About the Bowlers in Cricket

All 11 players in a cricket team may bowl, and although many may want to, only four or five actually gain selection primarily on their bowling skills. The rest of the team comprises four or five specialist batsmen, the wicketkeeper and one or two all-rounders who can bowl, bat and field well. Fast bowlers use outright speed, medium pacers use swing and movement off the pitch, and slow bowlers spin the ball off the pitch, all of them trying to get the opposing batsmen out.

  1. Common Goals

    • All bowlers have the same objectives and rules regardless of their style. They must keep the elbow locked and straight at the moment of release, otherwise it is a throw and an illegal delivery; they must not overstep the crease; and they must not bowl too wide of the batsman's stumps. Their objectives are to hit the three 28-inch high poles (stumps) the batsman is defending, to force the batsman to hit the ball into the air resulting in a catch, or to keep the batsman from scoring by means of a safe hit away from a fielder.

      Each bowler sends down six legal deliveries in an "over," and the game continues with another bowler from the other end of the pitch bowling to the other of the pair of batsmen.

    Fast Bowlers

    • Fast bowlers run in from 20 to 30 yards before leaping into their delivery stride and hurling the ball 60 feet down the pitch to the batsman. The ball is hard -- leather covering cork and latex -- and at 5 1/2 oz., it is 1/2 an oz. heavier than a baseball. Fast bowlers' deliveries reach speeds above 90 mph (the fastest measured at just over 100 mph) and rely on speed and movement off the pitch to be effective. They usually start the team's innings when the ball is new and shiny and will swing more in the air, and they bowl a spell of five or six overs from one end before taking a rest in the outfield.

    Medium Pace

    • The medium pace bowler can usually make the ball swing in the air away or toward the batsman before it bounces. His accuracy, greater than his faster colleague, comes into play when the team needs to keep the opposition's scoring rate down. He can control the ball's swing with his grip and has one side of the ball shinier than the other. By twisting his wrist at the point of delivery he can make the ball move off the pitch in either direction. A medium pacer runs in from about 15 yards and usually bowls at about 70 mph.

    Slow Bowling

    • Slow bowling is invariably spin bowling; the bowler imparts spin on the ball as it leaves her hand so it will dramatically change direction on landing in front of the batsman. Such bowling provokes false shots or complete misses as the ball turns toward the batsman, or away. Spin bowlers are either wrist or finger spinners. Both bowl from short run-ups and consequently can bowl for a long series of overs at a time.

      The finger spinner turns the ball by moving her fingers as if she were opening a door. If the bowler is left-handed the ball will move from her right to left and vice versa if the bowler is right-handed. The finger spinner also relies on flight and small movements of the ball in the air to deceive the batsman.

      Wrist spinning is the hardest bowling art to master, but the expert can make the ball move away or into the batsman on landing, with no apparent change of action. She can impart top-spin or make the ball keep low with variations on a "flip-of-the-wrist."