Batting wicket

“ BATTING. An expert batsman experiences unspeakable pleasure during his innings. Cricketers glory in him, his friends delight in him, and the sweetest smile of his best girl emphasizes his triumph.
Nearly every young American learns base ball before cricket. When he first stands before a wicket, he is almost paralysed by the fear of losing it. Nothing corresponding to it appears upon the diamond. When his wicket has been successfully attacked a few times he is disheartened, and is likely to abandon cricket and return to his first love. This is a critical period in the history of the beginner. ”

“ I have my doubts also as to whether the widening of the wicket may not make it impossible or very difficult for the short-in-stature player to play with a straight bat to balls on the off stump, unless he moves his right foot, which is against all the canons of sound batting. ”

“ And besides, the men that walk to the wickets to bat the first time they go into the field are apt to be more nervous than those who have been playing a few hours and have got accustomed to the light and general surroundings. These are disadvantages certainly, but they are as nothing compared to the advantages gained by batting first. These include getting the best of the light, the best of the wicket, and, last but not least, the incalculable advantage of having in the last innings of the match to save and not get runs on a wicket that has previously stood the wear and tear of three innings. ”

“ Another danger of snapping is, that you run the risk of moving your hands in such a way that, instead of the ball striking the palms of the hand where it does not hurt, it strikes you on the top of the thumb or fingers, causing an agony that only wicket-keepers can rightly appreciate. Hardly any two wicket-keepers stand alike, so take any position that is natural to you, as was recommended in the chapter on Batting, only bearing one fact in mind, which is, to avoid standing so far away as not to be able comfortably to put down the wicket without moving the legs. ”

“ Hence a run is worth more on such a wicket than on a hard one. But the ball is very easy for a good batsman to control and keep from the wicket under these conditions. There is no doubt that they favour batsmen, though sometimes sides collapse when a wet wicket suddenly occurs after a series of dry ones. It is not the wicket that causes this, but the change.
A wicket that dries slowly and equally may be described as neutral. It does not favour either batting or bowling. ”

“ A batsman who persists in playing forward on a dead wicket and finishing his stroke as he would do on a fast wicket is certain not to last long. It is very curious to notice how sometimes nearly a whole batting side will make a mistake about the condition of the wicket. The first batsmen see the ground slow and the ball twisting a good deal, and begin playing as they would do on a faster wicket, viz. playing forward to the pitch instead of waiting and playing a back game. ”

“ An under-arm bowler can make the ball twist—that is, curl off the ground—but he cannot make it break or bump; a round-arm can make the ball twist from leg and break somewhat from the off and also cause it to swing across the wicket; an over-arm can do all these things and also make the ball bump. All three kinds differ in the flight of the ball in the air and in its manner of coming from the pitch.
Naturally a batsman had to know more strokes as the number of balls to be played increased; so the development of batting must have gone hand in hand with that of bowling. ”

“ The wicket ought to be altered, till it is a good one. I don't like those 'it'll do' wickets. They may either spoil the batting or the bowling, and consequently there may be no play in the match. It is better, therefore, for both sides, that all objections should be removed, if possible, by having as good a wicket as can be got on the ground. ”

“ Perhaps it is a good thing to practise for a short time almost daily at a net while some one is batting. It is not much use practising wicket-keeping without a batsman at the wicket, though this may be done in the very early stage of learning the art. ”

“ This would not have mattered, if any of the Drumthwacket team could have held a catch, and if the wicket-keeper had not let SMITH off four times in one over. My character was lost, and all was ended with me north of the Grampians, where the wickets are peculiarly suitable to my style of delivery.
As to batting, there is little that is pleasant to confess. As soon as I got a distant view of a ball, I was ever tempted to whack wildly in its direction. ”

“ This accurate bowling has caused another change in the way of batting. As no ball is bowled on the leg side at all, so it consequently follows there is no fieldsman on the on side except a forward short-leg and a deep field. There is not much to be gained by continually cracking the ball straight to a row of safe fieldsmen on the off side. What, then, does the modern batsman do on a smooth wicket? He waits till the bowler slightly overtosses a ball—whether pitched outside the off stump or on the wicket he cares not ”

“ One thing is quite certain—it pays to select the best wicket-keeper quite irrespectively of his batting ability. And for this reason. More catches go to the wicket-keeper than to any one else, and more good bats are dismissed on true pitches by catches at the wicket than in any other way. The difference it makes whether a chance at the wicket from such opponents as the Champion, Abel, Ward, Gunn, Mr F. S. Jackson, and others be talcen or missed, far outweighs the merely potential value of one man's batting success on your own side. ”

“ Besides, it is impossible to spare a man to put there. Perhaps long-stop might be used with advantage in the case of very weak wicket-keeping and poor batting. In the old days it was a most important post, and men were chosen solely for their skill in it. ”

“ On wet hard wickets, when he can get no twist on, there is still life and pace in the ground; but in the sodden dead state, directly the ball touches the ground it sinks in, loses all life and pace, and comes on to the batsman like what a Yorkshire professional was once heard to call a 'diseased lawn-tennis ball.' There is no greater fallacy at cricket than to suppose that a sodden wicket is an advantage to a slow bowler. ”

“ In like manner in back play the youngster puts his right leg up to his bat, and this is an innovation about which it may be said that cricket would be improved if it was no longer the fashion. In fact, the modern idea is that, failing the bat, the legs must protect the wicket; and we say most emphatically that this is against the spirit of the rules and practice of cricket. One hears a batsman who has been given out l.b.w. come away from the wicket and talk as if he were the victim of the greatest hardship. And why? Because he maintains that the ball pitched perhaps an inch off the off stump. ”

