//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three: Batting 
// Story: 100 Not Out 
// by bobdat 
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Streak had decided that if she was going to be forced to play the game, she might as well get good at it. And anyway, she spent most of her time after school each day practicing anyway, so it wouldn't do any harm to practice this bowling business. By Tuesday she'd spent over four hours wheeling her arm around and bowling the ball at the back of the house, and now she could get it to bounce every time, even if it missed the target almost every time.
The team meeting was held in the gym first thing after school on Tuesday, whilst the hockey team were getting changed. Then the cricket team could go home and practice, or stay and use the facilities. Streak turned up on time and found everypony else already there, just waiting for the coach.
"Hi Streak." Bus said. "Did you bring your kit?"
"Yeah. Are you going to go through batting with me?"
"Oh no, Googly is. She knows the basics and she can bowl at you."

Googly smiled, and Streak noticed that her and the spin bowler were the only two to have their kit. She took a seat on the bench as Coach Nets walked in.
"Hi, sorry I'm late. Anyway, just a quick one. Streak, you and Googly can go and work on batting in the nets. The rest of you need to work on recruitment and just general exercises - I want to see you building strength, Bus. And Demon, if I'm not clocking your bowls at eighty-five miles per hour by this time next week, you'll be doing an intensive one-on-one session with me." 
He was interrupted by the chatter of voices coming into the hall, the acoustics amplifying them. It was the hockey team, now changed and ready to have their meeting before going outside to practice.
"Oh. My. God." One of the players said. Streak recognised her but couldn't remember her name. She was the captain of the hockey team and occasionally broke some of the school's records in the sport. Streak had no interest in a sport like hockey, but she resented occasionally having to share the school's honours.
"Is that really Competitive Streak? Record-breaking pony, playing whatever stupid sport this is?" The pony turned to her companion. "You know, they have never won anything in the history of the sport. The school's worst team."

All the members of the cricket team burned with embarrassment, including Streak. She was annoyed that she had to be seen with a bunch of losers. Before she could think of any smack-talk to reply with, the hockey players had laughed to themselves and stalked past, giving condescending looks to the cricket players.
"Ignore them." Coach Nets shrugged. "Hockey is a sport for princesses anyway. Let's have a good day, everypony." He clapped his hooves together and headed for the sports office.
"I hate those ponies." Streak complained as she and Googly made their way towards the nets. She cast an evil eye at the hockey players, who were cheering and having a team hug. 
"Just listen to coach." Googly suggested as she pulled the nets away from the wall. "Anyway, they'll be gone in a minute. You should put the kit on."

Streak retired to the changing rooms. Whilst they only had to wear their athletic kit for proper practices, Googly had given her a second-hand set of batting pads and a battered helmet that didn't fit properly. They were awful, like wearing somepony else's sweaty catching mitt. But she dutifully strapped on the leg pads, put on the helmet and pulled on a pair of padded gloves that had holes in them. Then she went back into the gym, relieved that the hockey team didn't have to see her looking so stupid.
"Okay Streak, just pick up a bat out of the kit bag and go and stand in the nets." Googly said. She'd made a pile of six balls next to where she was standing.
Streak did as she was told and stood in front of the wooden sticks, holding the rectangular bat awkwardly.

Googly walked over. "Okay, the first and most important thing is the stance. You have to stand side-on, like in baseball, but the bottom edge of the bat should touch the ground." She pushed and prodded Streak until she was in the correct position, face of the bat facing the pile of balls. 
"Now, your main aim is to stop the ball from hitting the wickets behind you. For now, just focus on hitting the ball with the bat. It doesn't matter if you miss." The other pony went back and picked up one of the balls. "Ready?"
Streak nodded, feeling the helmet slip down her face a little. She remembered how when Googly had bowled at the practice session, the ball had spun in all kinds of directions and been impossible to predict. Batting already seemed difficult.

Googly bowled the first ball, which arced straight towards her. She swung the bat as hard as the could, missing the ball entirely. The ball crashed harmlessly into the net behind her, but her powerful swing meant she'd moved out of her batting stance and now had to try getting back into it.
"Don't swing so hard. Try just stopping the ball with the bat, like a bunt."
"Do they have bunts in cricket?"
"Not if you want to score runs. You only bunt a ball if you can't otherwise score a run from it, and you think it will hit the wickets. We call it a forward defence."
Googly's next ball was equally straight, so Streak just held the bat in front of her and hoped it would hit. It missed again.
"Just keep your eyes on the ball at all times and guide the bat to it."

The next ball hit the bat exactly as Streak had intended.
"Well done!" Googly enthused. "That's a good start."
Streak wasn't used to being so terrible at a sport, so she resolved to try harder. "So how do I do this forward defence thing?"
"Simple. When you see the ball coming straight towards you, step forward with your left hoof, so that your leg is on the left of the ball. Then move the bat with you and angle it so it points downwards. The ball will hit the bat, bounce into the ground, and go nowhere."
"Okay." Streak tried this, with Googly's guidance. Before long, she knew how to do it, in theory.

