Following on from last nights epic, here is my field.
This is my field, for my bowling, so it is written for leg spinners, not captains.
As I am a leg spinner who bowls a leg stump line, and relies on flight and drift, it may not suit everyone.
But it’s not meant to, just me, and one day my padawan learner.
1 The wicket keeper, very important you have him there.
2 The leg spinner, you, the run up should be with 6 to 10 steps of varying speeds.
3 Short fine leg, you need this guy there so you can attack the stumps, but unless you are bowling drivel put your worst fielder there.
4 Slip, Always suggest to your captain that he should field at slip, he will feel honoured that you have faith in him, and he will not be in your ear at mid off.
5 Forward Square leg, in professional cricket, deep square leg to a spinner is mandatory, but you will find in club cricket one in ten batsman play the sweep shot, so deep square is pointless. Keep him in close to cut off the singles to mid wicket, so you will need a quick player in there.
6 Deep midwicket, always put someone out there that no one else likes being around. It doesn’t matter if he can catch or not, because in my experience everyone at deep mid wicket drops catches. The reason you have a deep midwicket is because although 1 in 10 club batsman can play sweep shots, 9 out of 10 play the slog or slog sweep.
7 A wide mid on, why a wide mid on you ask, basically because mid on is the hardest place to hit a leg spinner who is getting drift and spin. It’s also a mental thing, you have set your field for a miss hit and for a slog, the batsman needs to think his way through this. You crafty devil.
8 Shortish straight mid on, more of your craftiness on display here. This is for the full ball on leg stump that the batsman tries to force away. Put your favourite fielder here, cause he will be near you. Helps if he can catch, or sledge. Also if the batsman wants to score on the leg side you have left him one gap, through midwicket, if you keep the ball full, he has to play across the line.
9 Mid off, someone quiet there who doesn’t feel the need to give you advice. Trust me on that, as for the position it self, I usually adjust it based on where I need my cover.
10 Cover, I usually start with the cover in close enough that no singles are on offer, and then change it depending on the batsman in question, moving it in to silly mid off if required.
11 Backward point, Someone who can catch, 1 out of 3 slogs end up somewhere near backward point.
There you have information on tactics, and how to handle personalities in your side.
What more can a young leg spinner ask for?
Nothing.
Send this to Cameron White.And also, where is your angry post about the preliminary squad for the Champions trophy?Doherty, Cullen, Hauritz, Casson and no Bryce.They will also probably take Huusey and White to Pakistan/South Africa but not play them so that they are unavailable for Victoria in the Champions league
Didn’t need to write an angry post, Bryce and I have already discussed the fact he is never ever going to be picked for the one day team.
Dont ya think a leg gully makes more sense than a short fine leg. I’m assuming those inside edges would move more towards the gully position than finer in case you get enough drift on …Btw … am a fellow leggie … but not club cricket standard .. just play for our corporates here …
You’re playing a test / 4 day club game with this field, right?It wouldn’t work in an ODI, I don’t think…I usually keep a 5 off, 4 leg field with short third man, point, sweeper cover, short extra cover, long off on the off side..And deep square, short mid wicket, mid wicket, long on on the leg..But then I play 25-25 :-)
Ghurram, I find if you have a leg gully, you try to bowl to it. One change i would make if i was bowling well would be to give the square leg a helmet and moving him in to short leg. Q, unless I was playing against really good batsman I would start with this field regardless of what form of cricket I was playing. If the batsman wants easy singles, he can earn them by hitting over the top. But I haven’t played 25/25 cricket at senior level, but in 40 over cricket I usually started with this field.
Hmm.. I’ll try it next season.. but I know i’ll feel insecure with no one petrolling the offside boundaries…
Who are you, Stuart MacGill or something, don’t bowl short outside off stump and they won’t be able to cut you.
I don’t bowl short so I don’t get cut but I guard the extra cover and long off regions cos i bowl quite full and get driven quite often..
Who’s in charge of sledging?Surely you’ve given this some thought…
Q, Make him through the ring I say. LB, short straight mid on, although i always preferred banter about exactly what was wrong with the batsman with this fielder, rather than conventional sledging. And some somes we would talk about which movie character he reminded us of.