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 It's common to say an inexperienced bowling attack can't "maintain pressure".
Is this double-speak for bad bowling, or is there something more to the idea that experience improves your ability to tie batsmen down in the middle overs of a limited overs game?
Many say experience makes no difference. If you have a repeatable action, you can bowl good line and length and yorkers at the death, you have all the skill you need.
Personally, I think experience has a huge influence, but it is not obvious at first glance.
The key to the power of experience in bowling is linked to a skill that batsmen are desperate to develop: picking line and length.
Picking line and length: Not just for batsmen
One of the most important differences between elite batsmen and lesser players is their ability to pick line and length. It's a topic that we have discussed often on PitchVision Academy.
With much practice, the batter learns to subconsciously read the signals from the bowler and respond to the bowler, rather than wait to pick up the ball from the hand.
But experienced bowlers also have a version of this ability.
If you talk to a bowler who has played from many years, they will confidently speak about a sixth sense: The ability to know what a batsman is about to do based on some kind of a hunch. They just feel something is about to happen.
Except, it's not really a hunch at all. It's the result of years of experience of bowling to batsmen and learning how they react in any situation.
Sure, there are variations of reaction, like there are variations in bowling cues and clues, but the more you bowl, the better you get at reading the reaction before it even happens.
Use experience to maintain the stranglehold
The experienced bowler senses this, knows what to bowl next and how to change the field accordingly.
The wild swing to leg countered by fifth stump away swinger, the sweep countered by a fuller, quicker ball that slides straight on, or the batsman with fast footwork set up for a leg side stumping by bowling wide down the leg side.
These tactics are all logical and simple and a bowler of any experience can come up with the idea.
The difference is the experienced bowler knows exactly when to bowl the right ball based on the batsman's reactions.
When you are skilful at this, you are much more able to tie down good batsmen in limited over cricket based on your hunches.
Sometimes, simple is effective too
All that said, experience is just one factor. The better the player you are bowling at, the more you need experience to counter his skills.
However, sometimes you will be in a situation where you don't need to be clever at all. You can bowl an over at the top of off stump and walk away with a maiden no matter who is at the other end.
You can bowl an over of yorkers and go for five runs or fewer at the death.
So there is no need to try and get too cute with experience. Simply try to bowl well, work on your accuracy with deliberate practice and develop a useful variation. This will see you well.
But also bowl a lot in matches, and mindfully try to learn how batsmen handle the pressure you build.
As you move up in experience - you get the "aha" moments of your career - you will find that your ability to tie batsmen down improves.
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PitchVision Academy is delighted to welcome a brand new columnist: Shayamal Vallabhjee. Shayamal is a uniquely experienced sports scientist with experience at the highest level (India and South African national sides), speaker and author of 4 books including the brand new 
Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. 
