Your Favourite Bowler In All Formats.

[CancelledUser2014]

In all formats it's Akram, if it was broken up I'd go for Warne in tests, Bond in ODIs and Steyn in T20s. Skill wise Akram was the complete fast-bowler, any swing, seam or cut wasn't beyond him, even partial to the odd slower ball as well. I think it was Steve Waugh who said that they had no actual plan to combat him other than to just hold him out and hope like hell he gets frustrated!

True, I never saw him playing but the things I've heard of him make me wish I had.

No one is going to convince me that that delivery really happened. It was just a camera angle, must have been. If it wasnt' I'll never be able to sleep again.

 

[leftie600]

Hunt down his wickets of Alan Lamb and Chris Lewis in the 92 WC final, freaky stuff.

 

[CancelledUser2014]

Hunt down his wickets of Alan Lamb and Chris Lewis in the 92 WC final, freaky stuff.

Did he ever use the back of the hand slower ball? I haven't found many videos of fast bowlers that bowled it effectively. Is there footage on Yoube of a few great back of the hand slower balls, and who invented it?

 

[leftie600]

Did he ever use the back of the hand slower ball? I haven't found many videos of fast bowlers that bowled it effectively. Is there footage on Yoube of a few great back of the hand slower balls, and who invented it?

I don't know who "invented" them but they became popular due to the likes of Simon O'Donnell and Steve Waugh in the late 80's and early 90's, from there the Aussies started using a whole variety of slower deliveries (split finger, one finger, cutters, deep in the hand, nothing balls etc.).

Akram used more cutters as slower balls, didn't have to use them much as he took so many wickets with the usual fast bowling skills. The great thing he had was that his action made it difficult to pick up the speed the ball would come out at. He left the back of the hand stuff for the medium pacers, quick bowlers usually hate them as the extreme change tends to cause shoulder injuries.

 

[Kram81]

McDermott might have been one of the first to use the split finger slower ball, started using it after working with a baseball player I think.

 

[leftie600]

Did he ever use the back of the hand slower ball? I haven't found many videos of fast bowlers that bowled it effectively. Is there footage on Yoube of a few great back of the hand slower balls, and who invented it?

Here's one from 1988:

 

[CancelledUser2014]

Here's one from 1988:

And that one went wrong?... Isn't the whole idea of the back of the hand slower ball that you bowl it with a slightly higher trajectory and it dips, then bounces much higher? But I can only bowl mine about 70 k/ph, don't know how difficult it was for those really quick bowlers.

 

[leftie600]

And that one went wrong?... Isn't the whole idea of the back of the hand slower ball that you bowl it with a slightly higher trajectory and it dips, then bounces much higher? But I can only bowl mine about 70 k/ph, don't know how difficult it was for those really quick bowlers.

That one was meant to be a yorker but it did it's job of fooling the batsman (a great one as well).

The main point of a slower ball is just that, it's slower, anything else is really just a bonus. The best slower ball bowler right now is Malinga with hisoffbreak, if he gets the ball to turn it's a bonus but really he just wants the batter to mistaken it for a quicker one. The other effects of a slower ball (spin, drift, dip, bounce, lack of bounce etc.) help to determine your field settings if that slower ball is designed to get a catch, particularly in one day stuff where you have a number of outfielders. If you are bowling in a longer version of the game you very rarely have a midwicket and cover so slower balls tend to only get LBW and bowled.

 

[dilieep]

Ma Favorite 5 Bowlers

 

[CancelledUser2014]

That one was meant to be a yorker but it did it's job of fooling the batsman (a great one as well).

The main point of a slower ball is just that, it's slower, anything else is really just a bonus. The best slower ball bowler right now is Malinga with hisoffbreak, if he gets the ball to turn it's a bonus but really he just wants the batter to mistaken it for a quicker one. The other effects of a slower ball (spin, drift, dip, bounce, lack of bounce etc.) help to determine your field settings if that slower ball is designed to get a catch, particularly in one day stuff where you have a number of outfielders. If you are bowling in a longer version of the game you very rarely have a midwicket and cover so slower balls tend to only get LBW and bowled.

Yes it dipped a lot as well and if I were the umpire I probably would have given it out...

What are your thoughts on the slower ball bouncer? I'm not a big fan of it, but it seems to be quite successful and fast bowlers are encouraged to bowl it by coaches at my level.

 

[leftie600]

Yes it dipped a lot as well and if I were the umpire I probably would have given it out...

What are your thoughts on the slower ball bouncer? I'm not a big fan of it, but it seems to be quite successful and fast bowlers are encouraged to bowl it by coaches at my level.

Useful in short spells hence why it works in T20 as it ruins a players timing and you usually have a fielder back for it, in longer formats it's useful as a sacrificial delivery ahead of a real quick bouncer (kind of like a loopy "nothing" delivery from a spinner).

Against batsmen that just play each delivery on its merits it pretty much gets pummeled, against batsmen that are in a rush, not set or panicky it can cause problems.