At last a breakthrough. It's been a poor winter for me, at least in terms of batting. I haven't been able to get to the Oval as much as I'd like (Friday night was my seventh session) and the Dinos seem to be doing fewer club nets than usual at Lord's. I've had two so far.
When I have been able to have a knock I've struggled a bit with a new technical issue - a gap between bat and pad that's led to me being bowled on both attacking and defensive strokes. Over the last couple of winters I'd managed to eradicate this problem. With defences marshalled in good order, I'd been concentrating on increasing my range of strokes to be less dependent on off-side drives. Any bowler worth his salt will quickly see that as my strength and tie me down with good length balls wicket-to-wicket or, if he's quick enough, back-of-a-length deliveries into the body that I tend to defend as my pull shot isn't as secure as I'd like.
Last summer and this winter I've been looking to attack balls that I would once have defended - especially deliveries directed at the stumps, which I'm aiming to play back past the bowler with ram-rod straight bat. For deliveries into the pads I've been working on meeting these again with straight bat, tucking inside the line and glancing them fine, rather than scooping around my pad and generally missing them altogether. LBW was my new dismissal of choice last year.
So it's been frustrating that in taking a step forward in terms of more run-making options, I've taken a massive one backwards by allowing myself to be clean bowled, especially as this is on indoor wickets that play more true than the pitted and crumpled no man's land I'll keep watch over in the season.
This poses in microcosm one of cricket's central conundrums, and one which forms a large part of batting's psychological intrigue. To score runs the batsman must be positive and judge which balls to attack. Bowlers and captains will put deliveries and fielders into areas designed to make this as difficult as possible and to capitalise on mistakes. By playing defensively the batsman increases his chance of keeping his wicket, but doesn't advance his team's cause. He also allows the other team to dictate terms to him and employ more close fielders, because if he isn't scoring runs they don't need to defend the boundaries. So even safety is fraught with danger in the discrete event of each delivery and in the context of the match.
The batsman, especially if out of form, is caught Hamlet-like in indecision whether to act or not. And it's this indecision, this lack of confidence, that poses most risk to himself and his team. Indecision manifests itself most obviously in two things - lack of footwork (or being caught on the crease) and the noncommittal attacking shot that ends up spooning the ball tamely to a fielder in the ring. It also leads to the panicked charge down the wicket or wild swipe across the line that heralds much unmuffled mirth from the slips.
Most recently we've seen this situation manifest itself in the first few innings of Nick Compton as a Test opener for England. In India he was brought in for his patience, impregnable defence and Solomon-like judgement outside off-stump. He served half his role admirably, absorbing huge numbers of deliveries, wearing down the bowlers, softening the ball, and setting solid platforms from which the more expressive players could soar. But it meant that when his wicket fell, despite having faced more than 100 balls, he would still only have 20 or 30 runs to his name. Compton is a Somerset batsman and in the tradition of that club certainly has the ability to hit the ball. So while his work was admirable, it was still unedifying to see his default priorities for such long periods as 1) leave 2) defend and 3) score runs only when absolutely necessary. This is all very well when building an innings, but from a batsman of quality you want to see some intent to score.
What a new Nick Compton we have seen this week. The man who dragged himself to a debut hundred to establish England's rescue effort in the second innings at Dunedin was reborn in Wellington. Albeit with the security of a true pitch, Compton twice pulled bouncers early in his innings, before playing a succession of liberated drives through the covers - truly the sign of a man backing his talent, technique and form. By his own standards he fairly raced to another century, off 230 balls.
The last two weeks have, in my own small way, seen my own Compton-like blossoming at the Oval. Ok, I've still had the occasional brain-fade and lost my wicket in some embarrassing ways, but what are nets for? In general I've been decisive in my footwork, solid in defence and successful in attacking some decent deliveries.
It's extraordinary how success reproduces itself. The confidence to attack a ball headed straight for the stumps and see it whistle back past the bowler doesn't have to lead to more aggressive shots. It can lead to a feeling of total control, where the batsman knows he will make the right decision every ball whether to play, leave or defend. And feeling you're going to do this is more than just the first step to doing it - it's central. Starting to appreciate this for myself gives a useful insight into the role of the captain when he is faced with a batsman in this frame of mind. Here's where all the tricks of the trade, the art and science, use of the resources available, the kidology and the luck must all be relied upon. For if indecision is one part of batting's intrigue, then certainty is another, and one which can have just as much power over the game.
