Monday, October 15, 2012

Another Video of bowling in match

October 14, 2012, was the last match of the 2012 season.  We had just known that our team had secured second place in the IInd Div. and hence got promoted to the I Div., again.  This particular match was of academic interest as the opponent's fate was also decided.  

Since I posted the previous video which was taken about 40 days prior to this one, I had wanted to see how it feels with a straighter run up instead of the slightly angular one.  I had felt that by doing so, the arm would be perpendicular to the ground.  I wanted to achieve this. It had gone inside the perpendicular because the body bent at the torso with the angular run. I think I achieved it though not perfectly visible from the angle these few clips were taken [by 12th man Shashank].  

I had also now changed the camera setting to 30 frames/sec. I had forgotten to adjust it the previous times.  Hence they are grainy. This is better and less than two minutes in all.


Whenever the next set of matches begin, I'll have to start all over again, if I stop attending the practice net sessions for too long.  Next time, I'll remember:

~ to measure my run up correctly - count 15 steps from the stumps [stump is zero].  
~ to start run up with left foot on the mark.
~ to mark the run up straighter rather than the angled one.

Sometimes I do not know why I forget the order!  Now that I got them back, I found the rhythm and felt comfortable. I was landing the left foot just behind the crease which was just fine. 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Me bowling in a match - video

It was a long standing dream to see myself in action, bowling in a real match situation.  I had got a few clips taken for study during practice sessions.  Last September, we were playing our sister team Young Cricketers in our 9th match of the 2012 season.  After I returned home that evening, I discovered in my book that it was my 100th match on that ground itself and the career wicket tally at 1290!  

Let me tell a bit about the first game I had played on this ground and not counted in the 100.  It in 1974 when mostly we played tennis ball cricket on the streets.  Yet, word had spread about the possession of a pair of small leg guards [pads] with me.  So I was included in the playing eleven when a friendly match for "Gowrishankar team" against one "Paapulli team" was arranged.  It was my first ever cricket ball match. Never before I had any opportunity to play with the cricket ball though a cork ball was used despite its dangers in street cricket.  Unfortunately, that game was interrupted by rain in the afternoon.  The ground became soggy.  In spite of it, the match was continued.  I was sent in to bat at the end and I faced only a few balls.  I think I was given just one over when I bowled some off breaks because the leather ball was heavy compared to my usual skill with the tennis ball!  Some consolation for taking my leg guards to the match!  Papulli scored a century and his team won the match. 

My next match on that ground was for the college team in 1979 from where the ground-count of 100 started.  A start had been made in 1978 to my cricket career, which is recorded in my other blog post.

Most of the clips my friend captured that morning are in this.  It was after we won the toss and were fielding first. Bright sunny morning.  I have stringed together about 15-20 clips spanning over 4 minutes.  See.




Saturday, August 4, 2012

My hat-trick and Dennis Lillee

[Click on picture for enlarged view]

Dennis Lillee at his peak was a joy to watch.  There was no way I could watch at that time.  All I had to be content with were to listen to radio commentary of Test Matches and then to buy Sportsweek magazine merely for its pictures that followed after the Matches. Cricket movies was really something that was unthinkable.  So, the magazine pictures filled my appetite for admiration and imitation of players.  

The above is a collage of two pictures.  The top one is from Sportsweek Annual from 1977.  At that time, I was only playing tennis ball cricket, mostly in our locality, street cricket as it could be called.  An opportunity to play real cricket, meaning with the cricket ball, arrived in 1978 which I have blogged - you can read 'bragged' also - in an earlier post. Dennis Lillee's achievements in the 1970s need not be told as it is so famous.  From what I had read, he was a fantastic bowler having a great fan following and a very popular character.  His success reflected it and also his fighting spirit.  I had seen a particular picture in that particular issue which I showed there.  It had so much impression on me.  It was such a thrilling picture, pullover on the shoulder, sweaty scalp and people applauding as he returns to the pavilion after a match winning spell against Pakistan! 

Now a bit of the second picture for comparison.  Twenty four years later, my moment came at Nagpur. I was returning to the pandal [no pavilion] after a good spell that was to be a match winning one.  Our manager, Mr.Rajendra, who was a local there, had a film camera.  He was the only one armed with it. It was still the pre-digital camera era or even the 'mobile phone era'.  The next day he had already got the pictures printed and when he showed us the few he had taken of our team, I was delighted to see that he had taken this one. Immediately, I recalled that Lillee picture because of its impression in my mind and also that I was also having a pullover on the shoulder here!  Looking at the picture, I felt 'Lillee-like', if not for my bowling, yet, my former team mate Srinivas has been callling me "Lillee" even before that and even now.  

It gave me some more pleasure now to have successfully found that particular issue of Sportsweek and compare it!

Friday, August 3, 2012

Found my old run-up again!

Long gaps and some little injuries somehow contributed to some changes in the 'feel of my own bowling'.  My arm was not coming up straight and there was some glitch.  The slight pain and slow arm speed were reasons from it.  I found it out in my previous video I got taken because of this, in May/June.  Suddenly in July, I discovered that I had something else was amiss. It was the measurement of the run up.  The long gap in playing had me forget the way I did it for 30 years!  All I did was redo the counting of my 15-pace measurement and it used to end with my left foot for the mark starting from left.  I had missed the starting point of the count!  When I got this back, automatically, my old run-up perfectly came back and I felt the original rhythm of the action!  Now  as before I was running faster to get it right.  Earlier, I was just ambling casually and getting it wrong!  I put alternate clips of June and July in this series. There is a noticeable difference.  But on first look, they look the same!  For the July clips, my team mate Yeshwanth helped me.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Bowling video clips - update

On 31st May, just before the 2012 season matches began, I thought of looking at my bowling action again. I had  made my club mate take a few clips at the nets on 21st June last year.  I had not played much cricket last year due to various reasons.  Coming back fresh and starting to work on the game and fitness is always a nice feeling.  

This time, Raghunandan took the video clips from my FZ8 Panasonic digital camera. It records files in the .mov format.  Windows Movie Maker does not support that type of files.  So I had to download 'any video converter' and make it to .mpg which is listed with WMM. Extra work! I have stitched together about 12-13 short clips.  2011 set revealed something about the perpendicularity of the bowling arm.  Now it is straighter, the way I desired.  The landing left foot need to be a bit more facing the second slip rather than gully!  I haven't noticed all these pre-digital era [in my case] that spanned 32 years. My 34th season will help me improve on these!  Better late than never, for my own satisfaction!  The dream of seeing myself bowling in a match is still a dream.  New ball swinging, leg cutters, slower ball, etc.  In the nets, it is usually the old ball.