Out Swing

Grips for various deliveries To bowl well you need to learn how to grip the ball correctly. The various grips which shall be discussed in this section will neither guarantee success nor what was intended to be bowled. Because bowling skills largely depend on many components such as run-up, body position, front arm, wrist action ,etc., ...

Open Action

The Open Action Last week we saw how to get into the classical side-on action for bowling. But if you have noticed over the years, most of the Caribbean fast bowlers have had an 'open' action. Players from the West Indies have always had a cavalier style of ...

Off Spinner

The off-break is the ball that turns from the off-side to the leg side for the right handed batsman. There is no difference in the grip for an off-spinner and a left-arm spinner, except that they use different arms to bowl. The left arm spinner is a mirror image of the off- spinner, but we ...

Marking the Run Up

Getting the length of the run up right is important to get a proper bowling rhythm. Each bowler has judge for himself, how long his run up will be, according to what he intends to bowl (fast or spin) and according to what suits his bowling action. One of the best way of marking the length ...

Leg spin grip

A leg-spinner, when called upon to bowl, makes the spectator sit on the edge of his seat with the expectation that something exciting is going to happen. They inspire millions of youngsters to bowl like them. A few years back, I was one of the selectors to shortlist trainees for the under-14 year age group ...

Left arm-spinner

Most teams prefer to have a left arm spinner in the side because the ball that drifts in and spin away from the right handed batsman is regarded as the most difficult ball to negotiate. Wilfred Rodes (1877-1973) of England was a master at the art of curving the ball in and controlling its flight, variation ...

In-swing

In-swing is the delivery which moves towards the right-handed batsman, in the air, from the off-side. The ball may start swinging early - as in the case of 'banana' swing - as soon as it is released. Or it may swing late - moving in a more or less straight line and then swinging in ...

Follow through-Pacer

The Follow Through The 'follow through' of the bowling action is the reaction of the arms and the body after the release of the ball. The follow through of the bowling arm and the back foot should be long, fast, straight and in the direction of the target. The ...