This is a guest article from Fish Hoek Cricket Club Head Coach, Jamie Rood

I run spin sessions by throwing off spinners to a 5/4 leg side biased field. We have a slip catching and two fielders out at square leg and deep midwicket. Everyone else is in the ring.

In one particular session, I was working with Kegan, an U16 batsman who enjoys working the ball into the leg side and picking it up over mid-wicket. Here's what we did.

We began with a 24 ball phase with instruction of “playing in the middle overs”. I was pitching the ball on off stump with some moderate turn. Despite opportunities for singles in the leg side, working the ball square was a risk and he began to get tied down. He attempted to go over mid-on from a good length and ended up holing out.

The consistency of a good off spinner combined with the correct field can make rotation of strike difficult. We went through our options and it was clear that changing the length of the delivery was crucial in reducing the risk of playing run scoring shots.

Kegan is quite tall and not confident in sweeping. He would rather use vertical bat shots to accumulate runs. On a turning wicket, playing from the crease is a dangerous option bringing various dismissals into play.

I introduced a rule whereby he could only play run scoring shots when the ball was outside a certain zone on the wicket. This was not determined by the length with which the ball pitched, but the time when the ball was struck.

What changed?

The balls that were deemed a good line and length 10 minutes previously were now being taken for runs. Instead of lunging forward and playing a forward defensive, Kegan would manipulate the ball with greater ease into gaps by moving his feet. Anything bowled slightly flatter and shorter he would play the ball deep in the crease, working it off the back foot with the spin to deep backward square. When I gave the ball a bit more flight, he would use his feet to get to the pitch of the ball and take quick singles in the ‘V’ or go over mid-on for a boundary.

There were still times that some deliveries didn’t allow for scoring shots, but the reduced pressure of having already taken runs off the over allowed the batter to block within the danger zone, as opposed to playing high risk cricket with half a bat face.

As batters are constantly looking for scoring options in the modern game, the bottom line is not to allow the ball to pose its biggest threat. Against spin, turn and bounce will always cause difficulty.

Advancing to prevent the ball from doing this or sitting back and gathering information before striking are most certainly potential ways to combat this.

Jamie Rood is Head Coach at Fish Hoek Cricket Club in Cape Town, South Africa and a Senior Coach at All Rounder Cricket Academy. He has coached high level players across the world's three major cricketing nations in the last four years.