this wonderful discovery was received with some amount of doubt.
However, out he came to bowl, to prove his prowess with the celebrated
shooter; but it simply appeared that, instead of bowling with an
overhead delivery, which was his wont, he bent his body quite low, and
proceeded to bowl in a manner which was hardly removed from genuine
under-hand. It is unnecessary to say that there were no shooters. His
balls kept low after the pitch because his action was low.
There is one style of bowling sometimes seen in the present day that
has not been mentioned, viz. fast under-arm. This is of two kinds:
first, that which pitches a good length as with round-arm bowling;
secondly, ‘sneaks,’ or bowling that pitches near the bowler’s hand and
travels along the ground till the ball reaches the batsman. The latter
can never be of any avail against a good player on a decent wicket, as
every ball can be met by the forward stroke and rendered harmless. In
country matches it is amusing to see the batsmen holding their bats
in the air and trying to pounce down at the very last moment on these
balls. This mode of playing such bowling is essentially incorrect, and
would even be likely to cause the downfall of a good batsman; it is as
certain as anything can be at cricket that a good forward straight bat
cannot miss a ‘sneak.’ Mr. C. I. Thornton at one time attempted this
style of bowling, and was known to get a wicket or two. The good-length
fast under-arm, when bowled round the wicket with a good leg twist on,
might be made very dangerous. The old style of low round-arm, mentioned
a few pages back, was very similar to this style of bowling, and was
bowled with the same object as this has in view, viz. catches in the
slips and on the off side. We only know of one fast under-arm, leg
twist, good-length bowler, and he does not play in first-class cricket.
His name is Bunch, an old sergeant of the Black Watch, well known on
many military cricket-grounds all over England and India. Some years
ago he was decidedly a good bowler, his balls came very fast, pitched
good length on the leg-stump, and, having lots of leg stuff on, wanted
very careful play.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account