Monday, January 30, 2017

The Sunday Cricket Lessons - First Defend, Then Attack

Once again I decided to put myself under fire to learn. I braved the fast bowlers and walked in to bat without the helmet that so restricted me last time. I trusted myself despite my fuzzy eyesight. The bowlers were good - Kartik, Sukhen, Abdulla.

I was seeing the ball well enough because I committed myself to watch the ball early and on to the bat. But I noticed that I was making the odd error once in while and was getting out. Upon a quick analysis I realised I was planning to hit the ball and was therefore committing myself to hit first and only at the last moment defend the good ball - by which time it was too late.

I decided to change strategy.

Instead of looking to hit as the first approach, I decided to defend. These were good bowlers after all. And while defending if I found a delivery that begged to be hit I would. Now that change in approach suddenly made my game that much more tighter. I was more secure, got out lesser number of times and my shots were coming from a more stable base.

It works well, this approach and all my big innings have been based on this principle - look to defend first and from a stable position where security if first assured, look to attack the loose ball. Less chancy. More effective. More secure and stable.

It's not a bad idea to take to life - instead of being chancy and hoping, you could first secure yourself and punish the delivery that erred. 

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