For this reason the captain of every school eleven should insist on one
of his team devoting himself to lob bowling; a little practice will
enable any one to get a fairly accurate pitch, and twist from the leg
side any boy can manage. Lob bowling thus acquired at school will often
be useful in after days as a change, even in first-class cricket. There
are one or two simple rules connected with lob bowling which everyone
who attempts this style should master.
First.--Do not bowl too slow; if the ball is thrown high and slow in
the air, a good batsman, quick on his legs, will have time to reach and
hit it before it pitches. Old Clarke used to say, ‘It wants a certain
amount of pace to make a good-length ball with proper rise and twist.’
The ball should be sent at such speed as will oblige the batsman to
play forward to it.
Secondly.--A good long run should be taken, as this gets way and ‘fire’
on to the ball, and is always more likely than a short run to deceive
the batsman as to the pitch.
Thirdly.--Generally bowl round the wicket.
Most of the remarks that we have made on slow round-arm leg-break
bowling apply to slow lobs.
Having devoted a number of pages to the subject of slow bowling,
let us now turn to the consideration of what is almost equally
important--fast bowling; indeed, it may be said that the co-operation
of a good fast bowler is absolutely essential if a team wants to rank
amongst the best, particularly as, if there be one of each sort bowling
at either end, the change in pace is more likely to embarrass the
batsman than if he had to play two bowlers of the same pace. Between
1872 and 1887 there was a great dearth of good fast bowlers, at the
time much regretted and not easily accounted for. Now there is a great
improvement, and fast bowling gets much more attention paid to it than
formerly was the case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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