The Curate's egg

I don't really know how to describe nets today, I was just about good enough not to be especially bad, and just about bad enough not to be especially good. I suppose on balance I'm a little disappointed that I haven't continued my recent improvements.

My bowling was OK as it goes, I was bowling a reasonably decent line and for once it was my length that was wayward to begin with. I have to confess I was very tired even before nets began, so maybe my concentration wasn't what it should be. My run-up was still a big mess! One guy was hitting out so I started throwing in top-spinners and zooters and managed to stitch him up good and proper with a ball even the most average keepers could have fashioned a stumping out of. A decisive victory for me!

My bowling was good enough that I had the confidence to cycle through some variations (stock ball, top-spinner, zooter) and they were all relatively successful, I did have a go at one flipper but it was shockingly bad, as was an attempt at conventional off-spin to a left-hander, so I didn't pursue those any further. My bowling did, as usual, fall apart against south paws, and it's a problem I really want to, nay, NEED to get on top of if I'm not going to be take apart in match situations. After all, I can't very well tell Sam to take me off when a left-hander comes in, can I?

So on to my batting, although perhaps I'd rather not talk about it... Well, it wasn't great. I had "Olivia" with me for the first time and if I was the sort to make excuses I'd say I took a while to adjust to her slightly different characteristics. But that's hogwash. She's dead-on the same weight as "Hyacinth" and the centre of gravity is virtually the same. I just wasn't batting well. Somehow, I just couldn't find the middle of the bat, and sometimes couldn't find the bat at all. There was a spell where I heard the crash of ash on five consecutive occasions, and when I wasn't missing, I seemed to be edging to slips. I was consistently putting marks on the side of the bat, so there's something in my action that's stopping me hitting the ball with the bat face-on to it. It was all a bit frustrating but I did get a little better as my brief time went on.

Anyway, after the first hour I skipped the fielding session and went home as I had some stuff to get on with. All in all, a pretty mixed session.