Changing The Pace Of Bowling

Every bowler faces a situation at least once in his career where the conditions are meant for the batsman, pitch does not offer any seam movement and the ball does not swing. Then it comes on the bowlers attitude on how he deals with those situations.

I personally found slower balls very effective in these situations where the batsman are ready to hit any thing on offer. Its always a very handy weapon for a bowler to have. The more seasoned the bowler becomes the action change while bowling a slower ball reduces.

I found there were basically four ways to bowl a slower ball.

First, the normal off cutter kind of delivery where the hand movement at d point if delivery looks like that of an off spinner.

Second, the hand movement at the point of delivery is like that of a leg spinner. this is very difficult to master and once mastered, its the most difficult to detect.

Third, in this the first two fingers that are used to hold the ball are spread in the form of making a 'V' and then normal action is carried out, due to the shape of the grip the ball goes slow.

Finally, the last way of bowling a slower ball that i managed to explore is the most difficult to expain in writing. In this the the ball is held with an upright grip and bowling is done with a normal action, but only difference is in using the fingers to push the ball towards the batsman. instead the fingers are pulled down towards the ground to set the ball in a circulatory motion. This also gives extra bounce to the ball but the speed variation is not much in this.

And as every good thing in life, these things require a lot of practice.

Note: The information that I have given here is based on my experience. Please feel free to correct any point if i have written it wrong. All the comments on this topic are heartily welcomed.

Swinging a Semi New Ball

Swinging a semi new ball much easier than swinging the new ball or old ball. This does not require too much of an effort as it is with the new or old ball. All it needs is the ability to bowl a delivery with an upright seam(which is very essential for swing bowling).

All you have to do is to shine one side ofthe ball as much as possible and let the other side get rough.

Then keep the shinning side of the ball opposite to the direction you want to swing the ball i.e. if you want to swing the ball away from a right handed batsman, you need to keep the shining side of the ball towards the umpire if you are bowling from over the stumps and you are a right handed bowler.

Try holding the ball soft and try bowling fuller so that you give enough time fr the ball to swing.

Note: The information that I have given here is based on my experience. Please feel free to correct any point if i have written it wrong. All the comments on this topic are heartily welcomed.

Swinging The New Ball

The basic idea on how to swing the new ball is very simple.

First hold the ball with its seam upright.

Then depending on the direction you want to swing the ball you have to adjust the seam position in your hand.

Suppose you want to swing the ball away from the batsman, keep the seam towards the slip and vice versa.

The direction of the seam away or towards the batsman depends on how much you want to swing the ball.


But the amount the new ball swings depends on various other aspects also like humidity in the air, direction of the wind etc. Swinging the new ball is easy but it takes a lot of practice to perfect it and to control the swing of the ball in both directions.

Nothing beats hard work..... Happy swinging.

Note: The information that I have given here is based on my experience. Please feel free to correct any point if i have written it wrong.All the comments on this topic are heartily welcomed.

Six Sixes in One Over

There has been two instances in which Six Sixes have been hit on all the six balls of an over.


The first miracle happened in a well expected match between South Africa and Nether Lands when probably most talented South African Cricketer of all times 'Hershelle Gibbs' it six sixes in a row in an over.








The second time this happened was in a Twenty-20 World Cup match between India and England when one of the most stylist batsmen in d current world cricket Yuvraj Singh , after being provoked by the English Captian Andrew Flintoff hit six sixes in a row.