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How to face Mitchell: a guide for novices

Roar Rookie
12th March, 2014
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Hey, Johnson, you run like Allanthus' cat! AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER JOE
Roar Rookie
12th March, 2014
48
1318 Reads

I know not everyone enjoys facing thunderbolts at 150 kilometres an hour, but there are a few secrets that can make this adjustment quite easy.

Having watched the Ashes and the Australian tour of South Africa I was able to study what different batsmen did when trying to stay alive against Mitchell Johnson.

When bowlers are clocking around 150kmh batsmen don’t have much time to react. In fact they only have 0.48 seconds to decide what shot they need to play.

It doesn’t help that most of the Australian players are verbally abusing you from ball one.

I felt so sorry for poor James Anderson when Michael Clarke walked up to him asking if he “wanted a broken arm”. I could see the fear in his eyes and he was just praying not to die in the innings.

He survived, and did not retire from Test cricket, might I add.

So enough about the bowlers who are trying to survive and not get injured while batting. Let’s move onto the top-order batsmen who supposedly know how to face bowlers.

England struggled throughout the series with the extra pace. Firstly, I don’t think they practiced against that pace before coming over.

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Kevin Pietersen was definitely the best and bravest English batsman in this series. His presence and positive head and foot movements to the ball put Johnson under pressure compared to the rest of his team, who were just standing and waiting for him to bowl.

On the other side of the globe you had the best Test player in the world, AB de Villiers, play Johnson with ease. He never looked troubled at all, with a simple game plan that worked from ball one.

If we analyse Pietersen and de Villiers, you will notice that they both had trigger movements that got them on off stump or just outside long before the ball was delivered.

Doing this allows you to know exactly where off stump is, so that you are not playing away from your body on both front and back foot. The early trigger also helps with picking the ball up more quickly, as your head is still on release.

Another very important part of success against Johnson is that when he digs it in short your hands cannot go up with the ball. Instead, as the ball climbs your hands have to drop.

I can remember so many players getting ‘snicked off’ on the back foot pushing away from their bodies, with their feet far outside the line of the ball.

So many players think that by standing outside the line of the ball that it will save them from being hit. If only they knew it’s the opposite that prevents injury.

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Being brave and getting in line or sometimes inside the line of the ball is much safer, and forces the bowler to come up with another plan.

My tips for facing Johnson are as follows:

1) Trigger early across to off stump or just outside
2) Stay in line or get inside the line of the ball
3) Play the ball as late as you can (soft hands when defending)
4) Drop your hands when he bowls short or back of a length
5) Punish him when he bowls in your area

I’m looking forward to his next Test series on good quick decks just to see how batsmen combat his extra pace. There is nothing better than watching a fast bowler steaming in at a batsman who is in complete control, only to take a look at the pace and realise it’s around 150 kilometres an hour.

This how Test cricket should be played.

It was an awesome summer for Johnson and he deserves to be in the top three bowlers in the world. All he has to do now is start reversing the ball and then batsmen will have another problem on their hands.

Next stop: the T20 World Cup!

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