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JOIN NOWnon striker backing up
HiI want some drills to get new cricketers understanding about backing up as Non Striker and not standing watching.
Chris Coach, England
ANSWERS
Matt MorrisonPlayer, England
Hi Chris,
A good drill to encourage this would be to set-up as you would do for a normal game with a bowler, 2 batsmen and fielders spread out. As the coach, you can stand in the on strike batsmans position. The bowler can then run into bowl (with a tennis ball/incrediball) and the non-striker should be backing-up with the bowler. The bowler balls the ball, the coach catches the ball at the strikers end and throws the ball out (as if playing a shot) to a fielder or into a gap. The batsmen then have to decide whether to run or not. If it has gone behind square, it`s the non strikers job to call for the run or not. If it is in front of square, it`s the on strike batsmans job to call for the run.
Setting up the drill with the batsmen only focused on running will encourage the non-striking batsmen to back-up with the bowler. You can focus on throwing the ball behind square to put extra emphasise on the non-striker dictating whether they run. I hope this was helpful!
Matt
