batting on turf

[s sullivan]

Hi,
I am 52 and have joined a new club. Which is quite large ( 7 Teams) I was invited to be captain of the fourths which is great and we are doing well but I am struggling to adjust to the turf wickets here in Melbourne and my batting is woeful. 4,0,1 and 0. Yesterday i copped a half tracker and the ball came through at knee height and I got trapped lbw after trying to pull. I am at my wits end any advice?

[Spikey]

go talk to justin langer

[Hurricane]

Hi,
I am 52 and have joined a new club. Which is quite large ( 7 Teams) I was invited to be captain of the fourths which is great and we are doing well but I am struggling to adjust to the turf wickets here in Melbourne and my batting is woeful. 4,0,1 and 0. Yesterday i copped a half tracker and the ball came through at knee height and I got trapped lbw after trying to pull. I am at my wits end any advice?

You shouldn't be pulling until you are on 20 or so runs anyway in a 2 day game. Certainly not to get off the mark.

Play with a straight bat - read the rest of this thread for other tips.

[benchmark00]

You shouldn't be pulling until you are on 20 or so runs anyway in a 2 day game. Certainly not to get off the mark.

Play with a straight bat - read the rest of this thread for other tips.

Nah, never prescribed to that theory.

If it's there to pull, you pull it, provided you are comfortable with the shot. If the pull shot is a shot where you need to be seeing the ball well to play, then yeah maybe try and restrict it, but you don't want to let a bowler settle into a rythm and let his confidence grow which is what will happen if you don't dispatch bad deliveries.

What I would say however, is that if the ball was a half tracker like you say, it should have bounced over the stumps. So you've either:

a) Got a bad bounce, or;
b) It actually wasn't short enough to pull.

I suspect it's the latter, and yeah, that's just shot selection.

[Prince EWS]

Yeah turf is generally more of a front foot game especially at lower levels so if you're used to playing on astro then the ball simply has to be a bit shorter to pull.

Also, I strongly agree with what Benchy said about the 20 runs thing; I'd probably never get to 20 if I couldn't play a pull shot on the way there.

[Hurricane]

Nah, never prescribed to that theory.

If it's there to pull, you pull it, provided you are comfortable with the shot. If the pull shot is a shot where you need to be seeing the ball well to play, then yeah maybe try and restrict it, but you don't want to let a bowler settle into a rythm and let his confidence grow which is what will happen if you don't dispatch bad deliveries.

What I would say however, is that if the ball was a half tracker like you say, it should have bounced over the stumps. So you've either:

a) Got a bad bounce, or;
b) It actually wasn't short enough to pull.

I suspect it's the latter, and yeah, that's just shot selection.

Yeah turf is generally more of a front foot game especially at lower levels so if you're used to playing on astro then the ball simply has to be a bit shorter to pull.

Also, I strongly agree with what Benchy said about the 20 runs thing; I'd probably never get to 20 if I couldn't play a pull shot on the way there.

Then you both disagree with Mike Gatting who says don't pull until you are set.

I played a pull the other day when I was on 5 but I had been out there a while. I reckon it should be a back foot defence when you first get out there until you can judge the bounce of the pitch.

Mike Gatting says the most important inning of his career was where in a county game he was facing some lame medium pace bowlers " I thought I could bat all day against this lot" then he was out pulling on 15. He swore to never pull again before being set. He claimed it was the start of his rise to the English side.

[benchmark00]

Mike Gatting obviously didn't feel totally comfortable playing the pull shot. It's perfectly fine to say don't play the pull shot early in the innings, but then you'd find you're in the perfect position to play a pull shot and then pull out to play a back foot defence, only to get yourself in the wrong position.

The pull shot is all about positioning, at the end of the day. I can go out there from ball one and play a pull shot comfortably, and would prefer that than going out there to play a cover drive first up.

If the pull shot is a shot you're happy playing, get yourself in position and play it, no matter what stage of your innings.