Your Cricket KP's Season Diary

[King Pietersen]

CRICKETNDTV.com - Cricket Unlimited

The video will explain it far better than I ever could. Some good videos on that site!

 

[King Pietersen]

Update: First Summer Net Session

Had my first Summer net session last night and I'd been looking forward to it for quite a while. Really looking forward to the start of the season. Still got a few weeks till my first game, but hopefully I'll be bowling decently enough come that first game to pick up a few wickets. Hoping for a good season this season. Onto the session.....

Started of with abit of bowling. I decided I'd try out a longer run up, as my old run up was only 12 paces and pretty poor meaning I had very little momentum going into the crease sort of stopping me generating any decent pace. So I lengthened it to 18 paces and saw immediate benefits. I could feel the pace increase, and the accuracy remained. I made sure my weight was forward in my run meaning that I was balanced and it really helped generate momentum coming into the crease.

As for the result end, the ball came out very nicely. Couldn't get the inswinger working much, but was really getting some quite extravagent away movement at times, in the air and off the seam, which was pleasing. I also tried to mix in a couple of slower balls, both of them clearly worked, as the batsman hit the ball in the air. I managed to pick up a couple of wickets and thought I bowled pretty nicely.

I also managed to get a decent go with the bat. I did the usual and played myself in, playing nice and straight, before bringing the shots out. Once I'd got my eye in I started to open up abit. Played a few lovely straight drives, a couple of sweet cover drives, 4 or 5 reverse sweeps and I even started advancing down the track to the quicks and hitting them down the ground. Timing wasn't as good as it has been, the ball wasn't hitting the middle as often as I'd have liked, but it wasn't too bad at all.

Overall, a pretty successful start to the summer nets. Just need to work on my fitness abit more and then keep working on my action and I'll see my pace improve. I reckon since my session with Ian Pont I've improved alot. My pace is definitely up a couple of mph and the accuracy is far better, I'm hitting the right areas almost every delivery now which is very pleasing. Just looking forward to getting stuck into some batsmen at the start of the season now!

 

[Howsie]

Update- Session with Ian Pont

Just got back from a 5 hour session with fast bowling coach Ian Pont, and it's one of the most enjoyable days I've had for a long time. We started the session by bowling in the net with the speed gun set up, quickest delivery out of all of us was timed at 71mph, my quickest was about 64-65mph, so basically Danish Kaneria's quicker ball

After that it was down to drills, walking through our actions, working out our foot placements and then doing that with eyes closed. We then learnt about the 4 Tent Pegs of fast bowling, which are back foot impact, front foot impact, release of the ball and completion of action. These were again walkthrough drills, at times used with weights in each hand to get the follow through perfected.

We also looked at the 3 knee lift, and also the dragging of the right foot (for a right armer) to help generate extra pace. At the end of the session we worked on variations, which included the various slower balls (a hell of alot of them), cutters, yorkers and a quicker ball. 1 other thing we looked at was arm pull, which is something that Atul Sharma and Lasith Malinga use, to generate extra pace. You can really feel it pulling your arm through, really effective.

I'm not now bowling at 85mph, but the session taught me all about my bowling action, what I need to do to improve it, where I'm going wrong and even taught me that I'm front on . Overall, was a really helpful experience, and the things I learnt today will definitely help me improve and start bowling faster. Just so long as I don't start bowling like Steve Harmison (who got alot of hilarious abuse from Ian ). If you ever get the chance to work with Ian, jump at it, he's a superb coach, makes things incredibly easy to understand, and I hope to work with him again. Awesome stuff.

KP nice work, I was just wondering how old most of you guys were that were at this coaching session. How old was the guy that got clocked at 71mph?

 

[King Pietersen]

I'm 19, the guy that clocked 71mph was 19 or 20 I think, there were a couple of younger lads and then 3 or 4 older than me, one of them in his 60's.

 

[Howsie]

So did you find the coaching clinic with Ian Pont really good, is he really that good. I've heard abit about him.

