Types of bowler in cricket
| Types | |
|---|---|
| Fast | |
| Spin | |
| Deliveries | |
| Fast | |
| Spin | |
| Other | |
| Actions | |
| Usual | Overarm |
| Other | |
| Illegal techniques | |
In the sport of cricket there are two broad categories of bowlers: pace and spin. Pace bowlers rely mostly on the speed of the ball to dismiss batsmen, whereas spin bowlers rely on the rotation of the ball.
Pace bowlers, or fast bowlers or pacemen, rely on speed to get a batsman out. This type of bowler can be further classified according to the speed at which they bowl the ball on average.
Most pace bowlers are medium-fast to fast in top level cricket. In general, bowlers of this type are described as right arm or left arm "fast" or "fast-medium". Another technique of fast bowling is the sling action. This action generates extra speed but sacrifices control. Exponents include Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson, Fidel Edwards and Lasith Malinga.
The highest electronically measured speed for a ball bowled by any bowler is 161.3 km/h (100.23 mph) by Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan) against England on 22 February 2003 in a World Cup match at Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa.
Swing bowlers are pace bowlers who, apart from being fast, also use the seam of the ball to make it travel in a curved path through the air. This is further encouraged by systematically polishing one side of the ball while allowing the other side to become roughened and worn. The differing airflow around the two sides will cause the ball to swing in the air, towards the roughened side. By changing the orientation of the ball in his hand, a bowler may therefore cause the ball to swing into or away from the batsman. In addition to a well-polished ball, other factors help the ball to swing, notably damp or humid weather conditions. However balls which have been in play for some time do not tend to swing so much due to the deterioration of the seam. In addition, bowlers of express pace do not tend to get as much swing as the fast-medium-to-medium pace bowlers.
Though younger pace bowlers tend to rely exclusively on speed, as bowlers age they tend to develop this more sophisticated art of swing bowling. Swing bowlers are more effective than sheer pace bowlers as the swing can confuse a batsman. Wasim Akram of Pakistan and David Willey of England and Glenn McGrath of Australia were masters of this skill, and were capable of causing an older, misshapen ball to swing the opposite way from normal, i.e. toward the shiny side. This is known as reverse swing and has become an increasingly important skill in the last 10 to 15 years. Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga and England's James Anderson, Indians Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan are recently active prominent bowlers known for the use of reverse swing.
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Wikipedia