ICC09: The Joys of Zero-Aggression
This may not be a great result from a cosmic perspective. But it is a milestone in my journey as an ICC player, and it contains what may well be a lesson that others will value greatly.
It was a lesson that I could have done with learning one innings earlier than I did. I was Warwickshire batting first in a four-dayer against Yorkshire. I think the weather was overcast, but I had chosen to bat because it was promising to be truly gloomy towards the end of day 2, and I didn't want to be put in to face that with them having posted a score (like I usually am
)
But the wickets started to fall...AND didn't stop, and I just didn't know WHAT to do! I tried less aggression, naturally, but it didn't seem to make any difference, and we were all out for 98, just after lunch!
So Yorkshire come in, and of course they have none of the problems we had (plus the weather has fined up slightly). They bat for more than two days (that's including the 3 hours of rain interruptions) and make 500 or so. We start our 2nd innings at 22 minutes before tea on day 3, needing 414 to make them bat again.
It may not surprise you to learn that we're not thinking about setting a tempting target and declaring! We're on zero aggression, and we're hoping to stay that way, although it's never worked for us in the past.
Well, to cut a long story short (I hate suspense, don't you?)...it worked this time! Four and a sixth sessions later, stumps are drawn, and so is the match. We are 315 for 5, nowhere even near capitulating meekly, with Frost not that far from his century, and Ambrose one lusty hit away from 50. :happy Okay so we're still 100 short of making them bat again, but as if anyone cares about that now! And of the five wickets we lost, two of them were batsmen who had stepped up their aggression in an ill-conceived and ill-fated (isn't hindsight great?) effort to break up the attacking field settings.
So to the moral of this story, Grasshopper: Zero aggression works, so stick with it, and you can (maybe) make fourth-innings capitulations a thing of the past!