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Which GM Bat to go with?

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adill420

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Joined
Apr 26, 2011
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137
Hello,

First of all, thanks to everyone who has posted previously about their GM Bat experience along with pictures etc.

I will be playing cricket this season after 4 years now. But prior to that, I was using a MRF bat which belonged to a friend who was visiting from India. The bat was AMAZING and I have researched a lot to find a similar bat but no luck so far.

Anyhow, until 4 years ago, I played in California where the pitch isn't as bouncy as the ones we have here in Illinois area. Basically here, we have concrete pitch with some type of green matting on it. Not really sure as I have only seen it once so far. (if you wish to see the bounce of pitch, you can check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsmPRp2tP0k)

I mostly play on front foot and my strength is smashing between the Gully and Cover. Occasionally I will smash a ball or two towards Long-On but that is my weak point as well since I usually get caught around there.

Anyhow, while researching bats here and there, I think I want to go with GM bat. According to the GM bat selector, I should get a Luna but I don't think thats accurate because the pitch looks a bit bouncy to me. Again you can check the video for yourself to see.

With that being said, I have 3 options: Apex, Flare and Icon.

Which one do you suggest I should go with? I am leaning more towards the Icon.

For Icon, I was planning to go with 909 Icon but read in a different forum post here that someone has 808 Icon Plus which weighs around 2.9lbs. Do you think that, between 808 and 909 there is a big difference?

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks
 
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man in that video the ball is coming sooo nicely of the bat! over here the ground is so crap no matter how hard or how perfect the timing is if you along the carpet you will probably get 1-2 runs max
 
Yeah. It was the first time for me to play on a bouncy pitch and I did struggle a bit as some balls were coming up around the chest area while some balls weren't as bouncy. I am not used to playing bouncy balls so it is my weak point right now but I am working on rectifying that. If you go around the 1:15 mark on the video, you can see the bounce I am talking about..

BTW, why would you recommend flare bat as opposed to icon or apex?

Thanks!
 
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for bouncy pitches, you will need a light pick up. that means a higher middle. so that is why the flare was suggested to you.
 
i am not sure either. CD may be the best guy to answer as he has both the flare and the icon.
 
I'm surprised how you even considered Apex in your short list :O

Anyways, now coming onto selection. Looking at the video not all deliveries are bouncy so I won't say you need very high middle bat, I would say a mid place middle because it will help you both on front foot and back foot. All round bat in GM's range is Flare, however, Icon is very good too as it has very long sweetspot and you can play well of the front foot!

Look at the following link for more information and have a look at the pictures too;

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/showthread.php?t=125994

My vote goes to Flare as well
 
adill420, you cant go wrong with either. as CD will tell you, GM bats are extremely consistent in quality and they have been getting great reviews.
 
Cover Drive: Thanks for the response. I think I threw apex in the mix because it seemed like a hybrid combination between Luna and Flare.

I looked at the pictures and my question is this..

Icon has a very long sweetspot but I am guessing flare doesn't. If you were to compare Icon and Flare the difference would be that flare's sweetspot is lower than Icon. But is the sweetspot on Flare also as long as Icon? If not then is the weight lower than Icon?

Also worth mentioning is that I usually opened for my team in Cali and there is a good chance I will do the same here in Illinois as well. Worst case I will be in the top order.

Thanks and really appreciate your help!
 
adill420 said:
Cover Drive: Thanks for the response. I think I threw apex in the mix because it seemed like a hybrid combination between Luna and Flare.

I looked at the pictures and my question is this..

Icon has a very long sweetspot but I am guessing flare doesn't. If you were to compare Icon and Flare the difference would be that flare's sweetspot is lower than Icon. But is the sweetspot on Flare also as long as Icon? If not then is the weight lower than Icon?

Also worth mentioning is that I usually opened for my team in Cali and there is a good chance I will do the same here in Illinois as well. Worst case I will be in the top order.

Thanks and really appreciate your help!
Click to expand...

Nahi yaar Apex bakwaas bat hai usko maat buy karna please :))

I haven't played with Flare yet so I really can't comment on sweetspot but it doesn't look small but when comparing with Icon it definitely has a shorter sweetspot. In other words, Flare's sweetspot is not as long as Icon which I believe is due to Icon having concaving while Flare has zero concaving. Since Icon have thicker edges I would say Icon also have a wider sweet spot.

