In the sport
of cricket,
bowling is the action of propelling the
ball
towards the
batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a
bowler.
A single act of bowling the ball towards the batsman is called a
ball or a
delivery. Bowlers bowl deliveries in sets of six, called an
over. Once a bowler has bowled their over, one of their team mates will
bowl an over from the other end of the pitch.
There are rules in the
Laws of Cricket governing how a ball must be bowled. If a ball is bowled
illegally, an
umpire will rule it a
no ball.
If a ball is bowled too wide or high for the batsman to be able to hit it, an
umpire will rule it a
wide.
History
In the early days of
cricketing history,
underarm bowling was the only method employed. Initially, all bowling was
performed with an underarm action. Later, an English woman, who used to play
cricket alongside the gentlemen and who was attired in the dress of the day for
a lady – a long, widely
blousing dress – was having difficulty in bowling with an underarm action
due to the blousing dress, and to counter this she began to bowl with an overarm
delivery method.
Soon after, a man who saw this action began to employ it in
club
cricket matches, however, the overarm method was quickly banned and
determined to be illegal. It was not until
1864 that the
method was finally accepted by cricketing authorities and grew rapidly in
popularity amongst all players. By the
20th
century, underarm bowling had disappeared from the game.
An infamous "underarm bowling" incident occurred during a
One-day International match between the
Australia and
New Zealand teams in
1981, in which the
bowler (Trevor
Chappell) took advantage of the fact that underarm bowling was still legal
by rolling the ball along the ground. By doing so he avoided the (unlikely)
possibility that the No. 10 New Zealand batsman (Brian
McKechnie) would score a
six from the last ball to tie the match.
As a result of this incident underarm bowling was subsequently made illegal
in all grades of cricket, except by prior agreement of both teams, as it was not
considered to be within the spirit of the game.
The bowling action
Bowling the ball is distinguished from simply
throwing
the ball by a strictly specified
biomechanical definition.
Originally, this definition said that the elbow joint must not straighten
out, or
extend, during the bowling action. Bowlers generally hold their elbows fully
extended and rotate the arm vertically about the shoulder joint to impart
velocity to the ball, releasing it near the top of the arc.
Flexing at
the elbow was allowed, but any extension of the elbow was deemed to be a throw
and would be liable to be called a no ball. This was thought to be possible only
if the bowler's elbow was originally held in a slightly flexed position.
In 2005, this
definition was deemed to be physically impossible by an
International Cricket Council scientific investigative commission.
Biomechanical studies that showed that all bowlers extend their elbows
somewhat throughout the bowling action, because the stress of swinging the arm
around hyperextends the elbow joint. A guideline was introduced to allow
extensions or hyperextensions of angles up to 15 degrees before deeming the ball
illegally thrown.
These definitions rule out the normal throwing action that most people
naturally use when throwing a ball, as the elbow clearly straightens from an
almost fully bent position during such a throw.
Goals of bowling
In terms of strategic importance in a game, the priorities of a bowler are,
in order of importance:
- Get batsmen out.
- Prevent batsmen from scoring runs.
Getting batsmen out is the primary goal because once out a batsman can no
longer bat in the same
innings, so
the potential for scoring more runs is gone. Actually preventing the
scoring of a run at any point is relatively unimportant, and bowlers will often
deliberately bowl so as to make it easier for batsmen to score runs, in order to
build overconfidence, tempt them into a miscalculated shot, and thus get them
out.
This contrasts with
baseball,
in which the primary goal of pitching is to prevent the other team from scoring
runs. This is reflected in the difference in terminology of attack and defence
between the sports. In baseball, pitching is considered the defensive role,
whereas in cricket bowling is primarily an offensive role and is referred to as
the attack or charge.
Bowling tactics
To achieve the goals of bowling, a variety of tactics have been developed.
Naively, bowling directly at the batsman's
wicket seems a
good idea, as this provides chances to get the batsman out bowled or
leg before wicket. However, most batsman are capable of defending against
such deliveries, especially if they expect them. A more promising
line of attack is to bowl away from the wicket, and entice the
batsman to play a shot at the ball in the hope of scoring runs. A mistimed
stroke or deviation of the ball in flight can result in the ball being hit in an
unintended direction, either on to the wicket or - more likely - to a fielder
for a catch.
Some different types of bowling tactic:
- Bodyline
- Leg
theory
- Off
theory
Bowling Restrictions
In
one day cricket, there is a limitation on the number of overs each bowler
can bowl. This number depends on the match length, and is usually 20% (a fifth)
of the total overs in the
innings. For
example, the usual limit for twenty-over cricket is four overs per bowler, for
forty-over cricket eight per bowler and for fifty-over cricket ten per bowler.
There is, however, no limit on how many overs each bowler may bowl in
first class cricket matches.
