Don't Bowl There - A Cricket Blog

In this blog post I will be talking to MTB Northern Knights head coach, Simon Johnston about the 2021 season, his goals for next season and what his plans are over the winter months with the representative players. Simon Johnston was appointed into his current role in October 2016 and has helped to improve the standard across the whole of the NCU.    Johnston who is a highly regarded Level 4 coach was voted as Cricket Ireland coach of the year in both 2015 and 2016 has helped bring success to the Northern Cricket Union winning the Interprovincial T20 series in 2019. 2021 Season for the MTB Northern Knights The previous season was a challenging one for the MTB Northern Knights. Before the season had even started, with a reshuffle by Cricket Ireland to even out the Interprovincial squads, the Northern Knights lost Murray Commins and Josh Manley both to the Munster Reds and Irish International Shane Getkate to the North West Warriors. Johnson said "Losing an International...

Tymal Mills has had ups and downs through his whole entire professional cricket career. From being diagnosed with a congenital back condition and being restricted to playing white ball cricket only, to being selected in England's final 15 player squad for the 2021 T20 World Cup. Mills could hold the key to England's success at the upcoming tournament.  With England missing star player Jofra Archer who won England the 2019 World cup due to a recurrent elbow injury, England had to look for an alternate pace bowler to partner Mark Wood. Mills was the obvious candidate to come into the side. He has had a very impressive 2021 taking 25 wickets combined in the Vitality Blast and also the inaugural edition of The Hundred. The benefits to Mills playing is that he offers the ability to bowl at any stage during the course of a T20. Opening the bowling during the blast and bowling at the death for the Southern Brave in The Hundred gives England captain Eoin Morgan a lot to play with. It i...

Prior to the start of the upcoming Ashes series down under, England have a well-established middle-order nevertheless there will always be players pushing for a spot in the test team. Various injuries or loss of form can strike aside at any time. Let’s look at some players who can step forward if required. England's Current Middle Order England’s middle-order has been fairly stable over the past year. There’s Test batsman of the year so far, Joe Root, Ben Stokes who is synonymous for his 135* against Australia to win the Headingley test for England in 2019, Surrey star, Ollie Pope, and Jos Butler batting at 7 donning the keeping gloves. 2021 has been the year of Joe Root. At the time of writing, he has scored 1,455 runs this calendar year with still three tests to go this year. This is an incredible feat from one of England’s greatest ever red-ball cricketers. The worrying stat for England fans is that Joe Root is the only English batsman to average over 40 since the last Ashes se...

  I had the pleasure of being able to chat with Italian international cricketer Nikolai Smith before the start of Italy's World Cup Europe Qualifiers in Desert Springs, Spain where Italy will face Germany, Jersey, and also Denmark in hopes of making it to the next round of qualifiers. Nikolai has been training hard since the end of the NCU season with Instonians. Nikolai has also spent a lot of time over the summer working on his technique and also altering his batting style.  'I personally feel that I have been able to adapt my game well to different situations over the last few years. I have made a few changes to my technique and have gone about the shorter format cricket with a different mindset'.  Nikolai also chatted to me about how much of a boost having Jade Dernbach in the Italy squad has been for the whole camp.  'Having someone of Jade Dernbach's class come into the team will really boost our chances of topping the qualifiers. Jade and Gareth have ...

Hello, my name is Xander. I am the creator and founder of the Don't Bowl There cricket blog. I'm a twenty-year-old business studies student currently studying at Ulster University. I have been involved in cricket as long as I can remember, playing my first cricket game at the age of eight. Since I have been playing cricket I have been through the full motions within the game. From winning a school's cup final to losing a cup final in the last over of my own bowling. But this has only led me to love the game even more.  My passion for cricket extends beyond a playing capacity. Currently I am one of the Northern Knights performance coaches in the Northern Cricket Union. I have coached a variety of different teams within the union. These range from the Under 9 representative boy's cricket team all the way to the senior women's side. My love for the great game has led me to travel to some of the most historic cricket grounds in England. I also had the fortune to be able...