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Hi,

This week we focus on Twenty20, with an analysis of Kohli's match winning innings against Australia. Can you learn from it for your games?

Plus we talk cricket confidence, bowling yorkers, coaching technique and scoring 17 hundreds in a season. Success all the way down!

Have a great weekend,



David Hinchliffe



How to Finish a Twenty20 Game Like Kohli

Virat Kohli is an astonishing Twenty20 finisher. How does he do it?

What better way to find out that to examine one of his great innings in detail? Here is his brilliant 82 in the World T20 analysed. You can take the lessons from his method into your game.

First, let’s set up the situation: Chasing Australia’s 160 on a slow pitch. Balls were sticking and keeping low. It was, however, a fast outfield, Kohli walked out first drop in the fourth over.

How did he pace it?

Thriving early

In T20 you don’t have the luxury of defence. You need to score from almost every ball. But even Kohli can’t start swinging from the start. So, he looked to rotate the strike and hit the gaps to keep his strike rate around 100.

He hit length balls off his pads into the leg side because it was poorly defended. Even balls just outside off were worked into the gap:

Anything with width outside off, he looked to pick a gap in the off side and score a boundary:

When he needed a run, he would step back in his crease and drop the ball at his feet for an easy single.


Recovery mode

Kohli was sublime. He was picking boundaries in his strong areas and singles everywhere else. At the other end it was a different story. As he eased to 12 from nine balls, India wobbled at 50–3 in eight overs. They were behind the rate and losing resources.

Kohli is not the type to panic. Instead he judged that there was enough time to make up the rate and continued with his plan. He was on 35 in 30 balls at the end of over 14. India were 94–4, needing 11 an over.

Kohli still only had three boundaries, showing how few risks he was taking. He hit one risky six from Maxwell, coming down the wicket, not getting to the ball but still hitting on the up. It was a misjudgement but his skills got him out of trouble.

That aside, he simply looked to keep going to set up the explosion.

Go for broke

With Dhoni as his partner, Kohli decided it was time to go for it. He had his eye in.

His method for hitting out is to use a “baseball style” power hit, adjusted slightly. The strength of this shot is it is premeditated but adaptable, meaning you can go for it against a lot of balls.

Here he plays it to a short ball that doesn’t get up, arriving at thigh height. Note the locked front leg and the powerful hip drive into the ball like a baseball slugger.

Here he plays it by coming down the wicket. However, he ends up in the same power position.

He also plays it as a more traditional pull shot when the bowler strays onto his hip. You can see from the side view, his weight is on the front foot as you would see in baseball, but his upper body is in the orthodox pull position.

How did he use this against fuller balls though?

Many criticise power hitting for its lack of ability to adapt to fuller bowling. Kohli has no issues there. He can even hit yorkers for a boundary, as he did late in the game:

And he easily put a half volley away.

You’ll note some technical weaknesses with the shot. He plays with his head to the off side, plays away from his body and sits on the front foot. This works for him in this format because he hits most balls. And outcome is more important than looks.

With boundaries flowing freely in this phase he blazed at a strike rate of over 200, combined with Dhoni and swept India to victory in the last over.

Kohli had combined an effective technique with tactical nous (playing at a lower gear until late in the match) and mental toughness in ignoring two points where many would panic. He had a simple plan and confidence to execute built on experience. This is what it takes to chase under pressure.

Can you learn and do the same?



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Video: How to Bowl a Pinpoint Yorker
 

Ever wondered how the best bowlers hit their yorkers so well and so often? Use this simple drill to help you bowl yorkers with pinpoint accuracy.

 

If you can't see the video above, click here.



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Cricket Show S7 Episode 11: Left Handed Coaching
 

Mark Garaway, Sam Lavery and David Hinchliffe offer half an hour of cricket coaching advice and tips. This show includes an extended discussion about modern coaching practices. With the discovery that left handed batting gices you a batter chance of success, what does this indicate for coaches trying to develop players of all ages and experience? Whether you are deciding how to tell an eight year old to stand with a bat, or trying to get an edge with your own game, this is essential listening.

Plus, there are questions on coaching technique and how to copy a bowling action.

Listen in for the details.

 

How to Send in Your Questions

If you want to win a cricket coaching prize, you need to send in your burning questions to the show. If your question is the best one we give you a free online cricket coaching course!

Send in your questions via: - email - twitter - Facebook - Google+

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How to Listen to the Show

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Or, the show comes out every Friday and you can listen to it on your phone or tablet every week automatically. Simply choose your favourite podcast player and do a search for the show:

Or subscribe manually with the RSS feed. Right click here, copy the link and paste it into the appropriate place for adding new feeds in your podcast subscription software or RSS reader.

You can also download this show onto your computer by clicking the play button at the top of the article, or clicking on the mp3 to download.

 



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How Brain Training Lead to 17 Hundreds Last Cricket Season
 

Duncan Fletcher had lots of “Fletchisms”. One of my favourite Fletcherisms is “train the brain!”.

 


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How to Raise Cricket Confidence
 

Jordan Finney is a cricket coach and sport psychology degree student. In this article he talks about how showing faith in players leads to more runs and wickets

Good performance and confidence are a bicycle chain.


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About PitchVision Academy
 

Welcome to this week's guide to playing and coaching better cricket.

I'm David Hinchliffe and I'm Director of the PitchVision Academy team. With this newsletter you are benefitting directly from over 25 Academy coaches. Our skills include international runs and wickets, first-class coaching, cutting-edge research and real-life playing experience.

 
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Issue: 405
Date: 2016-04-01