A few months back, with little to do on a Saturday since the cricket season ended I found myself watching the TV game show The Cube.
“What a load of rubbish" I thought as the show explained how contestants could win vast sums of money for doing a series of tasks. They were so easy Geoff Boycott's mum could have done them with a stick of rhubarb.
But as I watched more I realised that the tasks like bouncing a ball into a tube or counting boxes became difficult the more that was at stake. During one game that involved walking in a straight line (yes, in a straight line) the contestant used up most of his lives. As soon as the pressure was off (when given a 'trial run') he managed it without fuss.
The only difference: Pressure.
Now take a step back and think about how that applies to cricket.
For example, how many times do we see in Test matches teams collapsing under the pressure of needing to bat time to save the game? An epic rearguard like in yesterday’s Test is a rare exception. Few are strong enough to defeat The Cube.
The modern phrase is 'scoreboard pressure' and here are some ways you put our opposition into The Cube and crank up the pressure.
Take advantage of the final overs
No matter what format we play, the final overs of an innings are vital because they set the tone for the next innings. If you struggle through your overs (or worse, get bowled out) you hand the momentum and confidence to the other team.
Attack in the final overs without mindless slogging. Look to hit over the top down the ground or calculate the areas where you can hit with less risk.
Walk with a swagger
Viv Richards was the king of playing like he was the best player in the world. Most of the time he was, which helped. However, you can emulate his confidence by faking it. If you pretend you are super-confident for long enough then you end up being super-confident.
In other words: Fake it until you make it.
It's a trick that works very well when you are in the field. A team of confident fielders can make the batsman feel outnumbered and surrounded. Lots of close fielders, the keeping standing up to a quick or fielders in front of the bat in the batsman's eye line can crank up the pressure. In limited over games, squeezing fields can leave a batsman wondering where he can break out.
Bowl three maidens
An extension of this in the field is to build pressure with dot balls. Ex-England captain Michael Vaughan says that if you bowl three maidens in a row one batsman will do something silly to try and break the shackles.
You don't need to bowl a Flintoff-like high speed over beating the bat every time to bowl a maiden. Most club players are limited in their shots so if you cut off their favourites and bowl a consistent line they don't like you have a good chance of forcing the error.
In the end, it's all about pressure. Anyone who thinks pressure makes no difference only need to look at how The Cube drives people to silly mistakes in simple tasks.
How can you add pressure to force mistakes in our games ?