It’s a heartbreaking moment as a batsman. The bowler serves up a half-volley, the ball pings from the middle of the bat.

The ‘keeper probably compounds your pain with a quick “you missed out there, I thought that was a gimmie” perhaps you let the frustration get to you and end up playing an injudicious shot (let’s be honest, we all have had an ugly heave under pressure), miss it and get out.

All because you hit the fielder and not the gap.

This drill is part of the PitchVision Academy fielding drills series, for more in this series click here.

Purpose: A warm up routine that gets the hands and eyes ready for more advanced close catching drills. It also allows a coach to make changes to technique where needed.  

This is part 2 of a 2 part series by Gary Palmer on batting against left arm swing bowling. To go to part 1 click here.

If you can’t play the on drive well you will struggle against left arm over bowlers so go away and work on that shot from the left arm over angle of feed.

In particular, technical points to look for are:

1. Open stance

This is part 1 of a 2 part series by Gary Palmer about batting against left arm over bowlers.

The most successful batsmen have efficient techniques against all angles and types of bowler.

Lesser players struggle against left arm over pace bowling, especially the ones who swing the ball back in to the batter. This problem is apparent with all ages and standards of cricketers.

Earlier this week I ran an article from spin bowling guru Menno Gazendam. It got one reader so fired up that he sent me a huge email reply packed with tips.

It was so good I just had to share it with you.

So thanks to Shiva, an NCA qualified coach in India for the following:

Cricket club selection meetings always bring up controversy.

In every club that puts out more than one team, there is bound to be the fringe player who splits the committee. In my club this is especially true of young players looking to break into the first XI.

I’ve sat on selection committee all this season and one of the qualifiers for whether a player is given a chance or not is if he ‘looks like a first team player’.

 When a side are doing badly it’s inevitable that extra nets are put on.

The logic is clear: If you practice you get better. Practice, as they say, makes perfect.

But if you were designing a way to practice to get better based on what we know about skill development, traditional nets are about as useful as bat with a hole in the middle.

Nets don’t work to get you better because they don’t fill the fundamentals of improving.

This is a guest post by Laurie Ward

Cricket is a simple game complicated by a myriad of variables: physical, technical, emotional, tactical and natural.

Every ball, wicket, match, day, situation, opposition, conditions and personal experience can vary tremendously.

So how can we prepare for something that can be so unpredictable?

Famously, Sir Don Bradman practiced for hours hitting a golf ball with a stump against an uneven wall to develop his incredible hand-eye co-ordination.

Last week Gary Palmer gave us an article on how great batsman play. This week he looks at the common mistakes seen in lesser players.

The correct technique means that batting is made easier and the process of development is speeded up. In other words; you will maximize your potential and enjoy improved performances.

Batting coach Gary Palmer passes on his observations about how the great batsmen play, and how you can copy them.

All of these men are greats of the game. I've seen them bat over the years, often standing at the non-strikers end, and I have noticed several common technical points with them and other exceptional batsmen.