The Art of Smart Cricket - Bowling

The Art of Smart Cricket – Bowling

Unlike batting, bowling is far more complex job. It requires far more control on the tool at hand, read: ball. As discussed earlier, cricket is played with 2 different types of balls; red ball for test format & white ball for limited overs format. A bowler needs to consider the type of ball he is handling & adjust his skills & controls accordingly. Bowlers are generally not as popular as the flashy batsmen are. Bowling is often a tiresome & thankless job to be frank. Especially, in a test match, when the bowler bowls long spells, and at times bowls for almost 50-60 overs (across both innings), bowlers too deserve equal amount of attention & appreciation.

Typically, a bowler has to do 2 important things; restrict runs & take wickets. The role usually depends on the approach of the opposition team or even the format of the game, unlike in batting. If the opposition team is looking to chase / set a bigger total in limited overs format, bowlers usually need to restrict runs, especially if the bowler is not confident enough to take wickets because of the nature of pitch (flat-pitch) or depending on the team think-tank. However, there are times when bowler focuses more on taking wickets, as that is supposedly the best way to put pressure on the opposition, more so when the opposition is chasing.

Similar to batting, in test matches, even the bowlers get to bowl in 2 separate innings. However, generally second innings becomes bit more difficult for pacers as the pitch gets slower as the days progress. On the other hand, spinners play significant role when bowling second time as against the first time. That is more prominent in Indian sub-continent.

Broadly, there are 4 roles in bowling department too:
• Openers:
o Typically the ones who are fast & / or who can swing the ball (especially in the test format)
o These are also strike bowlers who are capable of taking early wickets, thereby putting pressure on the opposition batting line-up straight-away
o Generally, these bowlers bowl in short spells, first spell while opening the bowling attack, another one near 60+ over mark when there is some amount of reverse swing available or when the pitch is still good for bowling fast (especially green-tops)
• First-change:
o Typically another 2 pacers (often medium pacer or someone who doesn’t need the ball to swing as much but can work on the bounce or variations; or one pacer & one spinner as is the case often these days)
o Their job is to sustain the pressure applied by the openers. However, if the batsmen have settled down already, they could keep runs restricted, thereby slowing down the game, especially in the limited overs format
• Spinners:
o Usually spinners come into play after 20-25 overs when the ball has started getting older. The older the ball, the better for spinners.
o Spinners are of 2 types; wrist (often leg spinners), finger (off spinners or left-armers)
o Spinners main job is to take wickets and they are helped by an army of close-in fielders who are ready to take up catches offered by the batsmen when they attempt a shot or defend the ball, but the ball changes its direction after connecting with the bat
• Part-timers:
o Typically, batsmen who can bowl a bit
o Often these players are given the ball, for some overs, if the specialist bowlers are not able to perform their roles to the expectations, but at times they are given chance to bowl to break partnerships. As they are not regular bowlers, batsmen often over-cautiously or over-confidently play against these bowlers & end up giving them wickets.
o These bowlers are also deployed to give some rest to the regular bowlers, especially on a hot-humid day if the regular bowlers have bowled a good or long spell, and / or if the regular bowlers are tired but unable to take wickets.
o The disadvantage is that because they are not regularly used, often their skills are not as sharp & therefore they end up leaking runs. A part-time bowler is quite a risky proposition in limited overs cricket, unless he bowls regularly (atleast 2-3 overs in most games). Giving them a chance in once a while could pose quite a risk.

Often teams choose 4-5 bowlers in the playing 11. At times, bowlers who can bat are given preference over specialist bowlers who may not be able to bat. It would depend on various factors, such as pitch, conditions, opposition, team position (in case of a tournament), etc. There are cases, where bowling all-rounders are preferred over batting all-rounders and vice versa. Let us look in details the various roles & types of bowlers.

Openers:
As mentioned earlier, the 2 bowlers who open the bowling attack are usually the fastest, or atleast someone who could swing ball. Their primary job is to take early wickets & put pressure on the opposition team straight-away. Swing bowling is quite an easier task to learn. However, having control on the swing, line & length, & adjusting the control between red & white ball is far from being easy. If you bowl fast, you have lesser control over the swing & vice versa. Especially, in test format, the bowler has to get both swing & line-length right to have any impact. Any slight mistake in that, especially against batsmen like Sehwag / Hayden / Gayle could pose serious issues to the bowling side. In limited overs format, any lapse in the control gives away easy & quick runs as once the ball goes past the in-field, it rarely stops.

