Death-overs batting scenarios

Setup

1. Centre-wicket set-up with a fielding team, two bowlers taking an over each, a keeper and two batters in full kit with helmets.
2. Set a typical death field: most fielders on the boundary and a ring of fielders saving one. Field settings are common plans, not rules; check your competition's playing conditions for how many fielders may stand outside the circle.
3. Write scenario cards: for example, 14 off 12 with 6 wickets left, 9 off 6 with 2 wickets left, or 20 off 12 needing a boundary an over.
4. Bowlers stay within their workload guidelines; rotate them with other pace bowlers if the drill runs long.

How it runs

1. The batting pair draw a card, look at the field and agree a plan out loud before the first ball: which bowler to target, which gaps to hit and when to take risks.
2. Play the scenario out over one or two overs with normal scoring, including wides, no-balls and run outs. Bowlers try to win it with yorkers, slower balls and wide lines.
3. Between overs the pair meet mid-pitch for ten seconds to update the plan against the runs needed.
4. Rotate pairs after each scenario. Fielders swap positions regularly so everyone gets work in the deep.
5. Debrief: when did the batters take risks, and were they the right ones? Which twos did they turn into ones, and why?

Coaching points

• Know the equation every ball: runs needed, balls left and wickets in hand.
• Pick your scoring area from the field before the ball, but react to where it's actually bowled.
• Hit to the gaps, not the fielders. Down the ground, between the deep fielders, or over the in-field.
• Run the first run hard and look for two every time. Turn facing the ball so you see the throw.
• Strong calls. The batter who can see the ball calls it, and both commit.
• A dot ball is not a disaster. Losing a wicket to a panic shot often is.

Common mistakes

• Trying to hit every ball for six regardless of where it's bowled.
• Jogging the first run and missing a second.
• No plan for the yorker: practise getting low and squeezing it into a gap.
• Backing up so lazily that a two becomes a one. Back up properly, but stay in your ground until the ball is released: the non-striker can be run out legally for leaving early.