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.

Strike Bowling

Strike bowling is the term usually applied to balls that attempt to get a batsman out through sheer speed and aggression, rather than trying to make the ball move through the air or off the pitch. Against top class batsman, these techniques are usually only successful when employed by genuinely quick bowlers in the fast and fast-medium categories. Slower bowlers occasionally use them, especially against tail-end batsmen, but this can backfire resulting in easy runs for the batsman. However, aggressive bowling techniques can be combined with swing bowling and seam bowling techniques to create nigh-on unplayable balls in the hands of a bowler of any speed. The inswinging yorker is seen as particularly deadly.

Related Topics:
Swing bowling - Seam bowling - Yorker

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Bouncer

see main article bouncer

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A bouncer is a ball which is aimed to pitch in the first half of the crease, meaning it has had time to rise sharply to chest or head height by the time it reaches the batsman. This causes two problems for the batsman who receives the ball. If he attempts to play it, his bat will be at eye-level making it difficult for him to watch the ball onto the bat and time his shot correctly. If he leaves or misses the ball it may strike him a painful blow on the head or chest and occasionally result in injury. For this reason, bowling spells containing many bouncers are said to be intimidatory bowling.

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The usual response to a bouncer is for the batsman simply to duck underneath it, but this requires fast reflexes and a strong nerve and the batsman is sometimes hit in any case. The natural reflex is to attempt to defend one's head with a straight bat but this should be suppressed if possible as the likely result of this will be that the ball flies off the bat at an uncontrolled angle making for an easy catch. Most batsman have panicked and lost their wickets in this fashion several times in their career after prolonged spells of bouncers.

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Physically powerful batsmen often attempt to strike the ball on the rise, even though this obstructs their vision of the ball since it is not uncommon that their sheer brute force combined with the speed of the ball will cause it to fly to the boundary. This possibility, combined with the difficulty that the wicketkeeper will have trying to stop a high ball means that bouncers can be expensive in terms of runs against skilled batsmen.

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Slower Ball

see main article slower ball

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A slower ball is a ball which is delivered exactly like a usual pace delivery in terms of action and run-up but where the grip is changed slightly in order to slow the ball down. This deceives the batsman, who is likely attempt to play the ball as though it were at full speed, causing him to mistime his shot. The result is usually that the ball strikes the edge of the bat instead of the middle, causing the ball to pop up into the air for an easy catch.

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The different grip is illustrated to the right. Essentially the only difference is that the middle and index fingers are split and come down on each side of the seam. This causes more drag on the ball as it leaves the hand, slowing down the delivery.

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Yorker

see main article yorker

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A yorker is a ball which bounces off the pitch right in front of the batsman's feet, an area known as the block hole. Because of the usual stance of the batsman and the regulation length of the cricket bat the bat is not usually held near the ground while the batsman prepares to strike the ball, so playing a yorker requires the batsman to alter the height of his bat very quickly after detecting a yorker has been bowled. This is difficult, and the yorker can often squeeze through the gap and break the wicket.

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Bowling a yorker requires pinpoint accuracy since bowling it slightly too long will result in a full toss which is easy for the batsman to play because the ball has not deviated by bouncing off the pitch. It also has most of its value as a surprise ball. For these two reasons, yorkers are not common deliveries.

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