Batsmen should play bowlers according to merits

by A.C. de Silva

FLASHBACK: Getting through the first few overs has been somewhat of a problem for opening batsmen. Basically with a little luck and some good judgement you've got to be more cautious when you first-come in, because the reactions aren't quite so sharp. The longer you stay in, the better batsman you should become.

The batsmen, however, should not get into a negative grove at the start and make survival the sole priority.

The batsman must be able to treat the bowling according to its merits.

If a bad ball comes your way, batsmen should punish it - you'll feel that much more confident. But all batsmen by now should know the dividing line between a handsome, productive shot and one that's not quite right and gets you out.

The only consolation to you is that we all suffer such moments of indecision.

Once cricketer D'Olivera said, "I Always give the first hour to the bowler, but then the next two-hours are mere and I then make him suffer." That's not a bad thinking for any batsman.

Another tip about batting. One of the most vulnerable times for you is when you've just hit a boundary; it's like the soccer side that relaxes just after scoring and gives away the equaliser through sheer slackness in defence or inattention.

Concentrate and play each ball on its merits, and if the next delivery, deserves the treatment, hand it out.

Tackling the lean trot

It's hard enough to steel yourself to keep going when you've playing well, but it's even more difficult when you're out of form. That's another thing Test players have in common with the humblest village-green batsman we will get the shakes and back despairs when we think we'll never get another run.

Being out of form is so frustrating, no matter how good or bad a batsman you are, you tell yourself to stay in and hope that things will get better, but you get deeper and deeper into a rut, and when you try to break out and play some shots, you hit then straight-up in the air and you're out.

The batsman keep getting dismissed by fantastic catches. Unplayable balls or break bits of fielding that leave you stranded at the wrong end and run out by yards.

The advice to batsmen is to play one's natural way, the way that's got you runs in the past, and then keep hoping.

Left to batsmen

Graham Gooch says that he is not a great one for intensive net practice to iron out problems. However, if the batsman thinks that it will do some good, he (the batsman) should got on with it.

Being out of form is even more of a problem when you've playing limited-over cricket.

It doesn't mater if it's a 20-over hitting contest in the evening, a John Player match or the World Cup final, the pressures on the stroke-maker are the same when you're chasing a total.

If he's out of form and can't get the ball off the square with the overs running out, the best service he can do for his side is to get out by hitting out.

That way, he'll either be lucky, and hit a few boundaries and regain some form, or he'll be out-quickly and give someone a chance - especially if there are plenty of overs in hand.

The all important thing when batting in limited over cricket is wickets in hand that way you can afford a slow start and play an acceleration. If didn't work out that way in the World Cup final when Brearley and Boycott did so well to blunt Roberts, holding and Co at the start. The bowlers didn't accelerate at the right time against Viv Richards and Collis King, the weaker bowlers who were quite happy to give them plenty or singles. They did a very good job against the new ball in the face of a superhuman task, but the batting side could have gone even closer if the rate had been stepped up immediately after tea, when the batting side had all the wickets left and needed about six an over.

Don't be a moaner

There are enough mental pressures on the batsman without his adding to them, one way of doing this is by moaning about the umpires and letting dodgy decisions get you down, so that you're not in the proper frame of find to bat in the second innings or the next time that umpire is standing in your match.

Generally in England the umpires maintain proper good humoured discipline in the first-class game in England. That is not the case in Australia where the standard isn't as high and the Aussie players put pressure on the umpire by appealing for everything.

It is generally considered that if everyone queries the umpires, the game will be a shambles.When taking about the mental demands of a batsman, one must never forget the need to keep on improving if you've got any ambitions as a batsman, you'll want to play in a higher grade than you're in all the moment that applies all the way up to Test level.

And the better the standard of cricket, the more chance the batsman has of being bound-out his weaknesses will be clinically analysed, he'll suddenly find the most productive scoring shots being cut off and he'll have to rethink his game.