 

[King Pietersen]

Yeh, it was really good actually. The time seemed to fly by. He talked through the techinques superbly, showing us examples of professionals using the techniques as we went along and more importantly allowed me to learn about my action, and realise where I need to improve. He's a very good coach.

 

[King Pietersen]

First match of the season, quick summary of my performance:

Bowling: 2/40 off 10 overs. Got a wicket with a bouncer, the lad tried to ride the bounce but I was too quick for him (:P) and he edged behind. Handy start.

Fielding: Solid in the field, no mistakes, accurate arm.

Batting: 24 off about 18/19 balls, including 5 fours. Shots included 2 pulls from full tosses, a cover drive for four and 2 flicks off my pads for four. Felt in great touch, was hitting the ball beautifully, but then didn't roll my wrists enough and smacked a ball in the air to square leg. Was gutted, had a chance to make an unbeaten 50 and lead the time to victory batting at 8. In the end we lost by 19 Good performance from me though, MOTM from my team tbh.

 

[Howsie]

Nice work there KP, first game of the season is always great.

Bowling: 2/40 off 10 overs. Got a wicket with a bouncer, the lad tried to ride the bounce but I was too quick for him (:P) and he edged behind. Handy start

So the coaching with Ian Pont has worked, do you feel any quicker. What type of pace are you working up.

 

[King Pietersen]

It's certainly helped by accuracy and knowing my action, but I can't say that my pace has improved drastically. I'm notably quicker than last season, so it has helped, but I'm certainly not what you'd classify as quick. I've got decent pace for my league, but I can't ever see myself being genuinely quick tbh.

 

[King Pietersen]

Finally got another game, after a week of no fixture and a rained off game I am playing again. Making my 1st XI debut today . A cup game at home. Hopefully it'll go well and I'll pick up a wicket or two. I bowled really well at nets on Thursday. Got a guy out who opens for the B Team and bats at 4 or 5 in the 1st XI first ball, and then managed to keep the 1st XI captain quiet whilst he was smacking everyone else around the park. Batted quite nicely as well, but got out last ball trying the play the 'Dilshan' . Didn't go well haha.

 

[Deleted member 13648]

Haha least you've got the confidence to play that shot. Good luck mate.

 

[King Pietersen]

Had to be done really. Just got too far across and missed it completely. Took out leg.

Well, one word sums up that game: LOL. We batted first on the greenest pitch I've ever seen, a recipe for disaster you'd think, and you'd be right. All out for 50 I batted at 9 and scored a fluent 1 before going back to a spinner and getting hit on the pad plum in front. Quality. Then they knocked the runs off in about 8-9 overs. I bowled the penultimate over, and managed to pick up 1 for 4 which was pleasing, but overall a shocking performance. First 1st XI game and one to forget. Helped the bowling average though I guess

 

[Howsie]

Got to hate those green wickets. I've played in a fair few of those games before. How'd you get your wicket?

 

[King Pietersen]

Beat him for pace tbh......... Nah, he was pretty good on the off-side through cover, so I bowled a tight line to him, he tried to work it leg-side, took a big top edge and was well caught at square leg. 1-4 off 1 is always good to boost the average and help the economy rate. Just annoyed that my batting average will drop because of the 1. Ah well, least I didn't get a duck.

4 wickets at an average of 21 with an economy of 4.6. Canny complain with that start to the season.

 

[King Pietersen]

Had another game yesterday. We fielded first against one of the better sides in our league. They made 171 in their 40 overs. I bowled pretty averagely, taking 0/20 off 4 in what was easily my worst bowling performance of the season so far. I fielded well at cover though, making a few decent stops and was narrowing the angles down AB De Villiers stylie .

Then we batted pretty awfully. 2 of the top 4 got starts but didn't kick on, one of the openers made 30 off about 22 overs =/ The middle order collapsed with scores of 3, 0 and 2 and it was up to us lower order batters to try and save the day once more. The number 7 made 31 and I made a brisk 13* but we couldn't chase the score down. Eventually bowled out for 152. I'm now 4th highest run scorer in the team though, with the highest average (37). Not a bad season so far with the bat!