BOWLING : 4 Ways to become a high class death bowler

Bowling the last few overs of an innings is like being a Hollywood star. When everything goes well you are adored. Put one foot wrong and your embarrassment could not be more exposed.

Master the four balls of death

The secret to good death bowling comes in two parts:

• Be able to bowl the four death deliveries better than anyone else
• Know which of the four balls is the one to use

Both skills are tough. Learning to bowl a ball at will takes a lot of practice at creating a repeatable action. Knowing when to use it takes experience.

Let's take a look at each of the four balls and how best to use them.

1. Slower ball

The slower ball's job is to upset the rhythm of the batsman. It can be bowled in a number of ways (and to get the technique for them you should pick up copy of The Fast Bowler's Bible) but the trick is to do it without changing action.

This means the batsman is fooled into thinking the ball is arriving at normal speed and mis-times his shot.

Bowl it just short of a length to keep the pretence up, but avoid bowling it on a length he can play forward to as this gives him greater margin for error.

The danger with this ball is that the batsman spots it early and it just becomes a slow, shorter ball he can pull into the stands. Avoid this by making sure it's well disguised and use it sparingly, even at the death.

2. Length ball

We are taught that the best ball in cricket is the one that is hitting the top of off stump after pitching on a length that has the batsman undecided whether to play forward or back.

At the death this is risky, because the batsman is no longer playing 'properly' and is looking to hit the ball in unorthodox ways. The good length ball is easier to hit with premeditated shots over extra cover or midwicket.

However, it's still a good ball to have available in certain situations:

• If there is still some movement in the air or off the pitch.
• If the batsman is struggling to put bat on ball.
• If the batsman is premeditating to hit everything to leg, bowling it wide outside off stump.

Don't be too quick to write off the good length ball at the death, it has a use if you are clever.

3. Bouncer

If you bowl a good pace on decent wickets, you can use the shorter ball to restrict the batsman's scoring area and with a well set field you will keep the runs down. There are two ways to use the short ball:

1.  Stock ball. Batters who don't play the ball at the ribs well will struggle to score against the ball bowled accurately at chest height. If the pitch is hard and bouncy enough you can set your length so the ball reaches chest height with the yorker or slower ball as variation.

2.  Shock ball. For those batsmen who are better at hooking and pulling (or are sitting on the back foot), the bouncer becomes a variation: Something to stop the batsman premeditating a front foot shot. It's especially good against the player who prefers to go off side in the death as the bouncer forces them to think twice about playing inside-out (i.e. stepping to the leg side to hit the ball through the covers).

With both these tactics, it's important to set a good field. Variations are many, but a deep midwicket, deep square leg and fine leg cut off the boundaries and take catches. Third man is up assuming there are field restrictions:

4. Yorker

The yorker, as we know, is a fast ball pitching at the toes of the batsman, usually around the popping crease, ideally with swing. This is the classic ball for death bowling: Full and straight. 

The mantra is: If you miss, I hit.

It's hard to bowl as the margin for error is small. Bowl it too full and it becomes a low full toss and a free hit. Bowl it too short and it becomes a half volley and you will be fetching it from the crowd.

If you can get it right it becomes an excellent stock ball to use at the death. Unless the batsman is very good it can only be hit straight down the ground, so you can set your mid on, mid off, fine leg and third man back and straight to cut off the boundaries.

If you are using it as a stock ball you will need to practice it in the nets a lot both with and without batsmen. It's worth the effort if you know you are likely to be bowling at the end and might suffer 5 overs of the long handle.

It can also be used as a variation if you are using length or short bowling as the stock delivery.

Either way, the mark of a really good death bowler is one who can use the yorker to restrict scoring and take wickets because it is so difficult to master.

With all death bowling the key is not to be average at all four types of bowling, but to become really good at one or two. If you can master all four deliveries you will be unstoppable.

BOWLING : How to be a Good Fast Bowler?

Become Strong. To generate a vast amount of pace, you must broaden your shoulders, and build muscle on your arms and legs. Use dumbbells for your arms, bench press to broaden your shoulders, and leg exercise to keep your legs strong.

Improve Conditioning. Fast bowlers tend to bowl immense pace for many overs. This requires stamina. Be sure to run long distances so you can handle bowling a lot of overs, and get faster on your sprints, so you can maintain a quick run-up.

Build Speed. Before you focus on line and length, you must work on speed. You do not need to reach the fastest you can bowl, but gradually improve speed until you feel comfortable with the pace you bowl at.

