Simon Hughes
Obviously if the ball is straight a shot is required (and, anyway, you can't score runs by leaving the ball). You'll soon hear commentators rabbiting on about 'footwork' - the basis of all good batting. 'If you don't get your feet in the right position,' someone will be proclaiming, 'then you can't play the correct shot.' There's a bit more scope than that, but the basic principles generally hold true. If the ball is full, it's best to move forward; if the ball is short, it's better to step back.
To a straight, fullish delivery, the old fashioned adage was 'get forward and smother the ball' as exemplified in exaggerated style by the great Jack Hobbs of Surrey and England (below). It worked for him but it is impossible to lunge forward to that extent against 6ft 6in pacemen, or you will soon be wearing one on the chin. So, different times, different tactics.
 Jack Hobbs c.1930
This position looks extraordinary to us now but it was designed for a different style of bowling. But don't knock it, he made 197 first-class centuries.
 Michael Atherton 2000
Against pace, the furthest forward you can hope to get is a half-stride. This confident block is classic
MCC coaching manual.
 Nasser Hussain 2000
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.
Uncertain footwork
The mental battle of cricket is at
its most intense during the opening overs of an innings. The batsman needs to exude confidence in the face of the bowler's hostility.
The pose of Nasser Hussain in the two pictures above seems little altered, but the small loss of faith they reveal is the difference beween being in and out. The picture on the left shows Hussain solidly blocking a well pitched up ball from Courtney Walsh – he steps forward with a confident stride, getting well out of the crease.
Annoyed by this kind of block, Walsh bowled a brute of a delivery to follow, which lifted and rapped Hussain on the hand. After a pause for treatment (Hussain is known in the Essex dressing room as 'popadom fingers' because of their susceptiblity to breaking), he once again had to face the pace of Walsh.
Walsh pitched the ball up again but Hussain wasn't quite so confident this time and didn't get himself or his weight as far forward as before. It doesn't look much, but it made all the difference. The ball moved a
little, he was struck on the pad and given out LBW.
This is a classic example of a batsman's confidence, and consequently his footwork, being eroded by aggressive and cunning fast bowling.
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Copyright © Simon Hughes 2001
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