Bowling (cricket)

Andrew Flintoff bowling

Bowling is a key activity in the sport of cricket. The bowler is a member of the fielding team whose task is to "bowl" or "deliver" the ball to the batter. The bowler aims to dismiss the batter or, at least, to prevent them from scoring and runs.

The bowler must deliver the ball with a straight arm (see photo). A ball bowled with the elbow bent is a throw, and that is illegal. If the bowler bowls while not in the right part of the non-striker's ground, or bowls the ball out of the reach of the striking batter, that is also illegal. Illegal bowling gives the batting team 1 point, mostly can't get players out, and does not count toward the limit on the number of deliveries in the game.

A bowler who can also bat well, is called an all-rounder. There are different types of bowler, and a cricket team will usually have a mix of different types.

Fast bowling

A fast bowler uses simple speed to defeat a batsman. They can send the ball to the batsman at a speed of 145 km/h. They take a long run up before bowling each ball to build speed. Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan was the first to bowl at a speed of 160 km/h.

Medium pace bowling

A cricket ball showing the stitched seam

A medium pace bowler bowls more slowly. They often use other tricks to defeat the batter. They can get the ball able to curve in the air or change the speed or length (where the ball hits the ground) to fool the batter. Some are very accurate so they can repeatedly send the ball to a place which forces the batter to defend rather than scoring runs. Others grip the ball so that it lands on its seam; this makes the path of the ball unpredictable.

Spin bowling

A spin bowler usually bowls quite slowly and puts a lot of spin on the ball which makes it bounce at an angle off the ground. This makes the batter play each ball carefully. Generally spin bowlers give up the most runs but they all have "tricks" that they use to fool the batter and get him or her out. These tricks are given names such as the arm ball, googly, flipper, topspinner or doosra. Spin bowling is very much about fooling the batter rather than speed.

Off spin is when the ball spins towards a right-handed batter's bat (bowler's left to right). With more pace, there usually is less turn (amount of spin). Off-spin is also called an off-break or finger spin.

Leg spin, also called a leg break, is done by using the wrist to spin the ball from the bowler's right to left. This is varied with the top spin, when the ball comes on straight and low.