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Masters of the Slower Delivery

Prad100w

U19 Cricketer
Surprised that none mentioned about Malinga. He has an extremely good variety of slower balls. I am not really sure who invented the slower bouncer, But he uses them very effectively.
Also quite hard to pick up from the hand as well.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
I'm convinced he just couldn't be arsed to bowl the final ball of the day to Michael Clarke and so just dobbed one down at 70mph.
Ohhhh, Steven Harmison, with a slower ball. One of the great balls. Given the moment, given the match, that is a staggering gamble that has paid off.......:ph34r:
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Shoaib during the 2005 England in Pakistan series was the best I've ever seen. Many many batsman look foolish and frightened.
 

Beamer

International Vice-Captain
Surprised that none mentioned about Malinga. He has an extremely good variety of slower balls. I am not really sure who invented the slower bouncer, But he uses them very effectively.
Also quite hard to pick up from the hand as well.

I was going to say Malinga and also I am genuinely surprised that Dwayne Bravo hasn't been mentioned. The slower ball he bowled Yuvraj Singh with to win a ODI was one of the best ever bowled IMHO.
 

Noble One

International Vice-Captain
Brett Lee for much of his career had a poor slower delivery. Lee did very little to conceal the ball and it generally was bowled at below 100kmh pace. So much time for the batsman to adjust. Has fixed it in recent years, started to take wickets with it too. Good coaching I imagine.
 

andyc

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Mitch Johnson takes a fair few with his slower ball, often seems to get them caught in the inner ring which says to me that they're pretty hard to pick.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Yeah, Johnson cuts down on the left hand side of the ball anyway in his normal action, so there is very little difference between his stock ball and his slower ball in action and wrist position.
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
Surprised that none mentioned about Malinga. He has an extremely good variety of slower balls. I am not really sure who invented the slower bouncer, But he uses them very effectively.
Also quite hard to pick up from the hand as well.
Shaun Pollock AFAIK
 

Uppercut

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Yeah, Midge Johnson is probably the best at using them in tests at the moment. Gets them to bounce really awkwardly and always lures the batsman into playing.

Polly had a great slower bouncer.
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
IIRC, Steve Waugh pioneered a number of variations of the slower before he did his back in
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Isn't his, the split finger one?
Yup.
I'm convinced he just couldn't be arsed to bowl the final ball of the day to Michael Clarke and so just dobbed one down at 70mph.
Haha. Either way, we'll never know the motives behind that slower-ball - all we'll know is that he bowled it, Clarke picked it, Clarke missed it by playing down the wrong line, and it hit the stumps.
Simply impossible to judge the appropriate amount to use it though. I recall Clint McKay bowling a spell where four out of six were slower balls and the 'quicker one' would pretty much always be twatted by Tendulkar and co.
Of course it's impossible to give one broad, all-encompassing method, and of course the effect of over-using and under-using slower-balls is much the same. But there's no doubt some do over-use it.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Shoaib during the 2005 England in Pakistan series was the best I've ever seen. Many many batsman look foolish and frightened.
Given he bowled about 3 slower-ball Beamers in the series, I'm not surprised.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Mitch Johnson takes a fair few with his slower ball, often seems to get them caught in the inner ring which says to me that they're pretty hard to pick.
The one off Bopara in, IIRR, the First Test last summer was one of the great slower-ball dupes.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Brett Lee for much of his career had a poor slower delivery. Lee did very little to conceal the ball and it generally was bowled at below 100kmh pace. So much time for the batsman to adjust. Has fixed it in recent years, started to take wickets with it too. Good coaching I imagine.
Remember him getting Strauss in the first-innings of the Third Test in 2005 - was one of the best bits of bowling I've seen.
 

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