Cricket technique question on bouncy pitches

[arif_2021]

Hey guys,
I have been researching this for a while but perhaps someone here will have actual experience.

So we play cricket with a semi-hard ball (it’s lighter than official cricket ball) due to prevention of injury.

We use a flex plastic mat to cover the grass

The problem is that the bounce is extremely uneven. The issue isn’t pace as most bowlers bowlers between 50-65 mph tops.

The issue is batting technique on this pitch. I have played league cricket in the past with concrete and turf pitches which typically have a consistent bounce. But this pitch is almost like a tennis ball bounce with some balls staying very low.

Any tip on technique?

The last two dismissals have been ball hitting glove from a good length where I was trying to play straight and other dismissal was I was trying to lift a wide ball outside off for 6, but it caught the outside edge of the bat and I was caught at cover.

I tried staying on Blackfoot, but then it’s hard to
Play straight shots

 

[arif_2021]

https://flicx.com/

That’s the pitch we use in our neighborhood ground
The field is used for soccer and American football and baseball sometimes

We mow the grass under the pitch but it’s impossible to make it even

 

[street cricketer]

On wickets with lateral movement (swing/seam), the most risk free shots are the horizontal bat shots (cut/pull) because logically you present a bigger bat surface to account for the lateral movement and so less chances of getting an edge.

So theoretically, on a pitch where there is variable bounce, i.e., the variation in movement is on a vertical axis, getting in line of the ball and playing straight with a vertical bat would help. But the risk of the ball shooting up from good length due to extra bounce and grabbing your glove or shooting along the ground due to low bounce and getting lbw or bowled is high due to variable bounce. And you can never really account fully for that.

One thing you can do though is you can come forward and get close to the pitch of the ball. This would be hard against really quick bowlers but since the bowlers you're facing are slow, it would be not that difficult. When you come forward, you meet the ball's trajectory before it rises high enough to catch your glove and at worst, it might hit the bat at its high end near the shoulder. Even if the ball barely bounces and rolls along the ground, if you meet the ball close to its pitch, you reduce the chances of it passing under your bat.

 

[arif_2021]

Thank you.

Anyone experienced playing with this pitch?