End of term fun — scenarios

We finished our (half-) term programme with an under11 group at the weekend, with a session of game-like scenarios.

Perhaps a stretch for some of them, but after working with most of the group since last October I wanted to help them put into context some of the skills & techniques we have covered.

Scenarios

We ran three basic T20 scenarios (Powerplay, “middle overs”, “at the death”), plus one for the old school coaches, “see them off”.

We did not run super over this time — it probably works better outdoors, with plenty of space.

Batters in pairs, or threes; rotate the strike after 3 deliveries if this does not happen naturally.

In each scenario, the players bowled in half-overs (3 balls each), no balls & wides not re-balled but worth 2 runs.

Powerplay

• Score runs without losing wickets; exploit the fielding restrictions.
  • Only 2 fielders outside the circle
  • T20 basemark? (e.g. “Teams that {lose n wickets/score less than y runs} in the powerplay lose more matches than they win”)
  • Scaling the game down to 4 overs: score at least 28 runs, lose not more than 3 wickets.

Middle overs

• Score runs without losing wickets; relaxed fielding restrictions
  • up to 5 outside the circle (4 plus bowler & keeper in the ring).
  • 4-5 per over, losing not more than 4 wickets

At “the death”

• Score as many as possible in 4 overs:
  • 4+1d6 wickets in hand (or carried over from previous scenarios).

“See them off”/break-through

Not quite IPL, but perhaps more realistic for school and club T20s.

• Score x runs whilst losing y wickets or fewer, where y (wickets lost) is the main target, but x (runs scored) still matters — seeing off the bowlers but not scoring a run will leave a lot to do later in the innings!
• Batting brief:
  • The opposition have only 3 front-line bowlers, and they have committed them all to break through your batting line-up — they know your tail-enders aren’t going to score quickly! But you know that if you can see off the best bowlers, there will be easy runs at the end of the innings.
    • Lose no more than 2 wickets whilst still scoring at 3 runs/over
• Bowling brief
  • You know the opposition have a long tail. If you can dismiss their top order batters you could bowl the whole team out cheaply.
    • Take wickets.

Super over!

• Score as many as possible in 6 (legal) deliveries, with 3 wickets in hand; and repeat (each pair gets 3 goes to set their best score).
• This “scenario” has appeared previously as “The SIX ”

Final thoughts

Two scenarios were won by the batters, and two lost. I would need to run the scenarios a few more times to work out if this was because the victory conditions were appropriately challenging, or just because some of the players performed better.

Bowling & fielding were enhanced by the scenarios; less sure that the batters really played to the challenge, so something to work on, perhaps — maybe needed some “consequences” for losing too many wickets (use the training bat?), as no-one seemed to hold back on hitting runs.

It might be possible to “chain” the scenarios, so that each scenario follows on from the previous e.g. wickets lost in powerplay & middle overs defines wickets in hand for “at the death” — good for reinforcing the team nature of the game, perhaps?

We were indoors, so could not set realistic deep fields — need to think of a way to reward appropriate stroke play e.g. hitting over the infield in the powerplay, rolling the ball out to the deep and taking 2s in the middle overs. The coaches did “call” any obvious boundary hits, but I really wanted the game to play itself with little intervention.

Something to think about.