loss to Winthrop. So they werent going to move into the Top 25. The loss to West Virginia just sol

Whats the main difference between keeping in Australia and elsewhere in the world? You get more consistent bounce in Australia, so you have more time to move your feet, like Australian keepers want to. Teddy Higuera Jersey . We want to move our feet to get outside the line of the ball and take the ball on the inside hip as you move towards the slips.At Adelaide or Melbourne, at times, it doesnt bounce through consistently, so youve got to work hard. But traditionally Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, Sydney, they are good pitches that bounce through and give you time to move.Wicketkeeping to the spinners is generally pretty consistent in Australia too. When the legspinner is on, the ball wont often not spin when its supposed to. It might slide on a bit sometimes, but it wont do anything ridiculous. I think its a nice place to keep.What about in Asia? In the subcontinent, the biggest challenge is reverse swing to the fast bowlers. Everyone thinks keeping up to the spinners is hard work in those places. But I think those pitches are pretty consistent. They might be slow, but again it wont suddenly drag, or really spin or bounce very often. But when you keep to Wasim Akram, standing quite close to the stumps because the ball carries through low, with it swinging late, that is really difficult - a very hard part of those wicketkeepers jobs.And elsewhere around the world? Keeping in the West Indies is quite hard, because it doesnt bounce through like it does in Australia, which means youve got to move up a little bit, which cuts down the time youve got to move your feet to those fast men.In England, the bounce is good, comes through to you nicely, but it does wobble. Sometimes youve just got to survive and watch it into your gloves and not worry too much about moving. Just watch the ball and catch it.What does a wicketkeeper need to be successful in all of those conditions? A really solid set of basics. You need an idea of how your feet should go, your body height, your hands and your gloves. And most importantly, to be watching the ball, not watching for what might happen. If you have a good body position, youll be able to react. Youve got to trust that and take anything that you have to take. And then you have to do that 600 times in a day.How important is it to practise well? If you have a solid awareness of basics, then when the pressure comes on in a game, when its getting tight or youre running out of time to win the match, youre not thinking bad stuff. Youre not thinking ahead or worrying about the outcome. You know what you have to put in to do your job the best. And before you know it, the game is over, things are done and youve had a good afternoon.Mastering your basics is important so you know what works for you when you start thinking badly. You can go back to a set of simple statements that get you back on the ball.Where should a wicketkeeper take the ball - on the inside or outside of the body? Australian wicketkeepers, when were standing back to the quicks and the ball is bouncing nice and consistently, we like to take it on the inside hip. So thats the left hip if its a right-handed batsman and the right hip for a left-hander. We get our feet going and our body just outside the line of the ball.If it starts wobbling or if you havent got time for that, you just have to survive and catch it right in front of you. Ive got no problems resorting to that for a little period, until you get used to that wobble or that inconsistent bounce.What are the advantages of that technique? I think the wicketkeeper is moving better, doing that. Their rhythm is set up to go with the ball, whether the batsman misses or edges it. That allows your slips to spread out a bit more and you get a greater coverage from your slips cordon.Sometimes that doesnt work, though. Because some days a wicketkeeper doesnt feel as good as other days, so you have to position the slips based on how youre feeling on that day. You dont want to have a big, wide gap between yourself and first slip if youre not moving very well. Youll get caught out and the misery will get worse and worse.Should a keeper watch the ball or the edge of the bat? You have to only watch the ball. You have to forget the bat. Forget the batsman is there. Watch it and expect the batsman to miss it every ball. Be in position to take the ball, even when they hit it, just in case. If you concentrate on that for 15 to 20 minutes, it becomes natural and your brain is just doing that and the session goes well.When there is a nick and youre in great form, it feels like slow motion. Its just a delight to hear that edge. Here comes the ball, its on its way. If youre watching it, that is.What happens if you do watch the bat and not the ball? Youll be a split-second late. Either your fingers wont grasp around the ball, or itll be a jerky movement at the end, maybe to your right. You wont be powerful and smooth in your movement into the catch. You have a big chance of dropping it. Just those final reflexes will be too slow. If you are watching the bat, youll look surprised if the ball comes through. Thats when you know that you werent watching the ball.Whats the ideal body position for a wicketkeeper? It varies for different body shapes. You need to make sure youve got some power in your quads. That means knees slightly bent and your weight on the balls of your feet, not flat-footed, not on your heels or toes. Youve got to have some power, ready to go if you need it. If youre