The pick up on Icon is definitely lighter than Flare which makes Icon feel more lighter than its actual weight.

From your post I get feeling that you want light bat and long sweetspot bat plus you will be opener so bounce will be definitely high so now I would say go for Icon sorry for confusion bro.

Let me know if you have any more question(s).

Nahi no worries bro my pleasure :)
 
CD Bhai: Thanks a lot for your detailed response. I think I had made up my mind to get the Icon but I just needed some assurance :)

I can get the bat from several online stores here in the US for around $300 to $320 but I think I want to get it from Mapperley Sports since several folks have recommended them here and the cost ends up being almost same excluding the import taxes etc. I don't mind paying a bit more knowing I am getting a decent hand picked bat.

Michael was kind enough to send me pics of a 909 he has in stock but I am not sure if I am liking it so far. Compared to some other pics I have seen the pics Michael sent me do not have straight or evenly spaced lines. Also, there appears to be a spot there. Not sure if this is normal or if I am just being too harsh on this..

Here are the pics:
IMG_2722.jpg

IMG_2724.jpg

IMG_2725.jpg


Let me know what you think
 
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Adil Bhai, to be honest yaar I didn't like it either. Woh mark mujhay nahi acha lagg raha, I'd request him for a different piece pictures. One of my friend bought a Flare 909 from Micheal and believe me or not that Flare was as good as my Flare Original Limited Edition so Micheal does have some beauties and if needed he can also go to ffactory and hand select the bat for you.

I'm not sure of your budget but is Icon Original within your budget ?
 
I might be able to work with an Icon Original as opposed to Icon 909 if I can justify paying more.

I sent an email to Michael to see if he can get me an Icon 808 Plus with weight in 2.9 to 2.10 range. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I have a 4th MRF bat en-route from an online seller to see if I can still find something which closely resembles to what I fell in love with. But if not I will ask Michael to get me a fresh bat from the factory.

Do let me know your thoughts about upgrading from 909 to Original version.
 
Post pictures of the Icon Original here when you get them from Micheal and I will tell you ::)
 
saw mapperley sports website. they have an icon original LE 2lb 8. looked really good.
 
Also when buying a bat make sure it has pick up index of 1, the lower it is better pickup it has and lighter it will feel most likely.
 
the 2nd one definitely. but still not as good as yours from the look of it.
 
adill420, you are better off asking michael to get some more from the factory as the top ones in the store have all been shipped to Canada!!!
 
I don't know but I think this one edges my one out :)

But the best of best is cricketer13's Icon it is the best grain bat I have ever seen! Even better than the Laver & Wood Signature!
 
nahi yaar, i will still prefer the cleaner blade and grains on your icon. but you are right cricketer13's is awesome
 
That second bat does look very nice. By the way, if you had a chance to pick between 909 or the original one which one would you pick and why? Both seem to be from Grade 1 English Willow.
 
original LE actually. :)
but to answer your question, original if price wasn't an issue. that is because they rate on looks as well as performance. but if performance was the only criteria then i would say 909 might play the same as original.
 
@askmoi: Gotcha! Thanks a lot. That makes sense.

BTW, @Cover Drive bhai, I think we should have section in the forum for discussing things like bowling, batting, fielding techniques etc.
 
BTW, am I understanding this correctly.

A good bat has the following features:
-Straight lines
-lines should be evenly spaced out
-the more lines the better

did I get this correctly?
 
adill420 said:
BTW, am I understanding this correctly.

A good bat has the following features:
-Straight lines
-lines should be evenly spaced out
-the more lines the better

did I get this correctly?
Click to expand...
by lines do you mean grains? no that is not always the case, by having more grains, it may result in the grains being thinner than they should be. you should not have grains that are too thin. This is because, yeah it will perform great, but the bat will have short life. Having wider grains, it will play the same but live alot longer
 
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CD Bhai: Cool. I will start another thread and put up some stuff I use to learn new tricks and techniques.
 
By the way guys, my MRF Bat is here! I am very excited but unfortunately, it's not the same MRF Bat I have been searching for years.
 
Here are the pics for the MRF Bat which I got earlier today. Tell me what do you guys think of it so far..

