Batting

Impact with the ball

Impact with the ball

Impact with the ball
Meet the ball with the full face of the bat The position of the front shoulder and the downswing is important – not the backlift: If a batsman ‘opens’ his front shoulder towards mid-wicket early in his stroke, he finds it difficult to ‘close’ it if required to play off-side strokes. But a batsman who already has a slightly ‘open’ stance can easily ‘close’ the front shoulder when required to …

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Downswing

Downswing

Downswing
Meet the ball with the full face of the bat Role of the front shoulder in the downswing of the bat: For a batsman to be successful at any level it is important that he should meet the ball with the full face of the bat while playing strokes in front of the wicket, either of the back foot or the front foot. The prerequisite for this is that the bat should …

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Back lift

Back lift

Back lift
The prime requirement for a well executed stroke is the back-lift. This is the backward lifting of the bat in preparation for the stroke to be played. It is thus vital to know when, where and how to take the back-lift. You must have often heard a commentator saying that a batsman has played a flowing drive. This flow depends largely on the batsman’s back-lift. As soon as the …

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Batting Stance

Batting Stance

Batting Stance
Feet movement and distribution of body weight in a balanced stance When you watch matches on TV or at the ground, you must have noticed many batsmen shuffling and moving about in the crease before the ball is delivered. These batsmen feel that by doing so they get that split second extra to play a shot off the back foot and that it helps them to keep their feet moving. Others …

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Griping the bat

Griping the bat

Griping the bat
Grip : Hands close together in the middle of the handle Have you seen pictures or video-clips of the all-time greats of cricket such as Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Vivian Richards and our very own Sunil Gavaskar while batting? They scored runs almost at will in any class of cricket, and the one thing they had in common was the fact that they held the bat …

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Handle Grips and Bat Weight

Handle Grips and Bat Weight

Handle Grips and Bat Weight
The number of rubber grips on the bat, is another, which has caught the imagination of batsman. Clive Llyod used four to five grips on his bat. Clive being big builds and had quite large hands, hence was comfortable having those numbers of grips and it varied in accordance to the thickness of the rubber grip. Youngster following him would also add those numbers of grips as that Clive used, …

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Variation in stance

Variation in stance

Variation in stance
Batting Stance : Stance The stance is the position that a batsman takes in the crease before facing every delivery. The stance mostly depends on each batsman’s comfort and style of play. Some may opt for an ‘open’ stance, some may prefer a ‘side-on’ stance, and others, an ‘upright’ stance – made popular by former England skipper, Graham Gooch. Other variations are, keeping the feet ‘side-on’ with the front …

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Taking Guard

Taking Guard

Taking Guard
Batting Stance : Taking Guard Before you commence your innings, it is necessary to mark the position where you will take your position to face the bowler, either with your shoe spikes or your bat. Shivnarine Chandrapaul has even made it fashionable to use a bail to do so. In cricket parlance, this is called ‘ taking guard ‘. To many batsmen who do not know why a guard …

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Role of the hands

Role of the hands

Role of the hands
Role of Hands Before we proceed to learn batting techniques, it is very important that we know what role the hands play in batting correctly. You must have heard coaches and senior players telling youngsters to use the top hand to keep the ball down while driving off the front foot. The top hand, or the left hand for right handed batsmen, plays the role of the guide and helps the bat …

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Role of Eyes

Role of Eyes

Role of Eyes
Role of the eyes. ‘Keep your eyes on the ball, before and at the time of impact’, is the universal principle that governs all ball games. Your head remains steady till the impact and then and only then is it lifted to see where the ball is going. Watch a top-notch golfer playing and you will understand what I mean. He keeps his eyes on the spot where the ball was …

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Impact

Impact

Impact
Impact How to keep the ball down and find the gaps : ‘Smell the ball!’ used to be an oft-repeated instruction to batsmen in the nets in the olden days. What the coach meant by this was that to keep the ball down along the turf the moment of impact between bat and ball had to be close to the body and below the head. Almost under the nose as it were. …

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Gap between the feet

Gap between the feet

Gap between the feet
How wide apart will you keep your feet when you settle down in your stance? This depends on the comfort of the batsman and his style of play. Krishnamachari Srikkanth, was well known for his ‘feet wide apart’ stance. He was of the opinion that by keeping his feet apart he did not have to move them much, front or back, while negotiating deliveries. He could play shots with hardly …

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Batting Stance

Batting Stance

Batting Stance
Gap between the feet How wide apart will you keep your feet when you settle down in your stance? This depends on the comfort of the batsman and his style of play. Krishnamachari Srikkanth, was well known for his ‘feet wide apart’ stance. He was of the opinion that by keeping his feet apart he did not have to move them much, front or back, while negotiating deliveries. He could …

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Batting Grips

Batting Grips

Batting Grips
In this session we will discuss the various types of batting grips and hand positions that cricketers have employed to be successful. There is hardly any cricketer worth his salt who has not experimented with different batting grips and hand positions since the day he first picked up a bat. The grip depends mostly on one’s style of play – the way one wishes to express his or her cricket. But …

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Back Lift Direction

Back Lift Direction

Back Lift Direction
Back lift : The prime requirement for a well executed stroke is the back-lift. This is the backward lifting of the bat in preparation for the stroke to be played. It is thus vital to know when, where and how to take the back-lift. You must have often heard a commentator saying that a batsman has played a flowing drive. This flow depends largely on the batsman’s back-lift. As soon …

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