Pitching it right

Saturday was a gruelling day at the 2bm Private Ground. It was one of those hugely frustrating matches where the weather continued to intervene all day, and we found ourselves trawling the covers on and off the pitch at regular intervals.

On a day like that, it can be incredibly tough both physically, as you have to prepare your body for action several times, but also perhaps more importantly, mentally. I think my bowling spell was interrupted by three rain breaks in total, and each time the game had moved onto a new situation which required a different mind set and approach.

One of the most crucial skills as a bowler is to read the situation that you are bowling in, and adapt your approach accordingly. Different factors may condition the way you bowl. Sometimes it is the way the batsman is playing, or the areas in which he is looking to score. Too often, I see bowlers who are reactive in their field setting. The key to success is to try to read where a batsman wants to score. You can then choose to bowl to their strength and protect that part of the pitch reducing their run scoring capacity, or alternatively look to make it difficult for them to score in their particular zone.

One of the most critical areas a bowler needs to master though is their understanding of the pitch they are bowling on. One thing I try to do early on in any spell is to read the pace of the pitch. I suppose what I mean by this is that I try to test to see if the ball is coming onto the bat, whether there is bounce in the wicket or whether it is skidding on. By identifying this early, it can then give you a clue as to the best line, trajectory and speed of delivery that might be most productive in that situation. If you are inflexible in the way you can deliver the ball and adapt to your surroundings, it makes it much harder to be consistently successful as a bowler.

Once you have mastered the pace and bounce of the pitch you can then start to think carefully about the length to bowl. We talk heavily on the pitch and in the dressing room about ‘bowling a good length’ or ‘back of a length’ or a ‘full length’, but do players and bowlers actually understand what that means? Back of a length on one pitch may be different to that on another surface. With young players in particular, this terminology can be a little confusing. Perhaps what we should really talk about to bowlers is the shot we want the batsmen to play. “I want you to draw him forward but don’t let him drive you”, may be a better way to prescribe the particular length of delivery we are looking for. After all, it may change from batsman to batsman. I would hazard that James Taylor would have a different stride to Kevin Pietersen!

With a talented young group of bowlers forming at Kimberley, I hope that my experience can be of use as they start to establish themselves as 1^st XI bowlers over the coming seasons.