Focus on Line. As you may realize, raw pace won't do the trick. Fast bowlers vary line and length to give batsman a hard time. Make sure the line you bowl is generally on middle stump to off stump, try not to bowl down the leg side, as most of those tend to either be hit or called for wides.

Focus on Length. A great fast bowler will pitch most of his deliveries good length, and will bowl the occasional yorker or bouncer to stump the batsman. Try not to bowl too short or too full, as those tend to be hit away for boundaries. However, do not always bowl good length, as the batsman may recognize where you pitch it and play attacking strokes according to where the ball will bounce.

Use Swing and Cut. Fast bowlers tend to swing or cut the ball many times when they bowl. Cut is used to surprise batsman after the ball bounces. A leg cutter may be used to get the batsman caught behind or caught at slip. An off cutter is generally used to either bowl the batsman or get him LBW. Although cut is very helpful to a bowler, how a bowler swings may sometimes define him as a fast bowler. Swing the ball in and out to stump batsman where the ball is going. I cannot get very detailed with inswing and outswing for that will require a completely new article.

Study the Batsman. Bowl certain deliveries to see how the batsman would react to them. Perhaps bowl one a little wide on off or leg to see how he would react to them. See if he'll hit short deliveries or duck. Observe how he faces swing or cut. Find out if he is defensive, attacking, or both. Know his role for the team, if they need to save a wicket, or just slog. Having knowledge of the batsman will ultimately help you to get him out.

Be Mentally Strong. Part of being a bowler is keeping your cool, not matter if you have just taken a hat trick or if you've been hit for many boundaries. Don't listen to batsman taunts. Also, never let your emotions affect the way you bowl your next delivery, always keep the same face.

Have Fun! Bowlers are at leisure when they bowl, they enjoy ripping one through midstump or just realizing they bowled the perfect ball, even if it means not getting the batsman out. Bowlers love the feeling of pressure and joy if they succeed. Don't let the intensity of the game take up the pure joy it is to bowl

Be motivated and even when you are feeling tired keep going as that's how you build your stamina. Never give up, always remember that good fast bowlers persist for hours and hours just to get it right. Whenever you are bowling (at the nets in a game) always try to bowl as fast as you can - don't worry at first that you will be a bit inconsistent as that's normal. After a while you will start generating pace and be bowling in the right areas (i.e. outside the off stump).

Usually The new Batsmen where always try to play drives through off stump when They Get Good length or Full Length balls

So as a good bowler's point of view , rather than beating the new Bowl he must try to make the batsman to play drives through Offside , so there is a chance to get Edge or else caught Behind . So Generally on my point of view the new seemers have to keep their 90 percetnt of balls in a bit out side the off stump.

usually many of them says that the left hand bowler gets the better Advantage than the right hand bowler . but its absolutly Fuuny thing .

The advantage of bowling is depends Upon the Length and speed of the bowler.

Most of them fails know the fact that the Wrist Plays a vital role in fast bowling , many of them use the hand speed with regards to your Jump . But Once you spent Little time to analyse the Legendary Bowlers action you are all came to know that The magics Of Their wrist .

All You have to know that, u can make use of the Jump speed and the hand speed and now u can make use of the Wrist speed along with your jump speed

BOWLING : How to Bowl Fast?

To bowl quickly, first you must get your line and length when bowling at your normal speed, this can be achieved by continually bowling at a single stump and aiming for a spot where you want the ball to bounce. If this feels awkward, change your way of bowling.

Now the first element in bowling fast is your opposite arm must be thrust down hard and fast to ensure your other arm follows just as quick.logically this means that the ball will have a quicker speed.

Once you have bowled make sure you run through at least to 1/3 of the pitch so the ball won't lose speed when you release it.

Make sure that your last step is stretched out and comes down hard

Make sure that you bowl every day.

Tips

Always remember you must have a good run up while trying to ball fast as this builds up momentum and gives you a chance of bowling really fast

when you're swinging your opposite arm down make sure you bring your body with it

when you are training, bring your own video camera, or borrow a camera. Use this video camera to analyse your posture from side-on, and front-on.

if you're having trouble getting accuracy then when bringing your non bowling arm down quickly, line it up with the wickets.

BOWLING : How to Bowl Reverse Swing

REVERSE SWING : Normal swing occurs mostly when the ball is fairly new. As it wears more, the aerodynamics of the asymmetry change and it is more difficult to extract a large amount of swing. When the ball becomes very old—around 40 or more overs old—it begins to swing towards the shine. This is known as reverse swing—meaning a natural outswinger will become an inswinger and vice versa.The result is always a swing to the side with the later separation, so the swing is away from the seam.

