In short, the successful execution of bowling the following deliveries at a lively pace is near orgasmic.

Let us first understand the natural swing of a batsman. Most of us are aware that batsmen swing naturally from off to leg. That swing is the latent instinct before they are even trained to play the game. It is only when they receive training later on to hold the bat a certain way and learn technique, that they play other strokes like the straight drive and shots towards the offside.

Unless a batsman is hitting off the splice of the bat, or making room to leave his stumps uncovered and moving towards leg to hit to the off, the ball when struck will always go towards a leg area. Square leg, mid on, fine leg, long on…Even the curiously named "Chinese cut" will send a ball towards the fine leg area. It is therefore not a surprise that around 90 % of last over slogs (which is when instinct takes over from technique in most cases or merges with it) are on the leg side.

Given the unshaken pillars upon which such reasoning is based, what kind of line and length does a fast bowler deploy without getting embarrassed? Before I answer that question, let me affirmatively state that there are very few bowlers who turn into precision bombers towards the end of an innings. It is widely understood by now that when you bowl towards middle and leg you will disappear. However, common sense deserts even the most experienced professional at times.

In my attempt to eliminate the travesty of bowling on the middle and leg region during the slog, I present a review of 6 tried and tested deliveries that have stood me well in my time of need. All of these deliveries are based on the geometry of movement or an "angle-for-angle" theory. At a high level, there are 3 angles that come into play:

1. The angle of the run-up (batsmen have to focus harder to follow the angle of the run-up)
2. The angle of the line of the delivery (greater concentration required to pick out an angle that is not as divergent as the run-up. Besides, there is always the possibility of the ball breaking off the wicket).
3. The angle at which the bat is picked up.

For a bowler who employs the first two angles, the first one will contrast with the angle at which the batsman picks up his bat; the second angle will compliment it. Simply laid out, the angle of delivery is most effective when following the angle of the bat pick-up. The reason being, it's more difficult to bring the bat down on a delivery that follows the same path as the bat when it's picked up.

I am going to get to the point now because I fear I might lose my readers if I continue to ramble.

The illustrated examples highlight each of these 6 deliveries and the angles that they are bowled from.

1. Start wide of the crease, finish at the base of off stump. Yorker length.
2. Start wide of the crease, pitch at middle / off and finish on or outside off stump. Good length.
3. Start wide of the crease, finish on or outside off stump. Good length.
4. Start close to the stumps, pitch at middle / off and finish at base of the off stump. Yorker length.
5 and 6. Start from wide of the crease, finish on / around off stump. Yorker / Good length.

5 and 6 are meant to be bowled under the assumption that the batsman at the other end is a left hander. Being a left hander myself, I can vouch for the efficacy of these deliveries.

And that concludes the GoCool master class of bowling at the death… and living to brag about it. Variations of the above deliveries may also be deployed provided the bowler keeps it on and around off stump. If a bowler is able to achieve late or reverse swing towards the death, then direction is all that matters and the above instructions may be safely discarded.

Good luck.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon