I'm a captain in need of some advice

[Barney Rubble]

Right guys and girls, I'm the captain of my school's 3rd XI team, and we're coming into a week which contains our two hardest games of the season. We've just (on Saturday) secured our second victory in three years (we're fairly bad!), and my first as captain in my fourth game (won 1, lost 2, no result 1 - shame that, we were in a decent position), and confidence among the team is very high.

However, my problems are as follows:

1. There are two players in my team who aren't contributing very much with bat or ball - one bats no7 and, due to most of my bowlers also being top order batsmen, bowls 3rd change. He gets frustrated at not getting much of a bowl (I gave him an over as we were about to win on Saturday, but I had to take him off to bring back our opener, as we wanted to bowl them all out instead of leaving them 8 down - it worked, he got the two we needed in the last over), and about batting no7, but the fact is he's not good enough to have a more important role in the team. He also has a very negative attitude, and it doesn't help morale to have someone telling the rest of the team there's no point putting any effort in because we'll lose anyway.

The second is a medium pace bowler who on his day can be very effective, but has a tendency to try too hard when he's not getting it right, meaning he just gets worse. He bats no11 and despite slogging it around it nets today, will never go any higher. My dilemma is, for Wednesday's tough away game against another school's 1st XI who are of similar standard to us (but usually have 1 or 2 players that outclass us and would be playing for 1st XI teams in schools with more than 1 team), do I drop these two players for two more of better quality, but even worse attitudes than the guy with the problems? The latter two would probably contribute more to the cause, but they would ruin the team spirit that developed on Saturday, as well as demoralising the other two significantly. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the two I'm considering bringing in are close friends of mine, and would probably take it personally if I decided not to bring them back into the team following their voluntary absence on Saturday - one of them in particular would find it hard to accept that we were a better team without him.

At the moment, I'm leaning much more towards keeping a settled XI, even if there are players in it who don't contribute much - the rise in confidence that Saturday gave us might be enough to secure another victory.

2.If the opposition on Wednesday do have one top quality batsman who decides to get after us, and my bowlers are simply not good enough to contain him, is there anything I can do? I've contemplated asking my more accurate bowlers to bowl wide outside off stump and set the field accordingly, but the problem then becomes that we normally play with fairly small boundaries, and I don't want him hitting my openers over extra cover for six every three balls. There's the leg trap option, of course, but if he's got the power to get over the field, he may well be able to do it consistently, time and again, in which case that plan will have to be swiftly thrown out the window. Yorkers are an option, but I'm not sure if any of my bowlers can bowl them consistently. I do have an offspinner on whom I think I can rely for accuracy, but he's young and I don't want to place too much responsibility on him in terms of containing the batsmen. Also, he's likely to only have 5 overs, as we are playing 25/25 on Wednesday for some crazy reason.

Thanks for any advice you knowledgeable guys can provide, and I'm sorry about the outrageously long post!

[Swervy]

1. Keep the settled side.
Why not try and put the no.7 batsman up the oder to say no.3...give him chance to contribute...that way there wont be that much problem just giving the guy only a couple of overs if he doesnt bowl that well..he has been given a chance to contribute..who knows the extra responsibility may be the making of him. I have seen it happen at club level a lot.Maybe he doesnt contribute because he think no-one expects him to
The medium pacer...he can be effective...just hope he is on the day..if he isnt whip him out of the attack straight away with a view to possibly bringing him back on when he has settled down in the field, if the game situation allows it.
Long term , this would be better for the team

2. What can you do apart from playing your own game.Dont play to his strengths and weaknesses..play to you own.
Try and be aggressive against the other batsmen and keep the good guy off strike...what more can you do if you dont have the bowling to stop a good batsman

[steds]

take the easy way out, give up captaincy

[Neil Pickup]

First up, I'd probably lean towards the settled side depending on how bad the attitude of the first guy you mention is. If he's convinced that you're going to lose, he ain't gonna be bothered about playing, is he? The second is generally a case of just hoping he bowls well - more on making sure that you introduce him into the attack at a time he's not likely to get hit out of the ground first up, and a tight first over does sufficient psychologically to keep him up there.

Secondly, what I did on Sunday faced with that situation was that I was quite happy to grant the big hitter a single to the man on the boundary, but brought the field in very aggressively for the batsman at the other end, which sufficiently strangled the hard-hitting batsmen into enough injudicious attempts to go over it anyway to hole out and give us an easy win.

Finally, on an utterly unrelated note - which school is this, how long a drive is it from Exeter, and how many Wednesdays do you have free between now and the end of June?!

[Barney Rubble]

It's Christ's Hospital School, and we have plenty of free Wednesdays between now and the end of June, but unfortunately, we're in Horsham, West Sussex. A good four and a half hours drive from Exeter, I'd say! Were you about to offer us a game?

Thanks for the advice guys - Swervy, your idea is good in principle, but I just can't promote this guy to no3, he's not good enough. He's got three runs in two innings so far this season, and he's batting at seven because there's really not much between our numbers 6 to 11 at the moment - the only difference between them is how good their defensive technique really. None of them are realistically likely to get us many runs. Our no6's highest ever score is 17!

I think what's going to happen though, happily, is that my coach is going to give me one or two players from the 2nd XI to help against any 1st XI quality players the opposition have - if he gives me two, then I can keep a predominantly settled side, bring in two talented players who will add energy and hopefully runs/wickets to the side, and at the same time drop the two guys who aren't contributing much. The hardest match of the season comes on Saturday, against giants of schoolboy cricket Eastbourne College, and I'll have to see what kind of team I have available for that one - luckily, in a way, the two friends of mine whose attitudes aren't great have declared themselves unavailable for the next two games for various reasons, so I don't have to worry about them any more.

As for dealing with quality batsmen, I think you're both right - I've spoken to one of my more accurate bowlers this evening, and he's said he feels confident he could bowl me six outswingers on a length outside off stump if I asked him too. Good call on moving the field in and out a lot - I guess I'm going to have to do that a lot. I'm looking forward to the next couple of games, it should be a real test of my captaincy abilities, and my coach is going to love me for ever if we win either (or both!) of them!

On the plus side of things, I'm in good nick myself - scores this season of 47* in an abandoned game, 0 (diamond duck ), 11 (top score in an innings of 34 all out, they had an offspinner who was too good for 3rd XI cricket, he had figures of 6-4-5-7!), and 33 the other day in our victory. My Mark Richardson-esque opening partner was on 4* when I got out for 33 in the 7th over, I started fairly rapidly! Threw away my wicket though, played a defensive with hard hands and got caught easily at silly mid off. Our no4, who must be one of the most spectacular 3rd XI batsmen around our area at the moment (he's also the offspinner I can rely on) tonked 41 as well - when he came in, our no2 had 9*. After two balls, a straight four and then a giant six over mid-wicket, he had surpassed his partner's score! Our top order batsmen are scoring runs, at that at least means we can get ourselves off to a good start, even if our last 5 wickets struggle to make a partnership of 10! Thanks again guys.

[Neil Pickup]

*Decides to keep current fixture list intact*

Just be thankful that you haven't found yourself keeping wicket for the first time ever on the grounds that you find yourself with no-one else in the team capable of doing so!

[age_master]

1) Attitude is all important, if people dont want to play get rid of them, even if they arn't quite as good and have a better attitude they will effect the team as a whole positivley and are more likley to learn with more practice.

2) Getting out gun batsmen, something that ive done a fair bit of in my time (its the crap one i struggle with )

(not i bowl med pace)
i generally try and keep it tight to them, just good line and length. than every now and than bowl a looser one that the field is set to, my favourite its just lobing a slower one up with abit of turn on it (off spin) the batsman generally goes to try and hit it over hid on for 6 but usually mis hits due to the chane of pace and the spin on it. (position the fielder about 3/4 out to the boundary so the batsmen will be willing to try and go over his head).

another strategy is to go for the bouncer. now if your a slowish med pace bowler like myself batsmen just dont expect it, very risky starategy and i have been hit for a couple of 6's doing it. but it just might work.

the main thing i find is to look to get them out all the time, if your strategy is just to contain eventually they will still get after you but if you always have some sort of plan to get them out you should do ok

[marc71178]

Originally Posted by age_master

i generally try and keep it tight to them, just good line and length. than every now and than bowl a looser one that the field is set to, my favourite its just lobing a slower one up with abit of turn on it (off spin) the batsman generally goes to try and hit it over hid on for 6 but usually mis hits due to the chane of pace and the spin on it.

Out of interest, does that tactic of deliberately giving him one to hit work as a wicket-taking option?

[Barney Rubble]

Just found out I've been given an unchanged side for tomorrow's game. We're playing 25/25, so I'll have to make sure I choose my bowlers carefully - one bad over and you're off might have to be the strategy.

I've got a bowler I know I can turn to if I want to give him a few to hit - he bowls fairly accurate, but quite loopy and slow, offbreaks. I probably won't be giving him his full complement of overs, but two or three here or there might pick up the wicket if he tries to go after him. The guy with the bad attitude might pick him up too - he's a fairly accurate medium pace bowler, but the thing that makes opposition batsmen try and slog him most of the time is he's a 5-foot-1 15-year-old, who looks about 12. When they see him come one, their eyes light up and they try and hit him out of the park, at least that's what the world's most boring batsman did when we played him on Saturday.

Any tips for opening the batting in a shortened game? We usually play 35 overs, sometimes 30, so I'm not really used to this type of game. I'm looking for particular techniques or things to try out, seeing as when I score I usually score at about a run a ball anyway, I'm fairly aggressive. Don't think my style will need to change much. Tips for field settings might come in handy too.

