The Starter's Guide To Cricket - Bowling

The Starter's Guide To Cricket - Bowling

Fast bowlers usually have a run-up to help them generate more speed

©Cricket World

There are two main types of bowling – fast and slow. Fast bowlers can also swing the ball (move the ball in the air) and rely on seam movement while slow bowlers usually try to outwit the batsman through flight and spin off the wicket.

Spinners typically spin the ball using their fingers (off-spin) or their wrist (leg-spin) with off-spin hitting the pitch and spinning from left to right as a bowler looks at it and leg-spin deviating the other way.

A googly is a delivery bowled by a leg-spinner that spins the opposite way - left to right - while a doosra is a delivery that spins the opposite way to that expected from an off-spinner.

Fast bowlers usually specialise in bowling inswing or outswing. Inswingers bowl the ball with an action that allows the ball to move back into the batsman in the air while outswingers can make the ball move away from the batsmen.

Bowlers are expected to take wickets and create catching opportunities for their side. They can dismiss a batsman without intervention from the fielders by bowling the batsman, which is hitting the stumps, or trapping him leg before wicket, which is where the batsman is hit on the pad in line with the stumps.