"Try it on this ball." Googly said. 
The ball was another slow, straight one, and Streak stepped forwards. The bat accidentally hit her leg though, and ended up swinging weirdly. The ball passed straight through and hit the wickets with a thunking noise.
"Don't worry. Try again." Googly said, trying to soothe Streak who now felt like an idiot.
The next ball was exactly the same, but this time Streak executed the shot perfectly and the ball rolled slowly across the gym floor to Googly.
"Perfect! If you played that shot in one of our games, it wouldn't be out of place." The bowling pony said happily, hopping up and down on the spot. "You're very good for a beginner."
"Yeah, but your bowls are too easy to hit." Streak complained. "Give me one of your best!" She was far more confident now she could pull it off.
"Oh no, we'll start easy."
"Come on, you're on the sixth ball. Give me a tough one." Streak maintained.

Googly shrugged and bowled the final ball. Streak saw it coming straight towards her and smiled, stepping forward perfectly and angling her bat just right. But when the ball bounced, it veered towards her left leg and passed cleanly through the gap between the bat and her leg. It then continued and hit the wickets again.
"Sorry Streak. The forward defence isn't very good against spin bowling like mine." Googly apologised as Streak looked dumbly at the spot that the ball had bounced. 
"Seriously, how do you do that? I can't even get the ball to hit the wickets."
"With practice. You're probably better as a fast bowler anyway." She replied, nodding a little shyly. "Anyway, send me the balls back and we can practice the forward defence more. A good player can get the forward defence right every single time."

After two hours of endlessly repeating the same stroke over and over, Streak was confident that she could not only pull it off every time, but decide which balls to block and which not to. Googly said she should only block fast, straight balls, or spin bowling where the ball spins into the middle. They'd tried spin bowling at the end, but it was too difficult for Streak to get the hang of.
Streak took a shower quickly, trying to get rid of the old sweat that had come from the pads and helmet before the hockey team returned. Googly was tying her mane up when Streak returned the old kit to the office.
"That kit is horrible." Streak said as the two of them headed towards the school gates. 
"Sorry you have to wear it, but it's the only spare kit we have. Everypony on the team at the moment has their own."
"I need to buy some or something. No way am I wearing that again."
"Oh, you should go shopping with Bus. She's the best batspony, so she'll be able to get you the right equipment."

They reached the corner of the street outside school, and Streak was about to say goodbye when she realised that Googly was walking the same way as she was. "Oh, you live in this direction too?"
"I live on Rhododendron Drive. What about you?" Googly asked, hiking her kit bag up her shoulder.
"Oh, that's just two streets across from where I live, on Acacia Avenue."
"Do you want to walk back together?" Googly suddenly sounded very shy.
"Yeah, okay." Streak was grateful that Googly had spent the afternoon teaching her, so didn't mind talking a walk back with her teammate. "So what batting technique do I learn next?"
"Oh, you'll probably need to work on the forward defence more. It's very important."
"I mean after that."

Googly thought for a few moments as they crossed the street. "Probably the off drive. It's the closest thing to the forward defence."
"How do you do that one?"
"When you stop your bat so that the ball bounces off it, you instead swing it forwards, sending the ball back towards the bowler. You can only use it on straight balls, really. An off drive would be to the right of the bowler, a leg drive to the left, nearest your legs."
Streak considered this for a moment. "Okay I suppose that makes sense. But wouldn't the bowler stop it?"
"You have to hit it hard enough for the bowler to not reach it quickly enough."
"I think I can hit stuff. That's the best part?"
"Oh, I'm not a very good batspony. You'd be better off asking Bus for the finer points."

Streak just nodded and looked at the street sign. They were at Fir Place, about halfway to Rhododenron. "So what other shots can you teach me?"
"I suppose the backward defence. Instead of stepping forward in the defence, you step backwards. This means you can lift the bat up higher and stop balls that bounce high."
"Don't high balls not count? Like in baseball, if it's not near the wicket it doesn't count?"
"Oh, no. If it's too wide for the batspony to reach, then it's called a wide and you get a free run. It's possible for a very high ball to be called a wide, but it hardly ever happens."
"So if it's going over the top of the wickets, you have to hit it?" Streak asked.
"You can leave it, but you have to make the decision." Googly replied. "You use it when a forward defence would be too low."

Streak only sighed. There had been a lot to learn, and she still only really knew one shot. "This cricket stuff is really difficult."
"I think Demon is going to get you a book that you can read, now you know the very basics." Googly replied, pausing at a set of pedestrian lights.
"You have to learn from books? This is just like school." Streak complained, shaking her head.
"Well, keep trying. Anyway, I'm going to go to the shop on the way back, so I'll go this way." The bowling pony replied, pointing to the left. "I'll see you at practice on Saturday. You need to keep trying, because our first game is the weekend afterwards."
Streak waved as Googly walked away. She decided on a plan of action; firstly she needed to get herself some kit, secondly she needed to master the forward defence, and thirdly she needed to bowl a bit better.

"Hi, can I speak to Bus please?"
"Erm, okay. Who's speaking?"
"I'm Streak."
"One moment, Streak."
Streak tapped the phone impatiently. She hadn't rung up one of her teammates for years and felt slightly stupid for doing so. The faster she got it over with the better.
"Hello Streak." Bus said, her voice sounding pleased.
"Hi, I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping with me to help me get some kit." Streak said quickly.
"Oh, of course. Tomorrow after school, or is that too soon?"
"No that's fine. See you then."
"Meet me on the other side of the road outside school."
"Okay. Bye Bus."

She put the phone down and rolled her eyes. She had no idea how much the kit would cost, but she'd probably be able to persuade her parents. Cricket was just begging to have some school records beaten, and that's what her parents liked to hear.