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.