We were using the artificial net wicket, which sadly gives me virtually no turn whatsoever, or at least I don't seem to get any even when I know I've given the ball a good rip. My bowling was OK to start with, but the lack of turn meant I was getting whacked about a bit which left me rather miffed. The more I tried to get turn, and the faster I tried to bowl, the more wayward my bowling got, so I was progressively less effective I'm afraid. I need to work on focusing on a plan and not allowing outside factors to suck me into bowling badly - I need to stay in Philpott's "Circle of Concentration".
On to batting then, and for once it was pretty encouraging. There were obviously only three bowlers - an off-spinner, a leg spinner and a guy who was bowling several different styles, but no full-time bowlers. I was batting with "Hyacinth" and unlike last week this time I got plenty of bat on ball - she's a lovely wand. I started off wafting a bit, but then got into a much more defensive mindset which went well, and by the end I was leaving wayward balls and getting some good hits off the straight ones.
Then we had a bit of fielding practise, which didn't go well for me. A ball wen't up in the air, one guy went to catch it with me poised behind in case he missed it, and he deflected it at full pelt straight onto my lower lip. I went off and found some water to wash out a cut inside, then rejoined them a couple of minutes later as the moved onto practising high catches. As you can imagine my hurt lip was distracting me a bit. I was trying to take catches too far away from my face, and this meant I dropped a fair few. I don't mind catching practise and probably need a fair bit to catch up, but when I'm putting everything down I simply don't see what benefit there is to get from dropping practise, as it just adds to fear of failure when a catch comes your way, so before too long I broke off and finished for the evening.
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