. There is no benefit really of hitting the ball in the air. It merely increases your likelihood of being dismissed.

Really committing to your partner and your partnership by continually rotating the strike and running hard, you can keep the upward progression going without lofting the ball.

4. Total enjoyment (key to making big hundreds) – next 80 balls as for most players in senior cricket, facing 200 balls = best chance of making hundreds.

In many ways cricket is a selfish sport. It is a team sport made up of collective individual performances. By having a focus on the scoreboard, the team and your batting partner and scoring at 3 an over, you will be celebrated by your teammates.

Always run hard for your partner. When you enjoy and encourage them through verbal support and constructive “match talk” and present a confident, relaxed demeanour, partnerships can flourish. It is always easier to bat if wickets are not falling.

A key to batting well is to turn over strike regularly to give your batting partner the opportunity to excel. You need to be elite at getting singles. Cameron Ling talked to a group of our business people recently and reiterated the same message. In his time at Geelong Football Club they prided themselves on being elite at the basics. Michael Jordan of Chicago Bulls fame for those old enough was the best at the warm up dribbling drills. Coach Jackson drilled into new recruits that if it is good enough for Jordan, it is good enough for them. I would like us to be elite at quick singles! The same message rings true in cricket.

I used to try to face the better bowlers and get off strike to the junk. I did this to not make the silly error and also to help the team as I was more prolific against the quicker bowlers. I also used to take time to know my teammates so I could know where they can score and reinforce this to them in the middle. Conversely, over time, I found teammates invested in me and my game plan so that often we ran singles without calling such was the inherent understanding of what each other were trying to do. I would like our team to begin to think about what their capabilities are and the capabilities of their teammates to work together against the opposition.

Finally, by trying not to look at your own score, but rather my partner and help them through milestones sometimes time passed really quickly and scores accumulated without trying too hard. Building a back foot weapon will really help players take the next step so that bowlers can’t get full (or you’ll drive them) or short (back foot weapon) so some of the pressure goes to the bowler not to miss their areas rather than all being felt at the batting end. Cricket is a massive game of putting the pressure on the other guy rather than having it all on you.

Hope this helps get your collective thinking to begin to develop your own game plans.