This is a guest article from Harry Shapiro, spin bowling coach. To get your free trial membership of the Leg Spin Association, click here.

Planning your over is hard. It take plenty of practice and control. No wonder young spinners get despondent when it doesn't quite work. That's no excuse to abandon good planning.

Part of the reason spinners don't plan their overs well is because the state of the game brings in a lot of different ways to approach things.To make it easier, here is a basic guideline from which you can start thinking about your bowling. You may adapt it to the state of the game on the day, but start here if you want to plan well.

There are two ways to look at planning an over:

1. Set up an over based on runs

Your first job as leg spinner is to bowl overs! This means you need to stay on once you’ve been thrown the ball. For this reason it is important that some of the balls in your over are dedicated at keeping you on to bowl the next over.

SO think of your over in three parts:

• Ball 1 & 2 is used to "open" your over.
• Ball 3 & 4 is your wicket taking balls
• Ball 5 & 6 is used to "close" your over.

Your aim for ball 1 & 2 is for these to be dot balls. Bowl your stock ball at a decent pace. This creates pressure in your over as the batsman will realise they are not scoring. Ball 5 & 6 your aim is to "win the over" with another two dots.

If you are going to entice a wicket by a variation ball or changing your pace, set it up using ball 3 and try to strike with ball 4.

If ball 1 & 2 go for 2 runs or more, you have not earned the right to take a chance with ball 3 & 4. Bowl stock deliveries the rest of the over to make sure the over doesn't undo the pressure the team has built up. Remember that a wicket can come off any ball in the over as the batsman can make a mistake on any ball, especially if you have built good pressure.

2. Setting up an over based on control of lines

Ball 1 is again used to open your over with a dot ball.

Ball 2 & 3 & 4 is stock leg spinners, but each time dragging the batsman’s front foot wider: Start ball 2 on middle stump line, ball 3 on off stump line and ball 4 just outside off stump line.

Follow up with a googly on the same outside off stump line. Ball 6 is used again to close your over with a dot.

A similar tactic of dragging the batsman's front foot across the crease can be used to set up a slider on middle stump.

This skill takes control Enjoy practicing the control of this in the nets when you are bowling to targets, and trying it in the nets when bowling to your team mates. Remember the game of cricket is about getting it right on some days, but also getting it wrong on other days.

How do you plan your overs? What do you do when it doesn't go to plan?

To get your free trial membership of the Leg Spin Association, click here.