I am moving closer to my aim of coaching and not playing as I got to coach the firsts in the latest T20, including some video analysis.
After batting first and scoring 90-8, we lost with 26 balls to spare, taking two wickets. A hammering. It was a difficult pitch with large, slow outfield.
Despite the one sided feel, I can honestly say I saw improvements. The intent to score was clear but wickets fell and we had to dig in. Nevertheless we kept trying to rotate the strike and the dot balls were more play and misses than defend and leaves. To recover from 37-6 in 10 to get to 90 is a fine effort. Naturally, it's the 6 wickets that are the issue. I filmed the whole thing and made notes.
After hearing how tough it is to bat second, I was surprised how easy the opposition found it. They started well, played and missed less, and hit more boundaries. We tied them down in the middle with a lot of dots so the dot% was the same, but they hit the ball over the line more often. This was especially true after the 10th over.
Our stats:
- Wickets: 8
- Dots: 48%
- Singles: 39
- Boundaries: 3
Their stats:
- Wickets: 2
- Dots: 51%
- Singles: 20
- Boundaries: 11
The bowling was solid as always. Perhaps a little loose early on and at the end, but a seamer and spinner kept it tight in the middle. They were only 41 off 10, but with wickets in hand they hit out and killed the game quickly.
We dropped five catches. You would expect to take at least two of them, with the others being trickier but taken on a good day. Despite that, heads stayed up and we fought until the last. Spirits were high.
Sadly, I needed to act as 12th man in the field so was unable to film the other innings.
In review,
- Stop: losing wickets in the first 10. Dropping catches.
- Start: turning dots into ones and twos. Hitting boundaries off bad balls. Building a platform with the bat to go big in the last 10; four down should be the most going into the back end.
- Continue: good spirits, tight ground fielding, accurate bowling, lower order calmness when batting.
Here's the review from the captain:
- Stop: Losing top order wickets in bunches. The guys in the top order often get caught playing either overly aggressive shots, or defending without any intent to score runs. We need to find a happy medium which allows them to play freely while not getting out.
- Start: Practicing catching more. Our four dropped catches cost us the game, no doubt. All the culprits are guys you would expect to drop them under pressure because they don’t work hard enough on this vital aspect of the game.
- Continue: We have a good blueprint for playing T20 cricket which we should continue to build on. Our ground fielding was very good, our bowling was excellent. Guys all have clearly defined roles which they bowled to, and the lower order batted excellently. We just need top order runs to become a truly formidable T20 side.