Cricket Tips

Bowling toward the end of an innings

The extraordinary one-dayer between Australia and South Africa not so long ago has definitely shown how far one-day cricket has come since being introduced since the 70s. Today, to be the best bowler in the world you need to know how to bowl an impeccable line and length, but also to know how to bowl to batsman who wants to belt you over the fence no matter what. This is where a lot of bowlers get into trouble these days... Always being taught to bowl short of a good length, outside off stump has caused bowlers to find it awkward to deliberately bowl elsewhere, and therefore they get punished when the batting side are looking for some quick runs at the end of an innings. You might be like... 'So what?'. But when you the other team scoring 70 odd runs off just 6-10 overs you'll be wishing you'd bowled a bit tighter.

So how do you stop batsmen from scoring so quickly? 

a) Pitch the ball up: Aim for the toes/base of middle and leg stump. The worst thing you probably do is tee the ball up off a nice bounce for the batsman to wack over the fence. Sure, you're no Glenn McGrath - but you'll at least get a couple landing perfectly at the toes (practice!), and if not they will be low full tosses which are pretty hard to get underneath.

b) Set the field: It's best that you set your field fairly spread out so that those potential boundaries can be cut down to ones and twos. Start off by having a deep mid-on and mid-off, deep cover, deep mid-wicket and deep fine leg. Soon you'll start to see where the batsman's favourite spots are. 

c) Change it up: Try to avoid consistently bowling at the same pace. Sure it's easy to say, but a lot of bowlers neglect how important a good slower ball is. You want to keep the batsman guessing... this is probably one of the easiest ways to do it. 

d) Take your catches: Pretty obvious. Catches win matches. A slogfest is usually perfect for practising your outfield catches in a real-match situation. Try to have your best fieldsmen (who can not only catch, but are also quick on their feet) in key positions in the outfield.

e) Sledge: A rather neglected ploy, but it gets batsmen cocky - enough to make them lose concentration.