Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/235

 run. One or two writers say: "Stand with your weight equally balanced on both legs." That I believe to be a grave mistake. The weight should be chiefly on the right leg, and kept there when you raise your bat to play the ball. For want of that being constantly drilled into the learner's head, he too often moves the right foot, which is opposed to all good play. Anything that will cause you to move the right foot when defending your wicket should be avoided, and I am inclined to think that standing with your weight equally balanced on both legs has a tendency that way. In fact, I believe it to be good advice that the beginner's right foot should be pegged down for some time, until he acquire ease and confidence in playing back and forward.

Another mistake committed is twirling or flourishing the bat after you have raised it from the block hole, preparatory to hitting or playing the ball. It serves no practical purpose, unless it be to cover your nervousness, and it is decidedly bad form. You have all your work cut out to keep your eye on the bowler's arm, and flourishing the bat does not help you; besides, I very much question if you can come down so quickly on a shooter with the bat constantly on the move, as you can holding it quietly a few inches from the ground.

And now we come to the first and important stage in the art of batting how to keep up your wicket. That must be the aim of the beginner; for no one will ever score largely and consistently who cannot do it. It is better a thousand times to be able to keep your wicket up for an hour, even if you only score ten runs, than to make the same number of runs in the first over and be bowled the next. I admit that the addition to the total score is the same; but ten runs in an hour, if made by the first or fifth man of your side, are worth double that number made in a couple of overs; for in