Your Cricket using tennis balls

[Shaun Tait]

I would use a hard ball to work on a certain aspect but that is just my opinon

 

[TumTum]

With Tennis ball you would tend to play on the backfoot more due to the bounce. Thus when you play with proper cricket ball you would go on the backfoot on the balls which should be played on fronfoot.

Well said.

Personally I find tennis ball cricket much harder than with a real cricket ball, unless it is bowled by a fast-ish bowler that is (I lose sight of the ball ).

 

[kifty121]

people are forgetting its being thrown underarm!

 

[Shaun Tait]

people are forgetting its being thrown underarm!

Oh I would use Tennis Balls then

 

[darthlewis1]

Tennis balls can be used if they're thrown quite hard on to a indoor suface so it skids along the ground but still quite high, they're good for practising bouncers without getting hurt.

 

[cotterill101]

cricket balls, maybe ask some at the club if you could borrow a few??

 

[kifty121]

right, summer hols are now over, tbh it wasnt summer, it was more lke the rainy seaosn, but nevermind!.

i found that tennis balls are best used underarm, form around 10-15 yards from the batsman.
if you are on a bump suface, the ball will simulate "seaming" off the pitch, which is ver handy for reactions.
they are very usefull to practice late cuts with, as they are fast coming off the bat and reasonabley easyh to nudge onto the off side, like a wide delivery.

best option for back foot play is for your partner to step to around 7 yards form the batsman and kneel, then underarm the ball to aorund thigh height.

the only setbacks are the facvt that theuy are hard to stay on the ground du to speed off the bat, and you are never sure whether it has come out of the middle of the bat. but these are minor flaws if u are only looking at the execution of the shot and not the result.

 

[TumTum]

I have a yellow hollow plastic ball that works really well. Behaves just like a real cricket ball and obviously not going to do any damage. Awesome for training at the backyard.

 

[Cricketman]

We play with cricket-tennis balls for fun in our yard. They're a bit harder.

We seem to have good results by not using a run up but just chucking them. Get good pace, bounce, and some seam as well. Makes for some good games. Spin requires an actual action but mostly gets creamed (unless you get out on the boundary).

Note that we were playing on a full on grass lawn, not some sort of pitch or anything.

 

[beeves]

Using a tennis ball is fine for grooving work, although I wouldn't recommend it for nets/simulated match play.

A great way to practice and build up technique is to have a coach kneeling to your side and dropping the ball, which you can then drive. The ball is dropped from about shoulder height (kneeling down remember) and then played off the second bounce. This allows you to work on footwork, bat movement etc, either in isolation or as a complete action.

Tennis balls are also good for bobble feeds - coach is about 10 yards away and feeds the ball so it bobble along the ground. Again, good way to practice front foot defence/drive.

Final use of tennis balls is for junior players who need to work on cut/pull shot. Under arm feed for both shots - the tennis ball allows them to concentrate on the actions of the shot without being worried about being hurt/hit.

Obviously, you build up to full bowling/machine with all of the above but as I said, tennis balls are very handy when developing cricketers.

 

[KingAmla]

I try to never play cricket with a tennis ball. It messes up my timing and judgment of length and bounce when batting. I've recently been on holiday, and played A LOT of road cricket. A good two hours in the nets over two days sorted my problems out, but I try to stay away from tennis balls full-stop.

 

[1iram1]

Try a tape tennis ball. It bounces lower than a tennis ball.

 

[AngryPixel]

I try to never play cricket with a tennis ball. It messes up my timing and judgment of length and bounce when batting. I've recently been on holiday, and played A LOT of road cricket. A good two hours in the nets over two days sorted my problems out, but I try to stay away from tennis balls full-stop.

So true.
I played a lot of tennis ball cricket on concrete floor last summer. Came back to uni and got a good length ball in first match with proper cricket ball. What did i do, went back on the backfoot for a short arm pull and bam. Timber

Worst thing about tennis balls is the false sense of security. Even mistimed balls can go for many. Once i was early in my flick shot and closed the face too soon. Ball struck the bat on the narrow portion of the bat and went sailing over mid on. It was no power, bowler was bemused he said What the fearsome tweak was that, german cut