It is a mistake to hit at the pitch of slow, round, or under-hand
bowling. The twist is sure to beat you, and if you do not miss the
ball altogether, you will most likely get caught at cover-point. In my
younger days I always ran out to under-hand bowling and hit it before
it bounded, or waited and got it long hop. When a first-class bowler
tries to bowl a slow ball with an extra amount of break, look out for a
bad ball, and when it comes, as it will sooner or later, punish it, and
you will upset him a bit, and very likely prevent him from bowling good
balls afterwards.
I think I have touched upon nearly everything that might help a young
player to a long score, and with just a word about playing against odds
I have done. Whether against eighteen or twenty-two in the field, play
the same game that you would against an eleven. I have very often found
that the fieldsmen in the outfield are placed too deep, and a second
run can be stolen after the ball passes the men close in. Do not hit to
leg, but rather place or snick the ball; you will get just as many runs
without the risk of being caught. It was when playing against odds that
fine placing to leg was first cultivated, and now it has to a great
extent superseded leg hitting.
I need not say how delighted I am to watch the progress of every
young and rising cricketer. My heart is in the game I love above all
others, with a love that is as strong to-day as it was when I made my
first large score, and when eye, hand, and foot were much quicker than
they are now. I do not believe that there are no days like the good old
days of cricket, but I do strongly believe that the prospects of the
game are as bright and hopeful to-day as they have been at any time in
its history, and that in future years as great if not greater things
will be done with both bat and ball. I ask every young cricketer to
study the points I have submitted, and it will be sufficient reward to
me if they in some way help him to make a big score.
CHAPTER X.
THE AUSTRALIANS.
(BY A. G. STEEL.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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