IMAG0349.jpg


IMAG0350.jpg


IMAG0351.jpg


IMAG0352.jpg


IMAG0353.jpg


IMAG0354.jpg


IMAG0355.jpg


IMAG0356.jpg
 
adill420 said:
By the way guys, my MRF Bat is here! I am very excited but unfortunately, it's not the same MRF Bat I have been searching for years.
Click to expand...

Yaar why don't you post pictures of both and keep them side by side and we will know what they look like.

BUT this MRF looks decent too.

I don't know but doesn't this look like Guatum Gambhir's MRF? I mean its quite similar, well I do find it..
 
Unfortunately, I don't have the older MRF bat. That MRF bat belonged to someone who played in our team years ago and he personally bought it from India. Over the years I lost contact with him and his email no longer works :(

I don't want this bat because the balance is just not there. The features of the MRF I was after was the balance and that the sweet spot was bigger towards the bottom.

Therefore, I told myself if this MRF is not what I want then I just have to find me a new love ;)

At 2.10lb I can have much better GM bat. I honestly want something under 2.9lb and bigger sweet spot.

@Cricketismylife: I bought it from a guy who does import / export out of NY. Let me know if you are interested and I can send you his contact details.
 
adill420 said:
Unfortunately, I don't have the older MRF bat. That MRF bat belonged to someone who played in our team years ago and he personally bought it from India. Over the years I lost contact with him and his email no longer works :(

I don't want this bat because the balance is just not there. The features of the MRF I was after was the balance and that the sweet spot was bigger towards the bottom.

Therefore, I told myself if this MRF is not what I want then I just have to find me a new love ;)

At 2.10lb I can have much better GM bat. I honestly want something under 2.9lb and bigger sweet spot.

@Cricketismylife: I bought it from a guy who does import / export out of NY. Let me know if you are interested and I can send you his contact details.
Click to expand...

Ahh okay make sense bro :)

Since this is your 4th bat and on all 4 occasions you didn't get what you wanted then I would say MRF have changed shape of there bats. Companies usually change bats shape as time progress.

Icon definitely will be under 2.9lbs and pickup will make it even lighter, if you want lightest possible pickup bat then tell Micheal to get pickup index of 1 or even 2 would be fine.

I'm sure when you play with Icon you won't like any other bat :)
 
Yeah I agree. Well the guy was a very good player so I am sure he picked the best MRF bat available. I was just hoping to find something which even closely resembled to that. Oh well.

I am waiting for Michael to get back to me. I told him I want pick-up index 1 preferably a Icon Plus.
 
icon plus will be a bigger and heavier bat. so a pick up index of 1 might not be easy to find. ideally you would want a better balance between pick up and power and not just extremes.
 
But if you can get an Icon Plus like KnightRiders which was low in weight then I'd say you're lucky
 
A GM+ bat will most likely have a pick up index of liek 4 or 5. But then that Icon which I stumbled upon in Canterbury had an index of 3 (ideal for me).
 
Thanks to Cover Drive and Michael from Mapperley Sports, my bat is en-route. I am very very very excited!
 
My bat has finally made it past customs and should be in my possession today or tomorrow inshallah!

I feel like a super-excited kid right now waiting for a present :)
 
Here are the pics which were sent to me by Michael:

IMG_2727.jpg


IMG_2726.jpg


IMG_2728.jpg



I will take some pictures and put them up as soon as I get the bat inshallah.
 
Amazing, I'm glad you got the bat safely. As I had earlier told you in our conversation this bat is brilliant and it looks amazing. How is the feel on this bat? Are you finding it heavy or just as you wanted? If the bat is really at 2.8 and feeling 2.8 lbs then this bat is amazing! Its very very good bat for its weight!
 
They are butterfly stains and from what I have heard is that butterflY stains make bat ping more meaning there is more rebound from that particular area
 
So I finally got the bat. I will post some pictures below. In the meantime here is my initial review..

BAT: GM ICON 808 PLUS - Pick-up Index 1 - Weight: 2lb 8oz

The bat looks amazing. The bat is ready to play but when I started bouncing some balls to check the ping I wasn't really impressed. But when I did some initial knocking, I could hear the amazing ping from sweet spot.

The bat weighs 2.8lbs and it definitely feels very light. In fact it feels lighter than 2.8lbs. The sweet spot is long but the main sweet spot isn't that sweet. My take is that because the weight is so low, the sweet spot was sacrificed.

