Bowling Around the Wicket

[Yet To Ton]

Bowling Around the Wicket

Why is bowling around the wicket used as a last resort rather then as a weapon?

A right arm pace bowler who can cut/swing it both ways coming from that angle at club cricket level could be very dangerous.

If never personally tried it, the season is over for me so I'll have to wait til next season or net sessions, I've tried with limited success to come wide of the crease like Nitni(sp?) from South Africa.

Any thoughts?

 

[Jim2109]

Re: Bowling Around the Wicket

Why is bowling around the wicket used as a last resort rather then as a weapon?

A right arm pace bowler who can cut/swing it both ways coming from that angle at club cricket level could be very dangerous.

If never personally tried it, the season is over for me so I'll have to wait til next season or net sessions, I've tried with limited success to come wide of the crease like Nitni(sp?) from South Africa.

Any thoughts?

for a right arm pace bowler bowling to a right hand batsman, bowling around the wicket means you pretty much eliminate LBW (because of the angle of the delivery, and pitching outside leg stump). on a typical over the wicket delivery your dismissal options are bowled, LBW, caught edged, or caught in the field. its unlikely youll take a wicket any other way. caught in the field requires the batsman to play a poor shot so its out of your control. caught edged, bowled, and LBW are all within your control if you have the ball doing something unexpected or unplayable. take LBW out of the equation and you probably halve your chance of taking the wicket.

hence its used as a variation, and not as a stock ball. i wouldnt say it should be used as a "last resort" because by the time you get that desperate the batsman has won the battle. but it should be used sparingly when you have a specific plan in place. just going around the wicket to see what happens is pointless unless you have a clear idea on how it is going to bag you the wicket (maybe youve identified a weakness in the batsmans technique for example). every kind of variation on your stock ball should be bowled to a plan, otherwise youre just throwing it down and hoping for a result, which more often than not just gifts the batsman runs if you havent thought out the end result.

right arm fast bowlers around the wicket to left hand batsmen can be more useful if you get in tight to the stumps though. it brings LBW back into the equation which may not be the case if you stay over the wicket. also the change in angle can sometimes catch club-level lefties out if they are used to right arm over bowlers.

spin bowling is a different story, for example with leg spin bowlers around the wicket can open up all sorts of advantageous angles to both right and left handed bats. but then LBW is less prevalent, there are fewer shots available to the batsman so you can control catches in the field more, and stumping is an option, so changing angles can bring all sorts of dismissals into play which wouldnt be as feasible for a fast bowler.

if you want variation to try and mix things up, simply changing your angle on the crease over the wicket can help, bowling occasional deliveries around the wicket, and also taking pace off the ball or bowling cutters are options. if you can swing the ball both ways then you should probably be able to cause enough problems with those 2 variations alone though.

 

[Boris]

Re: Bowling Around the Wicket

Like Jim said, depends on the batsman. If you were bowling to me you would bowl around the wicket and aim for top of middle stump, you will inevitably get my wicket sooner or later due to a technical flaw. With other batsmn you are making it easier for them.

Use it only if you have a good reason.

 

[phil2oo8]

Re: Bowling Around the Wicket

Only person i have ever seen on clips do it very well was mike proctor but he has a strange action which probz helped him do it

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Bowling Around the Wicket

I bowled round the wicket to one of our better batsman (RH) on Monday night in the nets. I'd watched him put away 2 off-spinners and a fast bowler who was bowling in-swingers with masses of late in-swing. I decided that there seemed to be little mileage in bowling down the off-side because he was strong on his off-side so I Bowled round the wicket wide on the crease bowling 'Short of a length' into his legs. He experimented with a few sweep shots and I then went over the wicket and put some balls down the off-side varying the dip, turn, flight. At the end of the 20 minutes I was bowling he commended me on my accuracy and said that he would have had to have resorted to blocking the shots rather than sweeping them because of the variation in flight. dip etc and he said he'd have exepected that I'd have cut the sweep shot off with a fielder out on the legside boundary leaving him with no options.

I'm sure that some of the other wrist spinners will say that's a negative line to bowl and I'm not sure whether in a match I'd have been brave enough to have bowled my normal off-side over the wicket line? But again he said that all the balls that I had put down the off-side he hadn't hit cleanly saying that all of them would have ended up being caught.

So I don't know if I'd say it's a last resort, I'm not exactly a good tactition as I'm still pretty much a learner, but I think this year if I note that the batsmen are weak off the legs I might look to bowl round the wicket into the leg stump and see how it pans out? It's a case of experience - not until I try it in a match situation will I know how good a tactic it is for me?

 

[fastbowler]

Re: Bowling Around the Wicket

I used to this a lot but for some reason have stopped now. I benefited from bowling around the wicket many times. I am a right hand fast bowler, and I naturally swing it in. What I used to do was bowl outside off, and the ball would swing back into off-middle stump. I bowl at a good pace and batsmen would usually either loose the ball and swing, or the sometime inside edge into the stumps

 

[Boris]

Re: Bowling Around the Wicket

So I don't know if I'd say it's a last resort, I'm not exactly a good tactition as I'm still pretty much a learner, but I think this year if I note that the batsmen are weak off the legs I might look to bowl round the wicket into the leg stump and see how it pans out? It's a case of experience - not until I try it in a match situation will I know how good a tactic it is for me?

A negative line is only when you are looking to restrict runs, more specifically give no chance of a shot, without looking for wickets.

The line you were bowling was a specific line to a technical flaw of the batsman. That is targeting a weak stroke and as you said you could be in the chance for wickets with it. With a properly placed field I would use this as your Plan B, Plan A being your normal line and length of a leggie.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Bowling Around the Wicket

A negative line is only when you are looking to restrict runs, more specifically give no chance of a shot, without looking for wickets.

The line you were bowling was a specific line to a technical flaw of the batsman. That is targeting a weak stroke and as you said you could be in the chance for wickets with it. With a properly placed field I would use this as your Plan B, Plan A being your normal line and length of a leggie.

Yeah that makes sense, it'll be nice to have a plan B this year, last year I was just getting to grips with the idea that batsmen generally have a weak point, but wasn't really in a position of having the knowledge to exploit the weakness. I reckon this season I'll be able to recognise these weaknesses and then bowl in a manner that might exploit them?

 

[Boris]

Re: Bowling Around the Wicket

Yeah that makes sense, it'll be nice to have a plan B this year, last year I was just getting to grips with the idea that batsmen generally have a weak point, but wasn't really in a position of having the knowledge to exploit the weakness. I reckon this season I'll be able to recognise these weaknesses and then bowl in a manner that might exploit them?

Spot on. Sure any captain would love you in their team.