The Cricket Mentoring Podcast · Cricket Mentoring

Mindset for Spin Bowling - When to attack and when to defend | The Spin Bowling Podcast Ep 5

·30 min·2 clips

Howie says spin bowlers should work in the polar opposite of the batter's mindset.

1. The Cricket Mentoring Podcast episode on mindset for spin bowling focuses on when a spinner should attack and when to defend. 2. Host Skulls and spin bowling expert Craig Howie Howard lead the discussion, and Howard's coaching background includes Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa, Todd Murphy, Amelia Kerr, and the Sri Lanka men's team. 3. The episode asks how a spinner should read the batter's intent, then choose fields, pace, and shape to match that situation. 4. Howard says batters usually sit on a scale from 1 out of 10 to 10 out of 10, with 1 meaning survive and 10 meaning hit every ball for six. 5. He places many long-format batters around 3, 4, or 5, and many white-ball batters around 5, 6, or 7. 6. Howard describes three main batting modes as defensive, moderate, and attacking, then splits them into highly defensive and highly attacking versions. 7. He uses Nick Hobson's 8 off 17 balls for the Perth Scorchers Academy in a Top End Series semifinal in Darwin as an example of a batter absorbing pressure before climbing to 59 off 42 balls. 8. Howard says T20 cricket rarely features a truly defensive batter, so spinner fields should often stay defensive or highly defensive rather than overloading close catchers. 9. He gives New Zealand white-ball notes from his coaching work that read, 'think none for 24 and we will get three for 16,' and he says the men's version became 'two for 20.' 10. Howard argues that a captain asking for a slip can open the gap between point and cover, which may help a set batter score after a new batter arrives. 11. He says a batter who wants to sit on a spinner for a day is far harder to dismiss than a batter taking risks in T20 cricket. 12. He recalls a Big Bash study from five years of cricket showing seven catches at slip, with five of them off Rashid Khan. 13. He contrasts that with 72 catches at point when the slip was removed, which he uses to support a more defensive spinner field. 14. Howard tells a Victoria example where Tom Andrews came in with Tasmania five for 100, and the attacking field stayed up too long while Andrews reached 30 off 35. 15. He also describes a Victoria example with young leg-spinner Will Parker, where a slip and a hard sweep led to pressure on Jake Doran and an LBW chance. 16. A second same-game example involves Todd Murphy and Tim Paine, where a slip-to-square-leg change removed a scoring outlet and forced a risky charge down the wicket. 17. The conversation returns to Shane Warne's idea from a WACA presentation that too many captains over-attack spinners and pull them off after only two or three overs. 18. Howard says a spinner can bowl defensively with an attacking field, or attackingly with a defensive field, but bowling attacking shapes into attacking fields becomes gambling. 19. Listeners who coach spin bowlers, captain cricket sides, or want field-setting examples should find this episode useful. 20. Listeners seeking technical grip, seam, or release-detail instruction may skip it.

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