Inshallah tomorrow I will try the bat a little bat in practice. But I won't be using it in the match, just yet.

I am no expert in bats, but based on my experience the bat has the potential but honestly I am not that impressed.
 
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Bat looks brilliant! What doesn't impress you bhai?

Regardless what they say these bats still require knocking and they are not fully knocked, in fact, I'd say 90-120 minutes of knocking is required and bat should be knocked for that much.

You can't expect a bat to perform right away, it requires some time and considering the fact this is Enhlish bat it will also take time to open up meaning it will require some playing in which will open up the bat.
 
Thanks CD.

I think you are right. Bat does need some knocking in. I have been knocking it for the last few minutes with an old ball focusing on one small area and I can tell the difference.

My guess is that the reason I wasn't impressed initially was because I was under the impression that the bat is ready to play 100% but I guess that's not the case.

Inshallah tomorrow and day after tomorrow I will have more feedback once the bat is used a little bit.
 
Regardless what the bat says it still require knocking and playing in. What companies do is that they press bats in such way that it requires less knocking with mallet.

Trust me the more I look at it better it looks, grains are very good looking trust me bro!

Please do update us
 
Cover Drive: Thanks yaar. I am actually waiting for a mallet to be delivered. I will try and borrow someone's mallet tomorrow before the game and do some knocking before the match and see how it feels.

I will definitely leave an update in a few days Inshallah.
 
No worries bhai, just make sure you don't start banging with mallet leaving dents on bat face. Don't ask how many times I have done that :))
 
lol..good thing you told me..I watched a video somewhere and that was my plan to start banging the mallet. I guess I better read the thread about knocking :)
 
In that thread of knocking James Laver is man of 'banging' principle too! :))

Start by hitting slowly and then gradually increase the force, don't round off the edges as they have been already done.

A good video have a look at it;

[utube]PhkkW5iwYkk[/utube]
 
adill420 said:
Also found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCfOQpwqp8I&feature=related


By the way the video says to knock the bottom 6 inches of the bat. In the case of Icon the sweet spot is a bit longer than bottom 6 inches. I would say probably 8 or 9 inches of the bottom part. Am I understanding this correctly?
Click to expand...

6 inches is maximum figure I would say so it doesn't really matter. The 2-3 over 6 inches is already "pinging'' well if you test it with mallet.
 
Unfortunately for me, I only got to play 1 ball off the bat and was run out. I did lend the bat to someone and he loved it. There was one seam mark on the bat itself which I can feel if I press my finger and run on the blade, so I will be doing some more knocking this week.

There are some more seam marks on the protector sheet as well but I don't think they are on the bat itself.

While I was knocking someone suggested not to use the wood mallet. He recommended to use the mallet which comes with a ball instead. Not sure how far that is accurate or if it even makes a difference.
 
Sad to hear that!

Glad to see the bat is performing well, I hope it continues to perform well!

Personally I prefer wooden mallet over ball mallet, not sure why :))

By going the seam marks I think the bat is pretty much knocked and won't require a lot of knocking now.
 
Just wanted to quickly post an update.

My original impressions about this bat were wrong...

I scored 19 quick runs off 10 balls (not out). One six and 2 fours. My body was super-duper sore from work-out so I know that I barely hit any of the balls with much power.

Unfortunately, I only played the last 2 overs of the match. Anyhow, the bat is amazing. The middle of the bat is very sweet. The light weight of the bat allows me to pick up and swing very fast. At times it felt like I was hold a tape-ball tennis bat!
 
I split the bat into 3 sections (mentally).

The upper area which starts from where the sticker ends to about 2 to 2 1/2 inches.

The middle area, where the long meat is.

The lower area, about 3 to 3 1/2 inches.

I have probably done about 30 minutes knocking so far for the upper and lower area. And maybe 15 minutes for the middle area.

I am planning on doing 3 hours for the upper and lower area and 1 1/2 hours for the middle area.
 
Middle doesn't really require knocking because it is pre-knocked so I would say mainly focus on lower area and upper area along edges.
 
Right. I agree with you but honestly, as I have done some knocking in the middle area, I can feel that the bat is responding much better as opposed to how it originally did.
 
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