It's becoming increasingly frustrating to me that the 1st XI can't win a game. We lost this week's midweek T20 by a large margin against a side we beat easily in preseason.
We lost the toss and bowled on a very low, slow track. We bowled and fielded to a decent standard. We were missing one front line bowler and the two fill-in guys let it slip enough for them to score 120. Our front line bowlers conceded 73 in 16 overs. The other two 41 in four. This was probably 20-30 more than they should have got.
We set a target of 35 in the first five overs, but it soon became apparent that this was enormously optimistic. Yet again we lost wickets early and regularly. It certainly wasn't exceptional bowling, but the wickets tumbled in all manner of ways from missing straight ones to the ball trickling onto the stumps from a defensive shot! You could partially blame the light, it's becoming more evident that batting first is a massive advantage, and that going round the overs without urgency when you bowl first costs you.
We were out of the game by the 13th over. Eight down and over 10 an over required. The last couple of players took the game to the 19th. That showed some lower order fight, but we were not going for the runs in any serious way.
In review,
- Start: Bat first (it's a huge advantage), step up the pace to get through the overs faster, have a better option for the fifth bowler. Look to score off more balls, especially against spin.
- Stop: Finding ways to get out, setting improbable targets and trying to force the pace of batting beyond what is possible.
- Continue: Raising fielding standards, bowling well, batting to 11. Putting in work in training.