[chekmeout]

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble

Just found out I've been given an unchanged side for tomorrow's game. We're playing 25/25, so I'll have to make sure I choose my bowlers carefully - one bad over and you're off might have to be the strategy.

I've got a bowler I know I can turn to if I want to give him a few to hit - he bowls fairly accurate, but quite loopy and slow, offbreaks. I probably won't be giving him his full complement of overs, but two or three here or there might pick up the wicket if he tries to go after him. The guy with the bad attitude might pick him up too - he's a fairly accurate medium pace bowler, but the thing that makes opposition batsmen try and slog him most of the time is he's a 5-foot-1 15-year-old, who looks about 12. When they see him come one, their eyes light up and they try and hit him out of the park, at least that's what the world's most boring batsman did when we played him on Saturday.

Any tips for opening the batting in a shortened game? We usually play 35 overs, sometimes 30, so I'm not really used to this type of game. I'm looking for particular techniques or things to try out, seeing as when I score I usually score at about a run a ball anyway, I'm fairly aggressive. Don't think my style will need to change much. Tips for field settings might come in handy too.

Well I have played all my cricket opening the innings in 25-over games and have been fairly successful. What I used to do is get off to a fairly rollocking start, slow down a bit as the spinners came in and again hit out towards the end. That worked fairly well for me but then again all my cricket has been on cement pitches...

[andyc]

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble

Just found out I've been given an unchanged side for tomorrow's game. We're playing 25/25, so I'll have to make sure I choose my bowlers carefully - one bad over and you're off might have to be the strategy.

I've got a bowler I know I can turn to if I want to give him a few to hit - he bowls fairly accurate, but quite loopy and slow, offbreaks. I probably won't be giving him his full complement of overs, but two or three here or there might pick up the wicket if he tries to go after him. The guy with the bad attitude might pick him up too - he's a fairly accurate medium pace bowler, but the thing that makes opposition batsmen try and slog him most of the time is he's a 5-foot-1 15-year-old, who looks about 12. When they see him come one, their eyes light up and they try and hit him out of the park, at least that's what the world's most boring batsman did when we played him on Saturday.

Any tips for opening the batting in a shortened game? We usually play 35 overs, sometimes 30, so I'm not really used to this type of game. I'm looking for particular techniques or things to try out, seeing as when I score I usually score at about a run a ball anyway, I'm fairly aggressive. Don't think my style will need to change much. Tips for field settings might come in handy too.

we play 35 overs here, and recently had a 20/20 game where the run rate was about 7 or 8..

id suggest to set a normal field, and see how the batsmen are treating the game.. if they're trying to slog you around the park, set a defensive field, because chances are you may not get them all out in 25 overs, so you'd be looking to contain the runs. if they're batting like a normal 35 over game, then set the field aggresively and go for the wickets. obviously, don't put the guy with the bad attitude on the boundary, as if the batsmen are going well, you dont want him letting through fours (cause it p***es the hell out of the bowlers, trust me).
when you're batting, don't get distracted by the boundaries and just take the one's and two's, because chances are the fielding side won't even notice you racking up a very decent score.

[age_master]

Originally Posted by marc71178

Out of interest, does that tactic of deliberately giving him one to hit work as a wicket-taking option?

has for me alot. i usually have a look at the batsman first, see weak and strong area's (while facing other bowlers) and pick one of his weaker area's to throw the lose one at, playing to a batsmans strengths can work too, depends on the batsman though.

[age_master]

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble

Any tips for opening the batting in a shortened game? We usually play 35 overs, sometimes 30, so I'm not really used to this type of game. I'm looking for particular techniques or things to try out, seeing as when I score I usually score at about a run a ball anyway, I'm fairly aggressive. Don't think my style will need to change much. Tips for field settings might come in handy too.

dont change your style than leave 1 batsman who can hit a few down thr order just in case.

as for opening, push the running between wickets, make sure the person backing up starts running as soon as the bowler starts his delivery stride and you should score most balls.

field setting, depends if you bat first, assuming you bowl first fairly normal than adapt to their requirements, if they need more than 6 an over 2 saving 4 and the rest cutting singles, make them hit the boundaries to win, thats much harder than singles and they are more likley to get out doing it.

[marc71178]

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble

Any tips for opening the batting in a shortened game? We usually play 35 overs, sometimes 30, so I'm not really used to this type of game. I'm looking for particular techniques or things to try out, seeing as when I score I usually score at about a run a ball anyway, I'm fairly aggressive. Don't think my style will need to change much. Tips for field settings might come in handy too.

As captain, I'd suggest you look to still be there at the end of the innings.

[marc71178]

Originally Posted by age_master

has for me alot. i usually have a look at the batsman first, see weak and strong area's (while facing other bowlers) and pick one of his weaker area's to throw the lose one at, playing to a batsmans strengths can work too, depends on the batsman though.

Thought it would - only goes to show it happens in all levels of Cricket, from Tests down!