Cricketing skills that fascinate you

[Shri]

Post examples of instances that made you respect the skills that the best of the lot have to deal with in international cricket.

This made me respect good players of pace bowling a whole lot more:

hen you look at the front on view, you think the ball is not that hard to face in terms of speed but in the second part of the replay when they show you the top down view, you just cannot see the ball, not even a blur, until it has already hit the stumps. I already knew how difficult it is to put bat on ball to bowlers who were nowhere close to Starc's pace in local cricket but to score runs off such speeds as a batsman is something I cannot comprehend.

Post stuff that awed you and made you respect cricketing skills more.

 

[Adders]

Excellent thread...........how did you make such a good resolution gif?? Seriously impressive!! If only OS could have done the same work with his aesthetics thread.........I might believe that Joe Root is ugly

 

[Shri]

Excellent thread...........how did you make such a good resolution gif?? Seriously impressive!! If only OS could have done the same work with his aesthetics thread.........I might believe that Joe Root is ugly

Downloaded it from gfycat, converted it into a gif online and uploaded it to imgur.

 

[fredfertang]

It does amaze me when, like in that clip, you can see the seam upright

Another thing that fascinates me, and which being such a **** player I only ever experienced once, is batting at the non-strikers end when a spinner is on who can actually make the ball talk with that whirring sound - the one time it was something I witnessed rather than just heard about from someone else was a bloke in his 50s who'd played some Minor Counties cricket in his youth - he was an off spinner and on a wicket which was absolutely flat by the standards I was used to he was turning it a foot or more

 

[Shri]

It does amaze me when, like in that clip, you can see the seam upright

Another thing that fascinates me, and which being such a **** player I only ever experienced once, is batting at the non-strikers end when a spinner is on who can actually make the ball talk with that whirring sound - the one time it was something I witnessed rather than just heard about from someone else was a bloke in his 50s who'd played some Minor Counties cricket in his youth - he was an off spinner and on a wicket which was absolutely flat by the standards I was used to he was turning it a foot or more

I bowled spin too and I managed to do it twice in my life, on the same day. My fingers were sore since it was late in the day and I was angry about something. Got it to drift slightly but it was harmless since it was way outside off. I am slowly starting to realize that I was a very, very useless player who shouldn't have played much cricket in a fair world.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Excellent thread...........how did you make such a good resolution gif?? Seriously impressive!! If only OS could have done the same work with his aesthetics thread.........I might believe that Joe Root is ugly

Hey I had to grab those from ****** youtube videos.

 

[Daemon]

Being able to do a fair job keeping up to a 130kph bowler. Massive respect.

 

[fredfertang]

I bowled spin too and I managed to do it twice in my life, on the same day. My fingers were sore since it was late in the day and I was angry about something. Got it to drift slightly but it was harmless since it was way outside off. I am slowly starting to realize that I was a very, very useless player who shouldn't have played much cricket in a fair world.

You cant be that bad mate if you're only now beginning to realise - sadly for me there was never any doubt in my case - I tried desperately hard but there was no talent there - same for my brother - our Dad was a very useful cricketer indeed and with two sons he must have harboured hopes, sadly dashed far too early

 

[Pup Clarke]

I definitely think coping with fast bowling requires a unique set of skills for an individual For example, I could play or compete in many Olympic sports with no threat towards my health. I could be humiliated skill-wise, but my physical health probably wouldn't be danger. In the case of playing quick bowling, this is legitamely not the case. I'm a reasonable club cricketer, but I know when I'm facing someone who can bowl around 80mph that I have to be intensely focused on watching that ball and reacting, or else I'm going to be hit.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Who was the best facing it? I think a good thing is to ask the question, who had success against the Windies pace quartet, so, Gavaskar? Chappell? Gooch had a terrific knock against Marshall in the early '90s. These are rare batsmen.

 

[Noah]

Being able to bowl a carrom ball is a skill I have a great respect for. Tried doing it when I was younger and barely had the strength in my fingers, let alone the dexterity to control it.

 

[indiaholic]

Played a guy once who was measured at 120ks at a pace bowling talent hunt. Was genuinely clueless. Only shot I hit was a premeditated block.

Respect everybody since then.

 

[Shri]

Curious thought:

Do you have a better shot at seeing the ball well as a batsman if you are a wicket keeper? You need to anticipate where the ball is going to come as a keeper and maybe that helps you spot the ball zipping towards you after a while?

 

[Burgey]

Possibly. I imagine it would help more playing spin if you were a keeper.

I think players take a lot of subliminal tells from seam bowlers. The sorts of things you may not even realise you're noticing, like their head position in delivery stride etc. Things you see in your peripheral vision.

As an example, I have a mate who's a really good coach at grade level in Sydney. He went through a phase a while ago where he was trying to coach his quicks to bowl bouncers with their eyes still on a full length, because he was convinced it added an element of deception to it from the batsman's POV. On the same sort of lines as those slower bowls blokes bowl with a really fast arm action (a skill I really admire in itself).

 

[Shri]

And thinking back, I don't think I have ever seen a keeper flinching to a bouncer or be surprised by it unless the bowler is a seriously quick bowler. Their response to a short ball might be **** but not a lot of keepers get their bell rung, do they?

 

[Daemon]

Keeping back is alright. It's when you're up to the stumps and your medium pacer sends down a 125kph legside wide that I think is completely bonkers to take.

 

[vic_orthdox]

The wobbly seam, Philander/Stuart Clark/Anderson style, fascinates me. I wonder why it isn't coached more often or seen more widely around the world.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Curious thought:

Do you have a better shot at seeing the ball well as a batsman if you are a wicket keeper? You need to anticipate where the ball is going to come as a keeper and maybe that helps you spot the ball zipping towards you after a while?

I can tell you that in a One-dayer or T20, being a keeper/opening batsmen can help you immensely when you bowl first. A few times I've come out to open the batting and you've already got the pace/bounce etc. of the pitch all worked out. Almost feels like you've already been batting for 20 overs.

 

[Kirkut]

Basically anyone playing competitive cricket. I went for my college cricket team tryouts during my first year of college, I did decent in the fitness test and was then asked to face a 6 foot 3 inch pace bowler for an over, I couldn't see the first 2 deliveries and got hit on ribs the 3rd ball, luckily he was bowling with heavy tennis ball and not the hard ball. Made a resolution after that to never mock any professional cricketer.

 

[honestbharani]

Possibly. I imagine it would help more playing spin if you were a keeper.

I think players take a lot of subliminal tells from seam bowlers. The sorts of things you may not even realise you're noticing, like their head position in delivery stride etc. Things you see in your peripheral vision.

As an example, I have a mate who's a really good coach at grade level in Sydney. He went through a phase a while ago where he was trying to coach his quicks to bowl bouncers with their eyes still on a full length, because he was convinced it added an element of deception to it from the batsman's POV. On the same sort of lines as those slower bowls blokes bowl with a really fast arm action (a skill I really admire in itself).

Yep.. Fully agree there. At the levels I played, I never had trouble picking spin, or seam movement etc.. Even late swing. I always assumed it was because I was a keeper, always got into decent positions to play the ball and can defend ok-ish but had literally no power to play the big shots, which meant in all the limited overs stuff, I became a liability unless I was opening with a pinch hitter guy at the other end and the captain batting 3 coz that was his lucky number. Genuine pace (we never had any measure of the speed at our games, sadly) though was another thing. There were a number of bowlers who I felt were way too quick for me, esp. with a trigger movement that had my front foot going across the stumps from the stance, I was such an easy candidate of LBW and bowled when I was late on the ball against those quick bowlers.