Bowling Action
You must have seen that different bowlers bowl with different actions and get the ball to do things like swing, pace in the air and nip off the wicket differently. When you analyse all actions – at the test level or at the local club level – bowlers can be broadly divided into three categories:
To begin with, this week, let’s discuss the side-on action :
How do you get into a side-on action ?
1. In the side-on action, the bowler jumps or hops in the penultimate stride to get his whole body side-on in relation to the direction of the batsman. The hop or jump after the run-up, gives the body the time and the opportunity to turn the body at a right angle to the bowling crease.
2. At the end of the hop the bowler’s back foot lands parallel to the bowling crease. At this point the body is at a right angle to the direction in which the ball is targeted.
3. The front arm goes up and high.
4. The bowler watches the batsman over his front arm.
5. The front shoulder, hip and front foot point towards fine leg.
6. The front arm and front leg of the right arm bowler comes down in the direction of fine leg (for left arm bowler it should point to third slip) and the front elbow is rapidly pulled into the side of the body.
7. The bowler bowls across his front foot and bowling arm follows through across the body.
8. The bowler pivots across his front foot and in the process gets out of the danger area in his follow through.
| Remember : In this action it is very important to have the shoulder, hips and feet in the same plane. By pivoting on the front foot, more body weight is put behind the ball and it also helps drag the right side of the body to the left. |