“ There has grown up in late years a most deplorable practice amongst batsmen of leaving balls on the off side alone, for fear of risking their wickets. In every match, big and little, one may see batsmen jump in front of their wickets time after time to off balls, allowing the ball to go by unplayed at, or if it twists to hit their legs. We call this a most deplorable practice, because it is not real cricket. The true object of the batsman is to defend his wicket with his bat ”

“ The body of the batsman in many cases completely obstructs the view the wicket-keeper ought to have of the ball. Even if he can get a good sight of the ball there is that abominable bat being fiddled about, baulking the eyesight in the most tantalising manner, and there are some batsmen who have a provoking habit of waving their bats directly the bowler begins his run, and continuing their antics till the ball is right up to them; while others seem to be built like windmills, and have a limb always at hand to throw out between the unhappy wicket-keeper and the rapidly-advancing ball. ”

“ The late or back cut is beautiful as well as the safest and most graceful hit in the repertoire of the batsman. But he must posess experience of no mean order to guide the bat to strike the ball, which is moving by him at a double acute angle and usually at a rapid rate; for instead of facing the ball and meeting it with his bat as in the forward and square off cut, he turns his person two-thirds around towards the wicket keeper using his left foot for a pivot. Then he takes a long stride with his right towards short slip, which moves him in the direction of the motion of the ball. ”

“ But whatever the cause, slow bowling came to be the prevalent style, and the best way to get wickets was to pitch good length balls outside the off stump, and have most of the fieldsmen on the off side. This then marked another stage of development, because batsmen, to avoid the trap of being caught on the off side, began to cultivate the pull or cross-wicket hitting, unheard of a few years previously, but now becoming easier as wickets improved. ”

“ But on the other hand, on rough grounds much is left to chance and luck; cricket, as played on a billiard-table wicket certainly favours the batsman, but it admits of a brilliancy and finish in the matter of style that are impossible on the old-fashioned wicket. Whilst the modern bowler has learnt extraordinary accuracy of pitch, the batsman has perfected the art of "timing" the ball. ”

“ In the case of a hit-wicket, some part of the batsman's body or his bat must knock down the wicket while he is in the act of playing the stroke. If the batsman slips backwards in starting to run and breaks the wicket, he is no more out than if he had not done so.
An umpire should be on his guard against all kinds of tricks. There are stories of smart wicket-keepers taking the ball so close to the stumps, and at the same time unshipping one of the bails so cleverly, that apparently the man is bowled out. ”

“ But we have many aggressive batters, who settle down into first-rate bats when in the presence of a standard wicket keeper. We say most of them, advisedly, for a star will shine, wicket keeper, or no wicket keeper. The true aggressive batsman is a combination of cause and effect which no amount of ambition can even hope to imitate. Brain, guiding muscle, with discipline resulting from long and patient training. He can take almost any liberty with the bowler, he can play inside or outside his crease, for the dangerous ball never reaches the wicket keeper. ”

“ On such wickets, too, the batsman is likely to step back and pull or place to the on-side balls he would hit to the off on a fast wicket. Thus an extra mid-on or deep long-on may be more useful than extra-cover. On fast wickets mis-strokes behind the wicket are the more common, especially off fast bowlers; so the extra man may well be put as an extra-slip. ”

“ It is generally easy for an umpire to see when a batsman hits his wickets. The ball is usually played by the bat, but the batsman coming further back than usual, either from a mistake in his judgment as to the pitch or from originally standing too near, strikes the wicket. An umpire, however, must keep a sharp look on the wicket-keeper's feet and hands, and see that the fall of the bails is not due to any of these coming in contact with the wicket. ”

“ To do this a broad bat is used made of willow with a cane handle, through which are inserted strips of rubber to give greater spring and driving power. The batsman will either merely stop the ball with his bat or will attempt to drive it. When the ball is being fielded the two batsmen exchange wickets, and each exchange is counted as a run, and is marked to the credit of the batsman or striker. The batsman is allowed to bat until he is out. This occurs when the ball strikes the wicket and carries away either a bail, the top piece, or a stump, one of the three sticks. ”

“ No fieldsman can throw his best unless he is confident about the backing up, and the man who ought to be abused when an overthrow occurs is not the fieldsman who throws the ball, but the men who should be backing up and are not. Again— and let young fields take heed to this—there must be ten yards between the two men backing up, and also between the one nearest the wicket and the wicket. This gives them room to stop the wildest throw, but does not give the batsmen time to run if the ball passes the wicket. If the fields stand close together, two are as bad as none, and get in each other's way. ”

“ But the evolution of the wicket has been very gradual, and the history of it is very obscure, since different types of wickets seem to have existed simultaneously. If early pictures are to be trusted, no wicket was required in primitive times: the striker was either caught out, or run out, the fieldsman having to put the ball into a hole scooped in the ground, before the batsman could put his bat into it. A single stump, it is supposed, was sometimes substituted for the hole to save collision between the bat and the fieldsman’s fingers. ”

“ It is for the rising generation either to alter the law or to learn the art of getting in front of the wicket when the ball does not pitch straight.
It is in vain to lament over long scores and unfinished matches, over dearth of bowlers and slackness in the field, whilst all the time we are doing everything we can to make matters easier and easier for the batsman, giving him perfect wickets, on which he can score loo runs without getting out of breath, devoting his legs to the new purpose of systematically intercepting the more difficult balls. ”