bowler

The basics of bowling.

The world's leading off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan sends down a delivery

With 619 wickets, Anil Kumble is the world's third highest and India's highest Test wicket taker.^[1]

A bowler in the sport of cricket is usually a player whose speciality is bowling, analogous to a pitcher in baseball. A bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder.

There are several types of bowlers and most teams will have a variety available in the team to take advantage of pitch or weather conditions or known weaknesses of the opposition.

A fast bowler is usually the mainstay of a team's attack. They will take a long run up before bowling each ball to build momentum and rhythm and can deliver the cricket ball at an average speed of 145 km/h.Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan being the first to deliver a ball at 160 km/h.

A medium pace bowler bowls somewhat more slowly and will often have some other weapon in their bowling arsenal rather than relying on speed. This might take the form of being able to swing the ball in the air or disguise the speed or length of his or her delivery to fool the batsman. Some medium pacers are simply accurate; they can repeatedly deliver the ball to a place which forces the batsman to defend rather than scoring runs. Others grip the ball so that it pitches on its upraised seam, which then causes the following trajectory to be awkward or uncertain.

A spin bowler usually bowls quite slowly and puts tremendous spin on the ball causing it to bounce at an angle off the pitch, forcing the batsman to treat each ball carefully. Generally spin bowlers give up the most runs but they all have "tricks" that they use to fool the batsman and get him or her out (such as the arm ball, googly, flipper, topspinner or doosra). Spin bowling is very much about deceit rather than speed. A fast Off Spin is the normal off spin action but with more pace. Off spin is when the cricket ball spins towards a right-handed batsmen's bat. With more pace, there usually is less turn (amount of spin). The grip for spin is the three middle fingers on you hand wrapped around the ball's side (end fingers just touching seam). Off-spin is also referred to as Off-Break or Finger Spin.

Bowlers by Country (current)

Australia

Bangladesh

Bermuda

England

India

Ireland

Kenya

New Zealand

Pakistan

Scotland

South Africa

Sri Lanka

West Indies

Zimbabwe

References

1. ^ Cricinfo- Anil Kumble

See also

• Types of bowlers in cricket
• Comparison of cricket bowlers
• Cricket terminology
• All-rounder
• Batsman
• Fielder
• Wicket-keeper