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Fundamental Batting Certificate

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Coaching Sheet 6: The Forward Defensive

The forward defensive is played to a ball of good length or slightly fuller that would otherwise hit, or pass close to the stumps.

The principle of a forward defensive stroke is to block the ball rather than to score runs. Every batsman needs a solid defence to build big scores.

The forward defensive starts off in the same way as the front foot straight drive. The difference comes at the start of the downswing. Points to work on are:

  • High back lift over off stump with dominant top hand. (Bottom hand fingers and thumb grip).

  • Lean towards ball with head and shoulder keeping relaxed and balanced (eyes level)

  • Take a comfortable step forward towards the ball. (Weight over front foot.)

  • With dominant top hand and Figure “9” shape formed with arms. Swing bat down and make contact with the ball beneath the eyes. The face of the bat should be angled towards the ground

  • Strike ball slightly forward of front leg and close to the pad

  • Raise the heel of your back foot and hold your finishing position rather than following through.

Top hand dominates throughout the shot, bottom hand assists on impact. (Bottom hand fingers and thumb grip.) The shot is played softly with relaxed hands so that the ball does not go very far.
Nassar Hussain's body is in a good position (far left), with his weight forward. He has moved confidently towards the ball. But (right) now he's rattled, having just taken a blow on the fingers, and is not far enough forward.

 

For an animated demo go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/skills/5214084.stm

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