Bowling to Lefthanders

[Jonesy]

Bowling to Lefthanders

I am a medium pace bowler and I can get huge amounts of swing at most times in game. I bowl outswingers to the right hander, and I get lots of wicket caught behind or in the slips because of that. I have a the straight ball, held across the seam and a slower bowl which I feel I need to work on a bit more in the nets to make it a permanent variation ball of mine. But the problem lies when bowling to left handers. I still bowl over the wicket (just take a step wider) to them because a) I can control my line from over the wicket to them and b) I create the angle across them and then swing into them, wheras if I angle it into them, I swing it still into them so it hardly has an affect on them. I find the angle across and the swing back into them together with my line and length really ties them down, but I never get any wickets out of it.


Should I try to develop an inswinger (outswing to the left hander) and start bowling around the wicket so it angles in and swings away from them? Or continue what I am doing now and just make them unable to score many runs?

I can bowl an inswinger with an outswing action, but it does much the same thing as a straight ball, and I find it is harder to control, but I could give a full blooded inswinger a try, with my arm closer to my head. Thoughts?

 

[jimmy33]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

Inswing is always a powerful weopen, but angling it across the lefties and then jagging it back into them seems like a pretty good idea. Inswing does have its uses but they become less and less as techniques develop, so id keep plugging away with what your doing but get that slower ball working for you

 

[mas cambios]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

I would say that developing any variation is a good thing. I tend to get a lot of wickets by bowling around to left handers, moving 4/5 balls away from them, then swinging a fuller length one in.

 

[Jonesy]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

I bowled to a very good left hander today, he plays in the emus squad, which is like a level before junior state cricket. I bowled OK, but I didn't really trouble him, but I will continue to bowl inswingers to the left handers because a few balls I got to nip back quite well and my straight bowl will be good against left handers.

 

[Mr-Cricket]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

One way to look it at it is from a batting point of view, imagine facing a left arm bowler going over and think about the angles that you'll face.

Then try to imagine that from a left handers point of view and think abot where you could bowl it.

 

[Jelly Beanz]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

Sounds like a good plan Jonesy. Matthew Hoggard bowls like that so mabye some videos of him bowling at left handers would be helpful for you to watch and see how he gets his wickets.

This season I decided to go around the wicket to left handers and its helped my game a lot. I get seam away from a left hander roughly once an over and pushing it into off stump and squaring them up worked well for me. This season I'm going to look to learn to bowling inswing to right handers and use that as a new angle to the lefties. Hopefully it should work, but I bowled outswing a couple of seasons ago so my action might not be suitable. We'll see.

 

[kizza]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

ah bowling to left handers..
some love it some hate it
to all the right hand medium pace bowlers-
when a left hander comes in do u change to over the wicket?

 

[AUSSIE_BOY]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

for me as a right hand medium... my stock ball is over the wicket.... when a lefty comes in i hold this line until he picks it up... i then change 2 around..

 

[Jonesy]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

I'm right arm medium/medium fast, I haven't gone around all season, didn't go around all last season and can't remember the seasons before. It depends which way you swing/seam the ball. If you naturally seam/swing it away from the left hander (or in to the right hander) then you should go around the wicket because it will angle in then seam away, then if you put in a straight ball you have a good chance of getting him bowled. But if you move it in to the left hander, you don't want to angle it in then move it into him some more, so going over the wicket I believe is good because you angle it away and then bring it back in.

 

[Jelly Beanz]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

I'm not entirely sure how fast you have to be to be 'fast medium' or 'medium fast' or whatever but I tended to bowl around 65-70mph last season. I always go around the wicket to left handers. It's explained in more detail earlier in the thread.

 

[FBI]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

I'm not entirely sure how fast you have to be to be 'fast medium' or 'medium fast' or whatever but I tended to bowl around 65-70mph last season. I always go around the wicket to left handers. It's explained in more detail earlier in the thread.

Medium fast, fast medium and all that malarky is pretty relative to the level you are playing at and the speed of bowlers around you.

How old are you, out of interest? 65-70mph is pretty sharp.

 

[Jelly Beanz]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

I'm 17 now but I was 16 last season. It wasn't 'speed gunned' so to speak but thats the estimate I was told by the bowling coach at my club. Speed wise, thats above average for my division (2nd XI cricket) but below average for the division the 1st XI at my club play in. I was the fastest bowler in our side but not the fastest we played against by some distance. I'm hoping to improve the speed this season cos I've put on a bit of bulk since then.

 

[khan nasir]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

65mph is quite good for club cricket. Follow the tips from Liz and Harrowdrive am I think you will get faster!

 

[Jelly Beanz]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

Yeah, I didn't know about jumping forward not just up in delivery, so that should help a lot. At the moment I'm studying videos of Brett Lee to use as a guide.

As regards all the work outs n stuff, I'm not sure I could stick to it constantly. I play rugby and ski a lot in the off-season so training/matches/holidays for them take a lot out of you, especially rugby. I'm thinking about training from here on in for next season, we'll see how it goes.

 

[FBI]

Re: Bowling to Lefthanders

I'm 17 now but I was 16 last season. It wasn't 'speed gunned' so to speak but thats the estimate I was told by the bowling coach at my club. Speed wise, thats above average for my division (2nd XI cricket) but below average for the division the 1st XI at my club play in. I was the fastest bowler in our side but not the fastest we played against by some distance. I'm hoping to improve the speed this season cos I've put on a bit of bulk since then.

From the description, then 65-70mph seems like a good estimation.