This weeks challenge was inspired by Stuart Broad after his Ashes heroics of 8-15 in the 4^thTest match at Trent Bridge, to seal England the Urn.

As a rough guide, I wanted to see what it would be like to face a test match bowler, bowling at 90mph. I’m fortunate enough to work at a cricket club that has a machine called ‘Truman’. This shows the outline of a bowler, as he runs up and then the machine flings the ball down at whatever pace you set it too. It replicates test match bowlers actions. This time, I took on a bit of Brett Lee.

I consider myself an okay cricketer. Despite being a batsman, that is usually happy that when he reaches double figures, I do call myself a batsman. You never really know as a club cricketer what kind of speeds you are facing compared to the professionals, so I thought this would be a good way to get an idea.

So to get my ‘eye in’ we started Truman off on 70mph. This was already too quick for me. I had a rough idea where it was going, but missed loads. Only 20mph to go. As we would go up the speed, I’d hit a few here and there, but spent the majority of my session wafting at the ball. By the time we got up to over 80mph I was way out of my depth.

We eventually cranked up to 90mph, where I had 6 balls to face. I always thought it would be too fast for me to even see. The weird thing was, my eyes saw the ball the whole way, but my body just didn’t move quick enough to react.  I had a rough idea where it was going to go but struggled to get near it… and when the ball whack me straight on the foot, it was just way too quick AND it hurt.

I still hold ambitions of playing for England in the Ashes despite this ropey net session, and now injured foot.

Skip to 7 minutes 49 seconds if you want to see me get hit!