In recent times, however, there have been instances of spinner(s) opening the bowling attack, atleast from one end; especially in limited overs. However, that is more related to the shock-treatment for the batting team rather than sticking to conventional wisdom. Hence, for this blog purpose, I would consider only pacers as openers. There are different types of bowlers who would fall under this categorization:
• Bowler who can swing the ball in both direction: a must-have type of bowler for any team as he can apply pressure to both, left-handed & right-handed bowlers by swinging the ball away or into the batsman
• Bowler who can swing in only one direction: not exactly a must-have type, but acceptable. For e.g., an in-swing to a right-handed batsman becomes out-swing for a left-handed batsman, so although the type of delivery is same, the line & length should change accordingly & there has to be minute changes to the grip as well, so that the ball can land in the right way & effect the intended result.
• Bowlers who are not able to swing the ball much, but they rely more on the bounce (either of the wicket or by landing the ball on seam position). These bowlers, are expected to be good at variations in line and / or length, thus posing doubts in minds of the batsmen, thereby forcing them to commit errors & get their wickets or atleast restrict the runs.

Generally, most of the pacers are players with good height, often above 6-foot. Very rarely, you would find pacers who are of less height. These bowlers also fall short on raw pace, but they make-up for that with better control on the swing & variations. Regardless, of their heights and type of bowling employed, these fast bowlers have to be the best athlete of all the team-members. Fast bowling is quite a tasking art & takes a toll on your body. Rarely, you would find a ‘fast’ bowler with a career span of more than 10-12 years. He has sprint for longer distances, run hard, jump & land on one leg first, bowl in a way that uses his back – shoulder – elbow – wrist generate the right amount of pace (as much as can be generated). Bowling a longer spell (more than 5 typically) takes adverse toll on the body of the fast bowler. Hence, he needs to have an athletic / lean body to cope up.

First change:
A first-change is someone who can continue putting up the pressure already built by the opening bowlers. A fast bowler rarely bowls more than 5-6 overs at a stretch, regardless of any format. Often the pitch is not favorable for spin bowling straight-away after the initial spell of both openers. Most teams have atleast one medium-pacer as first-change bowler. Often, such a bowler is either a bowling all-rounder or someone who is good at bat as well. Teams from outside of Indian sub-continent are not overtly reliant on spin bowling (things are changing now). They employ medium pacers as first-change, often from both ends. Asian teams, rely heavily on spinners to share the major workload, thus most Asian teams employ spinners as first-change, atleast from one end. Usually, if the first-change is a spinner, he tends to bowl longer spells. Spinners in Indian team usually become the first-change & bowl longer spells of 10 or more overs on the trot, in a test match.

In limited overs, usually the first-change comes into play when the fielding restrictions are lifted off, thus with the field spread these bowlers play the role of restricting the run-flow and taking some wickets. It is a crucial period as the batsmen often try to settle down or are already settled down & because the field is spread, although the big shots are less frequent, but singles-doubles are taken at a higher frequency which slowly but steadily increases the opposition total & puts pressure on the fielding team. So the bowler has to be accurate (usually a stump-to-stump line) with his line & length as well as bowling to the field set for him (or placing the field according to the plan). Since the batsmen usually take lesser risk by hitting lesser aerial shots, the primary task for first-change bowlers is to restrict the runs. This is especially true when opposition is chasing small totals. Being restricted the batsmen tend to break the shackles by committing errors and thereby either putting more pressure on themselves or gifting away wickets.

Spinners:
For long, spinners have been specialty of teams from Indian sub-continent. That doesn’t mean other teams did not have spinners. But they were never the bread-earners of the team. Indian team, especially, heavily relied on spinners through the history and rightly so, because the conditions in the country meant that it produced more spinners than quicker bowlers. I mean the pitches, the soil. Indian pitches have never been favorable for fast bowlers. By nature, the spinners often are able to bowl longer spells, thus requiring lesser rotation of bowlers & ability to have lesser number of bowlers as against the number of batsmen in the team. Spin bowling is a complex art, not only to learn but to bat against as well. Hence, traditionally batsmen have found it difficult to bat against spinners. The ball often turns off the pitch and also off the bat making it difficult to control the shots & this creates higher chance of giving away the wickets. This is especially true in test matches where the ball starts becoming softer & along with the deteriorating nature of the pitch (as the days progress) it becomes relatively easier for the spinner to grip the ball better & thus weave better web around the batsman. The white ball is relatively tougher to grip as the ball is not too old (only 50-overs per side) & pitch hasn’t deteriorated as bad. Add to it the relatively more bounce in the pitch (favorable for batting) it becomes quite difficult to control the spin as much as in test matches. The field is usually spread when spinners come into play in limited overs, therefore, the batsman need not take risk of big shots, but place the ball around for quick singles-doubles.

