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

Purpose: A drill that incorporates cricket skills into competitive speed training. It can also be used as a finisher to a pre-game warm up drill.

Description: The player at the front of group 1 runs with the ball, putting it down on the marker 5m from the start. He or she then sprints around the stump 20m away and back to the start.

As player 1 puts the ball down, the player at the front of group 2 sprints up to the stump, touches it, turns and sprints to the ball.

The race is between player 1 and 2. Player 1 is trying to get back to his team before player 2 underarms the ball back to the first player in group 1.

Fitness note: This is an excellent cricket-specific sprint drill that has a competitive element to really make the players go all out. Therefore ensure there is at least 1.5-2 minutes rest between sprints per player to allow full recovery. Do not exceed 10 throws per player.