Fast bowling

Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling. Practitioners are usually known as fast bowlers or pace bowlers although sometimes the label used refers to the specific fast bowling technique that bowler prefers, such as swing bowler, seam bowler or strike bowler.

Seam Bowling

see main article seam bowling

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Seam bowling is the act of using the seam of the ball to cause the ball to bounce in an unpredictable fashion when it hits the pitch. A good batsman will be able to predict where a ball is going to bounce and from that work out what height the ball will be when it reaches him. By generating variations in bounce, the bowler can make it more likely the batsman will make a mistake in his assessment of the ball and give away his wicket.

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The basic technique of seam bowling is to employ the normal fast bowling or slower ball grip and to try and ensure that the seam remains upright until the ball hits the pitch. If the seam is upright and the ball is spinning around its horizontal axis, there is no appreciable Magnus effect and the ball will not move in the air. The seam of the ball is raised and will cause variations in bounce and movement if it is the first part of the ball to hit the pitch.

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Seam bowlers can get a lot of help from certain types of pitches. Hard pitches that have a cracked or ridged surface are best for seam bowling since the hardness makes it easier to bounce the ball without losing speed while the uneven surface adds to the unpredictability of the bounce when the ball hits the pitch. This is known as variable bounce. On rare occasions a pitch with is extremely hard and uneven will be declared as too dangerous to play on since the batsman cannot predict the ball at all and is likely to be hit on the body repeatedly as a result. Green pitches can also assist the seam bowler since the tiny tufts of grass represent an uneven surface although this is a mixed blessing since the green surface also slows the ball slightly. It is difficult for a seam bowler to be effective on a very flat and even-surfaced pitch (known as a flat track in cricket vernacular) and seamers usually resort to aggressive bowling tactics and/or bowling cutters on such surfaces.

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Cutters

see main articles off cutter, leg cutter

Related Topics:
Off cutter - Leg cutter

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A cutter is the term used to describe a fast ball which is spinning, that is rotating around the opposite axis to the seam instead of keeping the seam straight. While this rotation is nowhere near as much as that achieved by a spin bowler the small variations it can produce are still enough to discomfort a batsman due to the speed of the ball. Cutters can be an effective way for a seam bowler to get the ball to move if he is not receiving much assistance from the pitch.

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A ball rotating around the seam will move either left or right when it hits the pitch, depending on which way the ball is spinning. A ball bouncing to the left is said to be a leg cutter as it is travelling from leg stump to off stump for a right-handed batsman. Conversly a ball which bounces to the right is an off cutter, travelling from off to leg stump for a right-handed batsman. Cutters are usually aimed so that they hit the pitch just outside the batsman's off stump and move away from the wicket. This will cause the ball to catch the outside edge of the bat instead of the middle and fly up to be caught in the slips.

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To bowl a cutter, the bowler employs a different grip. The two grips are shown to the right, with the uppermost one producing an off cutter while the lower one shows the grip required for a leg cutter. As well as changing the grip, the bowler must pull his fingers down the appropriate side of the ball as it leaves his hand in order to impart the required spin. The action of bowling a cutter also increases drag on the ball as it leaves the hand, causing the ball to slow in the same way as a slower ball and this can also help to confuse the batsman.

Related Topics:
Off cutter - Leg cutter

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