5 ways to bowl when the ball isn’t swinging | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

5 ways to bowl when the ball isn’t swinging

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Club seamers in the UK tend to succeed by using swing and seam movement to get wickets. As a good club swing bowler you need to know what to do when conditions are not in your favour.

  1. Vary your pace. Swing is very dependent on conditions. Sometimes a change of pace either slower or quicker can be enough to start the ball moving. Experiment with quicker and slower deliveries if your normal pace shows no movement.
  2. Bowl cutters. If there is still no swing but the pitch is dusty and may turn then try bowling cutters by running your fingers over the seam. Accurate cutter bowling can give you a spin bowlers advantage but at medium pace.
  3. Frustrate the batsman. Normally the corridor of uncertainty is the place to bowl, but in desperate times to certain batsman you will find bowling a wider or tighter line combined with defensive field placing can strangle a players run scoring and make him hit out.
  4. Outright lie. You might know it's gun barrel straight but new batsmen might not. Put in an extra slip or short leg and discuss how well the ball is moving with the wicketkeeper in earshot. It won't work for long but it only takes a new batsman playing down the wrong line once for an edge behind.
  5. Don't give up. When the pitch is flat, the skies are clear and the batsman are just swinging through the line it's easy to let your head go down. Instead, talk with the captain and mix things up. Sometimes the smallest change is enough.

© Copyright miSport Holdings Ltd 2008

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Comments

I recently discovered that somehow, all my deliveries have started to come out as off cutters. No matter how much I try to seam or swing the ball, each and every ball I bowl is coming out as a off cutter.
How can I get rid of this habit and get back to bowling swing and seam?

Please answer, I have many matches coming up!

It may be due to you rotating the wrist and or fingers on release.

I'm suffering the same problem, but that's largely down to stiffness and tightness in my shoulder and a slight tennis elbow.

Look at how your wrist is cocked at the point of your coil up just before you rotate your arm to bowl. Then bring your arm around in slow motion and see how it looks at point of release.

If your wrist starts pointing left and ends point right then you have your answer.

I say grip the ball a little more tightly and flick your wrist if you want to swing the ball . For In-swing , flick towards the left side and for out swing , flick towards the right side .