watching the ball only, youll be able to move nice and strongly to wherever you have to be.How do you know when the ball feels right in your hand? Theres a difference between catching the ball and catching the ball right. The sound it should make going into your gloves should be a clean, nice thud. You can hear when the ball scrapes into your gloves.You learnt a lot from Queensland wicketkeeper Peter Anderson. What did he teach you? He had a sharpness and fanaticism over everything he practised. Head over your gloves, having the power so you can get the gloves towards the bails quickly. You just practise that for hours so that it feels natural and thats how you do it in a match. Wed probably practise eight hours a week together on all facets of wicketkeeping.In the Australian team, how did you work together with your slips? We practised a lot. Im not sure teams do that enough at the moment, and when they do, they do it really hard - throw it hard, hit the ball really hard at the fielders. You can actually vary it - short and sharp catches, longer ones that put their hands under a bit of pressure. Or middle-range ones, where youre not only practising catching but the cordon practises decisions, whether to go or not to go.Youve got to get a good feel for the person next to you, as to what they know and feel about you. So Mark Taylor at first slip would have a fair knowledge of when I was going to go, so he either backed up or backed off. Those decisions are more important than actual catching practice. Thats what youre cementing and reinforcing - your coordination and knowledge between each other. We had a wonderful slips cordon: Taylor, Allan Border, if he needed to go in there, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh at gully, [Shane] Warney snuck in there. So yeah, good catchers.Does the standard of todays wicketkeeping frustrate you? Yes, I think so. I dont mind the keepers who are good enough to do the job quite well. I dont mind that they are more known for their batting than their wicketkeeping, if they do a job behind the stumps. There arent too many absolute part-timers in there now. I think we see a few too many of them attempting it in T20, and T20, for me, is the game where you need your best keeper. The wickets dont do too much, so the impact of a brilliant stumping off a medium-pacer, or a class spinner, is huge in T20. So is the impact of a missed dismissal. You pick your best keeper because you dont need another batsman in 20 overs. You can bat the keeper anywhere you like. You dont really need all your batsmen in 20 overs.Whos the best current international wicketkeeper? They all have their moments. Its pretty even. Pakistans Sarfraz Ahmed seems to cope well with the tricky spinners theyve got. I saw the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper, Dinesh Chandimal, in this years Test at Galle against Australia. He kept unbelievably well to the left-arm chinaman [Lakshan Sandakan], the right-arm offie [Dilruwan Perera] and the left-arm orthodox, [Rangana] Herath. Chandimal is as good as it gets. Peter Nevill is a very good technician. England are still toing and froing with part-timers.What about MS Dhoni? Dhoni has been an unbelievable keeper for India. He should make so many more errors the way he keeps, but he doesnt. He gets the job done. He doesnt seem to practise very often, but his No. 1 priority is to get the job done. He doesnt care whether he sticks the foot out sometimes and stops it with his pad. As captain, hes got to think about the team, its fortune, and hes got a high level of spin bowler to keep to in difficult conditions. Its a real challenge and Im amazed how durable hes been, how long hes been able to maintain that position as wicketkeeper, captain and gun batsman.Did Adam Gilchrist finish off the traditional non-batting keeper as a member of an international side? Not really, no. I think that Gilly was good enough with the gloves. He was a wicketkeeper and an outstanding batsman. Probably the best batsman in the team, and a more than adequate wicketkeeper to do the job for Australia. Never sell his gloves anything short of that, because I think he was fine. He wasnt as good in his early years as he could have been. But he got it right towards the end. He doesnt fit into that category of wicketkeeper thats in there because of his batting. He was good enough with the gloves.Have teams since tended to want first and foremost a front-line batsman, and if they can keep a bit, thats an advantage? Maybe, but youre playing with fire there, trying to match Gilchrists batting. Good luck with that. Its like all the kids whove been bowling legspin over the last 20 years. Weve developed maybe one or two, thats it. Players like Gilchrist and Warne are once-in-a-generation players and may be impossible to emulate.I thought after Gilly what Australia needed was the best wicketkeeper, because our bowlers werent that good. Our bowlers werent creating the opportunities that Glenn McGrath and Warne used to. We had to make sure we took every single chance, so we needed a really strong wicketkeeper after Adam. Youve got to change what you need when the cycles of your team change.Does a wicketkeepers eyesight have to be really good? I kept in contact lenses. To be a first-class athlete in any sport, you need good eyesight, so yeah, its probably underrated. A lot of people dont know that they havent got good eyesight. Its certainly worth checking out.Did you ever get any vision training? No, not really. My optometrist always tried to get me to do some exercises to improve my vision. But she