1. Take a 20-30 over-old ball that is still shiny. Such a ball is usually better through the air on the side of shine because of natural sedatives put on it to shine, whereas the other side has gone through wear and tear without any repairs. This weight difference is what bowlers take advantage of.

2. Hold the ball along the seam, with shiny side towards leg side and rough side towards the slips.

3. Flex your wrist along with the cricket ball such that the shining side is about 30 degrees downwards.

4. Bowl with your hands angled. The angle between your head and bowling hand at shoulder should be about 50-60 degrees. Bowl with your hand as much away from your head as possible.

5. Make sure that in the follow-through, your bowling hand goes between your body and the stumps (on either side of your body.)

BOWLING : Spin the ball to off or leg side.

It's a growing trend these days for spinners at the top level to be able to spin the ball to off or leg side.

This is great but batsmen are now doing their best to read what delivery is on its way. They usually try to read it from the hand, but failing that they must read it in the air.

But if the seam is scrambled during flight then it becomes almost impossible.

The likes of Ajmal and Narine do not bother with making the seam look pretty in flight (like a seamer should). They scramble the seam and make it a mess, as the ball will still spin that way. It’s just that the batsmen do not know which way it will turn.

Tahir from South Africa has a very effective googly as he scrambles most of his deliveries and it becomes very hard to pick.

So, if you have the ability to make the ball go either way with doosras, carrom balls or googlies, then try and scramble the seam sometimes.

If the batsman did not pick you from the hand he will have no chance of picking you in the air with a scrambled seam.

How do you scramble the seam as a spinner?

You can change the angle of the seam on two ways:

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Change your grip (the position of the ball in your hand before release), so that the ball is released at a different angle.

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Keep the same grip but change the release angle on your wrist.

The best way to practice this is with a two-coloured ball: one with white and red halves. That way you can clearly see if you are managing to scramble your seam in flight.

BOWLING : Drills for Spin Bowlers

Bowling from the Delivery Stride Drills

I ask spinners to bowl from a stationary position at the crease which enables the player to isolate a certain part of the action or a part of the technique. So get your bowlers to work from their delivery stride initially and once they can hold the action and the technical enhancements that you majoring on in your coaching.

Things to work on and observe in Delivery Stride Drills

Different alignments of the seam angle against the pitch to produce different spin results (top spin, maximum breaking ball, stock ball, arm ball, doosra)

Up and over shoulder rotation within the bowling action (some bowlers have a tendency to rotate their shoulders in a horizontal axis, this reduces the shape of the ball in flight)

Completion of the bowling action. Ideally, a spin bowler should find that their bowling hand completes the action around the opposite trouser pocket area. This is an indicator that a full and complete bowling arm circle has occurred. Many bowlers have a tendency to cut the bowling circle short and their bowling hand ends up near the bottom of the ribcage. This reduces the dip on the ball and often leads to a loss of control of length.

Appropriate flight. Shane Warne's mentor, Terry Jenner carried a "Spin bowlers kit" around in his bag. One part of that was a simple piece of rope that he would fix across the net and challenge the spin bowler to deliver the ball above the rope yet dip and land within a coned area on a length. If a bowler is rotating the bowling shoulder up and over (rather than round) and completing the bowling action to the opposite trouser pocket then there is a good chance of the ball being flighted from the hand, over the rope and down into the coned area on a length.

For a net session, the cones can be taken away and chalk areas applied to the indoor pitch or matted area to measure the flight of the ball in a net session. A batter can then be introduced to play against the spin bowler delivering from the crease

Progressions

Once a spin bower has mastered this then a couple of steps are introduced and the results are assessed, if the technique holds up under momentum then the approach can be extended to incorporate a full run up.

Bowling from the Crease or a Couple of Steps in Nets

Just as with the fast bowlers last week, the stationary drill and then a couple of steps progression can be used within nets. The watchword again is to keep an eye on the competitive nature kicking as this can lead to technical breakdown.

The option here is to take the isolating technical focus away and work on delivery of skills (executing variations) or tactics (field setting/angle of delivery/getting batters off strike) or if the bowler is in danger of complete technical breakdown then take him out of the net and back into the drills above.

As preseason progresses, the bowler will be a more compete technical model who can adjust to the competition scenarios that we put in place, the personal battles with the batters and bowl your side to victory on a number of different surface types.