Sweep shot against spin

Setup

1. Stumps at both ends of a pitch (or the junior pitch length your association uses). A spinner bowls from the far end.
2. Two cones make a target gate on the leg side, between square leg and fine leg, with a fielder behind it.
3. A wicketkeeper stands up to the stumps. With a hard ball, the batter and the keeper both wear a helmet with a faceguard.
4. First sessions: the coach feeds underarm from a kneeling position halfway down the pitch with an incrediball, before a bowler takes over.

How it runs

1. The spinner bowls full, on or just outside leg stump. The batter sweeps along the ground through the gate.
2. The fielder returns the ball to the bowler; the keeper takes anything the batter misses.
3. Every few balls the bowler drops one shorter or wider of off stump: the batter must defend or leave instead of sweeping.
4. Six balls per batter, then rotate batter, bowler, keeper and fielder. Two points for a sweep through the gate, one for the right call not to sweep.

Coaching points

• Decide early, and only sweep a full ball: get the front foot to the pitch of the ball.
• Head goes down over the front knee; the back knee bends towards the ground for a stable base.
• Bat comes across the line in front of the front pad, meeting the ball under the eyes.
• Roll the wrists over at contact to keep the ball down.
• Keep watching the ball onto the bat; the front pad is a second line of defence, but remember LBW still applies.

Common mistakes

• Sweeping a ball that is too short, so it bounces over the bat towards the face.
• Front foot too far across, which blocks the bat swing and invites a top edge.
• Lifting the head early to look where the ball has gone.
• Sweeping from outside off stump into a gap with no control.