was always disappointed.Does a wicketkeeper have to be as fit as an outfielder? Fitter than an outfielder. A wicketkeeper has to be one of the fittest in the team. Batsmen get out and dont have to concentrate any more. A bowler is out of the attack and doesnt have to think about his set skill for a while. But a keeper has to do it day in day out for long periods.Its a real combination between aerobic fitness, to get through a day, and psychological fitness, so you can concentrate for a whole day. You have to ration out your concentration and switch down a lot.You have to be confident that your physical fitness is high, so you dont start thinking, Hell, Ive got two and a half hours to go here. That should never enter into your mind. And the days it does, youre in a bit of trouble. You need strength, speed, aerobic fitness, some endurance.How did you ration your concentration during a long day? You set the session up in the first 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure youre getting into really good habits. Then itll look after itself a little bit, so youre not anxious, youre not having to tell yourself all the time to do these things. It just flows much better. Then relax with your team-mates and find some fun out there. Before you know it, its lunch and then, before you know it, its tea. And then the day is over.What about taking stumpings? Whats the strategy and technique there? The whole goal of standing up to the stumps is to get your head over your gloves. So when youre catching the ball, you want your eyes right over the top of the gloves - a little bit of cushion in the catch, soft gloves. And then be as quick as you can to get it back and get the bail off. Forget the bat, watch the ball. Its about having the balance to do all that. Did keeping to Shane Warne make it easier to play him when you were batting? Not really. What you need when batting against Warne is a good technique. It doesnt matter how fast your feet are if you make a bad decision. You need a solid plan and an array of shots to keep some pressure on him. And then to get away with a risk or two, because most of the run-scoring options on a pitch thats supporting him are risky. Get away with your first few risks and then play a few shots, like a sweep shot, to get off strike; and work with the spin. Then youre a chance, but thats all.And to keep to him? Whats the secret? You need a real solid set of basics. Stay low, watch the ball and get your head over your gloves. You dont need anything more. Robin Yount Jersey . -- Whether Jeremy Hill deserves a prominent role in LSUs offence this early in the season is a matter for debate. Bj Surhoff Jersey . -- Aaron Murray threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score, and led No. https://www.cheapbrewers.com/1329y-bobby...ey-brewers.html .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. NEW YORK -- Illinois coach John Groce stood behind the podium and offered a bit of analysis.And an understatement.Theyre really good, Groce said a few minutes after No. 19 West Virginias 89-57 victory over Illinois on Thursday in the first round of the NIT Season Tip-Off at the Barclays Center.Nathan Adrian had 13 points and eight rebounds for the Mountaineers (4-0), and Jevon Carter added 10 points, six rebounds, six steals and five assists.Those two guys are special kind of guys, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.They will face Temple in the title game Friday. The Owls beat No. 25 Florida State 89-86.Esa Ahmad and Elijah Macon each had nine points, and Teyvon Myers and Daxter Miles Jr. added eight each. Michael Finke led Illinois (4-2) with 13 points, and Mike Thorne Jr. had 12.West Virginia finished the half on a 41-20 run for a 48-29 lead. The biggest advantage was 39 points with 4:42 left.Befitting a program nicknamed Press Virginia, West Virginia forced 13 turnovers in the first half, leading to 19 points. Illinois only forced two turnovers in the first half. For the game, the Mountaineers scored 34 points off of 24 Illinois turnovers.Jim Harrick told me one time, `Id rather be up than down. Id rather have the ball than not and Id sure rather win than lose, Huggins said.BIG PICTURE:Illinois: Undoubtedly, this was an embarrassing loss for the Illini. But the positive is that they are unlikely to play anyone iin the Big Ten that resembles West Virginia. Zach Davies Jersey. West Virginia: Bob Huggins teams are renowned for their trap and their ability to turn opponents turnovers into fast break points. Nothing has changed in that regard. Long term, though, does he have the kind of ball distributor that is needed to be successful in the NCAA Tournament?POLL IMPLICATIONS:Illinois: Entering Thursday, the Illini were coming off an 84-80 overtime loss to Winthrop. So they werent going to move into the Top 25. The loss to West Virginia just solidified that fact.West Virginia: Following a decisive win, the Mountaineers are staying in the Top 25.QUOTABLE:The thing, obviously, that was the difference in the game was the points off turnovers: 34-1. Theyve forced every one theyve played into 20-plus turnovers. We were determined to try and not get to that 20 (turnover) number and (that) didnt happen. A lot of credit certainly goes to them, their aggressiveness and the way they attack and pressure you for 40 minutes on misses, makes and dead balls. -- Groce on West Virginias press defense.UP NEXT:Illinois: Will face Florida State in the consolation game Friday.West Virginia: Will face Temple in the championship game Friday.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 ' ' '