A bowler in the
sport of
cricket is
usually a player whose speciality is
bowling, analogous to a
pitcher in
baseball. A bowler who is also a competent
batsman is
known as an
all-rounder.
There are several types of bowlers and most teams will have a variety
available in the team to take advantage of
pitch
or weather conditions or known weaknesses of the opposition.
A
fast
bowler is usually the mainstay of a team's attack. They will take a long
run up before bowling each ball to build momentum and rhythm and can deliver the
cricket
ball at speeds up to 160 km/h (100 mph).
A
medium pace bowler bowls somewhat more slowly and will often have some
other weapon in their bowling arsenal rather than relying on speed. This might
take the form of being able to
swing
the ball in the air or disguise the speed or length of his or her delivery to
fool the batsman. Some medium pacers are simply accurate; they can repeatedly
deliver the ball to a place which forces the batsman to defend rather than
scoring runs.
A
spin
bowler usually bowls quite slowly and puts tremendous spin on the ball
causing it to bounce at an angle off the pitch, forcing the batsman to treat
each ball carefully. Generally spin bowlers give up the most runs but they all
have "tricks" that they use to fool the batsman and get him or her out (such as
the arm ball,
googly,
flipper,
topspinner
or doosra).
Spin bowling is very much about deceit rather than speed.
