Hi,
Has anyone got any tips for how to play an on drive? I usually end up with my head falling over towards point and my foot too far outside leg stump.
Hi Willoughby63,
Hard to tell exactly without seeing you play the shot, but the main things to keep in mind are the basics for all shots first of all:
1. Balance at the crease as the ball is being delivered, weight towards the balls of your feet.
2. Eyes level, knees slightly bent.
Now you're ready to get into any stroke.
3. For the on drive, it's vital your head, followed by front shoulder, are moving straight towards the ball. Ergo your body weight is going to where the ball is coming from.
4. Your front foot needs to "open up" to aim straight back down the pitch. Note that by "opening up" we don't mean you need to move your leg out towards square leg. It sounds like this is causing your head to counter-balance you by falling over to point.
5. In this position - picture it or practice it if you can - you now have a free line through which your bat can come down in a straight line and push the ball between the stumps and mid-on.
6. Play the ball right under your eyes.
A good, simple practice would be to work up from the stationary ball-on-a-cone (or similar), just getting into the position described and playing the ball off the cone. You could then move onto a ball drop under your eyes or, if no one can drop it for you, you can tuck a tennis ball under your front shoulder, release it and play the shot. Remember the old rules still apply: keep a nice high front elbow and play it late, under your eyes.
* Like with all practice drills we tend to exaggerate the stride towards the ball in order to get the feel of our weight going forwards. With off-and on-drives, you'll find you won't be playing it with a huge stride generally, as the ball tends to be very full when we play this shot. Check out Ricky Ponting's masterclass where he points this out (especially as, facing 90+ mph bowlers, he wouldn't have time for a large stride) but still acknowledges the time and place for the classic "getting the stride in" in practice.
Players I suggest to check out playing on drives: Ponting, Tendulkar, Vaughan.
I hope this helps.
Once mastered, the on-drive is surely the pick of the shots.
) because no one really plays cricket around here, though I did see people around play once at a park in the Dallas area. I'm just curious - to those living outside the more established cricket playing nations - do you play cricket often? How do you find people to play with and how well known is the sport?
