How to Coach Luck Into Your Bowlers
Every team has the unlucky bowler who beats the edge to ohhs and ahhs from the slips yet picks up the rare wicket. The ball just swings too much to find the edge.
Can you turn that bowler from “unlucky fred” into “fantastic fred”?
Outswing bowlers bowl from fairly close to the stumps meaning that the ball starts on the line of middle and off and swings past 4th or 5th stump to the right hander this looks nice but does nothing for the wicket tally.
So get the bowler to start his run slightly wider and bowl from wider on the crease as the ball is angled into the stumps before tailing away at the last minute.
- A ball that darts away is more likely to take the edge and bring keeper and slips into play.
- The ball that doesn’t swing as much thunders into the stumps or pads of the baffled batter.
At Trent Bridge in 2011, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson demonstrated the benefit of this.
Both bowlers beat the bat a number of times early in the innings and then shifted to a more mid-crease positionThe ball swung as much as it would from being delivered from the normal position on the crease, yet it gives the appearance of angling into the stumps, drawing the batsman into the shot and then darting away at the last moment; inducing the edge!
It’s important to remember that this is a positional rather than technical change though.
Maintain the normal alignments in the bowlers approach and delivery stride. Just re-position their starting marker and therefore their eventual position on the crease. This way the power generated and repeatability of the action is unchanged and uncompromised.
The same ball dynamic gains wicket-taking results.
“Cricket is about geometry and angles young Garaway."
The ball coming into the stumps at pace is more threatening than the ball moving away at pace.
He always went on about it and that’s why the 2005 Ashes winning bowling unit were so good.
Former England swing bowler Hoggard had the best strike rate in the world cricket to lefties like Langer and Hayden. Meanwhile Flintoff and Jones reversed the ball in and out to the right handers bring the stumps into play; the mighty Aussies had no answers.
If "Unlucky Fred" is tactically deployed to bowls balls swinging into left-handers when they first come in then he increases his chances of success.
His strike rate decrease, his wicket tally goes up and the team results improve: now that’s “Coaching to Win!”
- Login to post comments
Comments
Another great post.
I was taught to bowl close to the stumps, but as you say, with outswing it's only going one way and that's away from the stumps.
Yeah, you always want your natural angle to contrast with the direction you're getting the ball to move. The combination is almost like you're getting the ball to move in both directions. Hence the reason I prefer offspinners to bowl round the wicket, for example.
I also agree that good inswing can be more destructive than good awayswing bowling on its day. If an away swing bowler spends 10 overs beating the bat outside off, he's certainly not going to go for many runs, and maybe get a couple of nicks and return 2-15 or something similar. But if an inswing bowler produces a great spell he can just rattle the stumps over and over. The thing is, he is also more likely to get a bit of tap if he doesn't get it perfect.
I, personally believe that all outswing bowlers should ALWAYS bowl close to the stumps but in a case where it's swinging away from the right hander "too much" then go a bit wider like the article says. But when the pitch is flat & the ball isn't doing much then you come close, hit the deck hard and that natural angle (in-close with the stumps to say, 6th stump) will creat that outswing effect.
I think, technically, the greatest success is liable to occur when the range of movement you are getting is centred around off-stump. So if you're only getting a few inches of swing you maybe want to bowl from close to the stumps on a middle-and-off line and let the ball swing away just swing past off looking for a little nick, whereas if you're getting it to boomerang around, go wider and angle the ball in towards leg stump, and then watch it swing away anywhere up to a foot outside off.
Another reason why you may not want to bowl from so wide of the crease if you're not getting it to swing much is because you may want to set a slightly more defensive field, and its easier to do that by only bowling at one side of the wicket - going wider and angling the ball in would open up the legside for the batsman and make it much harder to contain him.
Great discussion everyone, some excellent points.
Its important to remember that the article is about giving your unlucky bowler who beats the outside edge consistently an option that provides him with an opportunity to gain better results without changing action and through a simple adjustment.
Coaching is about offering proven options to players in order to facilitate performance increase and the points raised above in relation to changing position of your marker and then your position on the crease are based not only on best practice (Anderson and Broad @ Trent bridge) but also on Hawkeye data based on release position and swing tracking vs results attained.
Therefore, based on actuals and fact.
Fron an andecdotal perspective, if you constantly beat the edge from close into the stumps and do not pick up the wickets that you deserve then continue to only bowl from close to the stumps it goes without saying that you should expect to get what you always got! (looks pretty but gets no wickets).
Therefore, this is an option that can be used to turn Unlucky Fred into Fantastic Fred, by delivering viable and credible options to our bowler.
The strategy applies when the ball is swinging significantly not when it is not moving very much at all. So No swing = a different strategy altogether.
Also, remember that a ball swinging into a new batter at pace is more effective in wicket terms than a ball swinging away at pace so use your swinging bowler cleverly when you know that the opposition batting line up has Left handers in it.
Great discussion, keep it coming.
MG
Good to see you are busy. Was browsing around for Dean and found this site. Dean and I are looking at making him stronger and fitter. Any ideas???????
Regards
Deon
I have lots of ideas on that Deon. Drop me an email and we can discuss for Dean. Nice to see that you have had a look on the site. I hope that you are all ok in NZ and drop me a line.
Kind regards
Mark
i bowl to the very left of the crease all the time n im after moving closer to stumps any tips on how to chane to be closer????????
cheers in advance adam