There are 2 types of spinners: wrist & finger. The wrist spinner uses the wrist to give the ball more rotations & therefore the ball spins more. However, the wrist spinner also has to be accurate especially with his line & length to get the desired spin & effect. If not, the batsman could find it easier to maneuver the ball & score runs. Usually, the wrist spinners are leg-spinners & more effective against right-handed batsman as the batsman has 2 choices, either to hit along with the spin which means he has to go on back-foot to get the desired effect or to hit against the spin which means higher chances of ball going in the air & therefore getting out. Considering these options, the spinner (along with his captain) has to set the field and bowl accordingly. It is rare to see batsman hit aerial shots along with the spin, so the field has to be alert for restricting the runs, especially if the bowler spins the ball more, having a slip & close-in fielder(s) would be helpful to get the edge. If the spinner is bowling on a leg-stump, there are less or no chances of getting the batsman out LBW, & therefore it is better to give the ball some flight, to let the ball rotate more, spin more & induce a top-edge while the batsman attempts to hit against the spin. The field placement has to be such that the fielders are able to catch, especially ranging between square-leg & mid-wicket positions, either mid-way or near boundaries depending on the batsman.

The finger spinners, usually off-spinners and left-armers, have a more difficult job on hand. The finger doesn’t give the ball as much rotation as the wrist. Thus, the finger spinners have to be more accurate, rarely drifting away from the stump-to-stump line & giving less or no room for the batsman to adjust his shots. An off-spinner is generally effective against the left-handed batsman as the ball spins away from the batsman, and therefore he either has to drive the ball (inducing an edge to slip fielders or playing aerial shot in hands of cover fielders) or playing the cut shot, playing it towards the gully or point fielders. The left-armers are more effective against the right-handed batsmen with similar logic. As the finger spinners usually do not spin the ball as much as the wrist spinner, the need of having a good line & length is even more prominent, else they could be treated as slower bowlers & hit for big shots easily.

When the ball rotates more in the air after being let through the spinner’s hands, it has higher tendency to change its direction. So the spinner has to land the ball at such a spot from where it will move to the intended direction (preferably the stumps) or hits the bat in such a way that it goes in the air for the fielders to catch. For this you need more close-in fielders in positions. Often a new batsman is greeted with more close-in fielders, especially the non-specialist batsmen. Historically, Indian batsmen have been good at playing against any type of spinners as the Indian conditions & abundance of spinners in India has always helped them decipher the spin. However, the trend is fast changing & the other teams have also been sporting one or more spinners in the team & they are getting good at the art.

Part-timers:
The main job of a part-timer in test match is to give some rest to the regular bowlers. These are usually batsman who can bowl decently. Not being a specialist bowler, often they are used for shorter spell of 2-3 overs. There are many situations where the part-timers are used:
• To rest the regular bowlers before rotating them again. For example, in a test match a fast bowler has bowled his spell of 5 overs, then the spinner has bowled his spell of say 10 overs. A part-timer can be deployed for a few overs, so that the fast bowler can get more rest & come back for his next spell.
• When the new ball is due in test match, and fielding captain thinks of getting some surprise wicket(s) because seeing the part-timer the batsmen might attempt to play some strokes, resulting in errors.
• When the regular bowler is supposed to change the ends. For example, a bowler is bowling from one end but is not getting his line & length right or not being able to get wicket, the fielding captain may change his end and use a part-timer for one over (or more). This happens often in limited overs format, especially in case of fast bowlers.
• To break the partnership. Often regular bowlers are not able get wickets & the batting partnership keeps going strong. Because the part-timers are not regular bowlers, batsmen are often not confident enough to play against them & the fielding captain may deploy part-timer(s).
• To fill in for the need of 5th bowler, especially in limited overs format. Generally, a team has combination of 5 bowlers & 6 batsmen (including the wicket-keeper). However, there are times when the team decides to go with 4 bowlers & 7 batsmen, often with the help of 2 or more part-time bowlers who are good batsmen, but can bowl a few overs together filling up for 5th bowler. (In 50-50 or T20, only 4 bowlers can bowl full quota, therefore needing a 5th bowler.

As you can see, a bowler, especially specialist bowler, has to have appropriate skills, upgrade them sooner & add more variations. He also needs to be able to surprise the batsman with odd-delivery, with un-expected delivery. There are regular skills of the bowler which he uses often during the game. However, every bowler needs to have a few surprises up his sleeve. For example, a pace bowler could use short-pitch delivery or Yorker once a while to surprise the batsman while bowling regular deliveries. The bowler needs to understand the pitch, observe it closely, to know about the spots where if he lands the ball, it could behave in-line with the surprise delivery requirement. For example, a spinner needs to make use of the rough patches near the batting area, so use to his advantage.