Bowling (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, the act of bowling is delivery of the ball by the bowler from his/her end of the pitch to the other, where the wicket is defended by the striker, armed with a bat. In a dictionary definition, "to bowl" is to "propel the ball towards the wicket for the batsman to attempt to hit".^[1] Delivery must be done fairly in accordance with The Laws of Cricket, in which Law21 is largely concerned with how the ball is bowled.^[2] There are three basic types of bowling: fast, medium pace and spin. Each of these have their own subdivisions, partly dependent on which arm the bowler uses, and to some extent on whether the batsman is right-handed or left-handed.

Andrew Flintoff bowling

The bowler aims to dismiss the batter or, at least, to prevent them from scoring and runs. Any member of the fielding team may be called upon to bowl, although it is rare for the wicket-keeper to do so. Players who are selected for their batting skills are unlikely to bowl. In practice, a team will include perhaps four or five skilled bowlers. Some bowlers are also good batters, and are called all-rounders. For example, Andrew Flintoff (pictured) was a world-class all-rounder in the 2000s.

Bowlers take it in turns to bowl overs. An over is a period of play in which six successive deliveries are bowled by one bowler from the same end of the pitch. The name comes from the umpire's call of Over! after the sixth delivery has been completed. The next over is bowled by a different bowler from the other end of the pitch. Having completed an over, the bowler becomes a fielder again for the next one. No bowler can bowl two successive overs. The same bowler is likely to bowl a "spell" of alternate overs, often in partnership with another bowler who completes a spell at the other end of the pitch. There have been many famous bowling partnerships in cricket, such as Brian Statham and Fred Trueman when they played for England in the 1950s and 1960s.

The bowler must deliver the ball with a straight arm (see photo). A ball bowled with the elbow bent is a throw, an illegal delivery that the umpire will rule a no ball. If the bowler's front foot is not on or behind the popping crease when they release the ball, that is also a no ball. If the bowler bowls the ball out of the striking batter's reach, that is ruled a wide. No balls and wides are credited as extras to the batting team's total, and the delivery must be bowled again.

The ball

A cricket ball showing the stitched seam

The cricket ball is a hard, solid sphere, traditionally red. It has a core made of cork wound with twine, which is enclosed by a leather case with a slightly raised sewn seam. As such, it is rock-hard and a very dangerous projectile. In men's cricket, the ball's weight must be in the range from 5.5 to 5.75 ounces (156 to 163 grams), and its circumference from 8.81 to 9 inches (224 to 229 mm). In women's cricket, the ranges are 4.94 to 5.31 ounces (140 to 151 grams), and 8.25 to 8.88 inches (210 to 226 mm). Balls are dyed red for first-class and club cricket, white for limited overs.^[3]

Styles

The various styles of bowling are classified by Playfair Cricket Annual and other sources as follows:^[4]

• LB – right-arm leg break
• LBG – right-arm leg break and googly
• LF – left-arm fast
• LFM – left-arm fast medium
• LM – left-arm medium
• OB – right-arm off break
• RF – right-arm fast
• RFM – right-arm fast medium
• RM – right-arm medium
• SLA – slow left-arm orthodox
• SLC – slow left-arm chinaman (unorthodox)

These classifications are all dependent on which arm the bowler uses, their speed, and how they use the ball. Genuine fast bowlers, often called "pace bowlers", can deliver the ball at speeds greater than 90 mph. They usually take a long run up, before bowling each ball, to build speed. Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan was the first bowler to be officially recorded at a speed of 100 mph, although there were probably many others before him whose speeds could not be measured. Even a so-called slow bowler delivers at over 40 mph, while a medium-pacer is somewhere in the 60 to 70 mph range. Pace bowlers who are below 90 mph are usually called "fast medium", and they tend to rely on "swing", which is movement of the ball off its seam, rather than sheer speed.

Spin bowlers are sub-divided into finger spinners and wrist spinners. A right arm spinner who uses his fingers is called an off break bowler because, on pitching, the ball breaks from the off side of the pitch towards the leg side (if the batsman is right-handed). A right arm spinner with a wrist action is called a leg break bowler because the ball breaks from the leg side to the off side (again if a right-handed batsman). A "googly" is a ball bowled by a leg spinner which breaks from off to leg—it is hence known as a "wrong 'un" in Australia.

Left arm spinners are either orthodox (fingers) or unorthodox (wrist). The orthodox left-arm action cause the ball to break from right to left, which is leg to off if the batsman is right-handed. The unorthodox wrist action, which is widely known as a "chinaman", has a left to right break.

History of bowling

Bowling was originally done with an underarm action, and the ball was delivered all along the ground, as in bowls.^[5] In the early 1760s, bowlers began pitching the ball, but still used an underarm action with the hand below the level of the waist. While pitching was a revolutionary event in cricket's history, there is no record of it being a cause of controversy. That was not the case in the 19th century, when attempts to introduce the roundarm and overarm styles met with strong resistance.^[6]

Roundarm was legalised in 1835, with Law 10 amended to read: "if the hand be above the shoulder in the delivery, the umpire must call No Ball".^[7] Ahead of the 1864 season, Law 10 was amended again to legalise overarm—it was ruled that the bowler may bring the arm through at any height to complete the delivery, providing the arm is straight and the ball is not thrown. Basically, a "throw" is when the bowler's arm is bent during delivery, for which the umpire must call "No Ball".^[7]