Starfighter
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yes
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A history of fast bowling
- Thread starter Starfighter
- Start date
the big bambino
International Captain
Probably read as much into that session as Brett Lee bowling in a milo commercial.
Starfighter
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Agree. Whoever is umm... directing the ball towards the bat is struggling to even get it in the frame, let alone make it hittable.
Starfighter
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
1931 and we see get our first sight of another new team in test cricket, New Zealand.
Ian Cromb was probably New Zealand's premier fast-medium bowler at the time, although his test career was a failure with only eight wickets in five tests.
Ian Cromb was probably New Zealand's premier fast-medium bowler at the time, although his test career was a failure with only eight wickets in five tests.
Was probably one of the world's leading bowlers of the day
Starfighter
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Playing against them was one of the best and most controversial bowlers of the nineteen thirties.
Bill Voce, like Maurice Tate, started off his career as a spin bowler before switching to pace, and similarly his bowling action retains its legacy. With a very measured approach of ten paces and shuffling entry to the crease he slung the ball down with an action reminiscent of, though less elastic than, Jeff Thomson. Bowling at the top end of fast-medium he regularly bowled bouncers (reputedly far more than Larwood) with his burly 6'4" frame making up for his unspectacular pace. He could spin the ball off the pitch in the old-fashioned style and took 11/149 bowling medium pace on a matting pitch at Port of Spain in 1930.
It was only on this tour he decided to switch permanently to the faster style, and he took a good haul in South Africa the next year. In Australia in 1932/33 he would open the bowling around the wicket in the Frank Foster style still fashionable at the time, before switching to over the wicket to bowl to the leg field - the opposite of what most bowlers would do today. His bowling was hampered by a persistent ankle injury and he missed one test on the tour.
Adopting over the wicket as his main line - to the disgust of Walter Brearley - he became a peripheral figure, with a loss of form in 1933 and then not being selectable against Australia in 1934, where he controversially took seven wickets in an innings against the touring side. After declining test selection for a couple of seasons he would declare himself available in late 1936 and was selected to tour Australia. In the first two tests he bowled well on rain affected pitches however a back injury would reduce his effectiveness in the third. Selected despite being clearly unfit - and apparently over Allen's objections - he was ineffective and would also be so for the vital fifth test, in which Australia would become the only team to win a series from two down.
Needing a knee operation at the end of the tour and being troubled by persistent inflammation he would not play against the Australians in 1938. At 37 and without the pace of pre-war he was unspectacular against India but was picked for the tour of Australia after single good performance in a trial match. He was now too slow to be any threat on the hard pitches and a controversial umpiring decision in favour of Bradman would ensure his last two tests remained wicketless and he retired after the tour. Nonetheless he remains the most prolific left-arm pace bowler for England with 98 test wickets.
The controversial match in 1934. I would note that the batsman ducks exaggeratedly to ball that passes less than a foot over the stumps.
Bill Voce, like Maurice Tate, started off his career as a spin bowler before switching to pace, and similarly his bowling action retains its legacy. With a very measured approach of ten paces and shuffling entry to the crease he slung the ball down with an action reminiscent of, though less elastic than, Jeff Thomson. Bowling at the top end of fast-medium he regularly bowled bouncers (reputedly far more than Larwood) with his burly 6'4" frame making up for his unspectacular pace. He could spin the ball off the pitch in the old-fashioned style and took 11/149 bowling medium pace on a matting pitch at Port of Spain in 1930.
It was only on this tour he decided to switch permanently to the faster style, and he took a good haul in South Africa the next year. In Australia in 1932/33 he would open the bowling around the wicket in the Frank Foster style still fashionable at the time, before switching to over the wicket to bowl to the leg field - the opposite of what most bowlers would do today. His bowling was hampered by a persistent ankle injury and he missed one test on the tour.
Adopting over the wicket as his main line - to the disgust of Walter Brearley - he became a peripheral figure, with a loss of form in 1933 and then not being selectable against Australia in 1934, where he controversially took seven wickets in an innings against the touring side. After declining test selection for a couple of seasons he would declare himself available in late 1936 and was selected to tour Australia. In the first two tests he bowled well on rain affected pitches however a back injury would reduce his effectiveness in the third. Selected despite being clearly unfit - and apparently over Allen's objections - he was ineffective and would also be so for the vital fifth test, in which Australia would become the only team to win a series from two down.
Needing a knee operation at the end of the tour and being troubled by persistent inflammation he would not play against the Australians in 1938. At 37 and without the pace of pre-war he was unspectacular against India but was picked for the tour of Australia after single good performance in a trial match. He was now too slow to be any threat on the hard pitches and a controversial umpiring decision in favour of Bradman would ensure his last two tests remained wicketless and he retired after the tour. Nonetheless he remains the most prolific left-arm pace bowler for England with 98 test wickets.
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the big bambino
International Captain
Which one do you think?
There haven't been that many left-arm pace bowlers with 100+ wickets from anywhere - Statsguru lists 15 (plus Sobers and Bill Johnston as "mixture" - I think Johnston bowled mostly pace at Test level).
Similarly noticeable is the lack of Australia SLA bowlers - I noted here a couple of years ago that Herath took about as many Test wickets as all the Aussie SLAs put together. (That's including Saunders and Ironmonger from the "mixture" list, but not Johnston or Ferris).
the big bambino
International Captain
nss.
Starfighter
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
1932 saw the entry of a fifth test playing country, 'All-India' as the multiethnic colony was called in reference to the visiting team.
Mahomed Nissar (as it is with the world's most ubiquitous name, transliterations vary, I've used Wisden's) was the fast bowler of the team, and for many years one could have mounted an argument that he was the best fast bowler India ever produced. Some people point out that he lived in Pakistan post-partition, but he was born in the bit of Punjab that is still in India. Nissar was a big, barrel-chested bowler in a time when fast bowlers were still commonly compact people of moderate height, and had an action well suited to his build. With a typically moderately-paced, twelve pace run he landed heavily on the back leg and slung the ball down with a powerful swing of the shoulders.
He was one of the faster bowlers going around, some sources paint him as being very quick but others make no mention of any exceptional pace, though all concur that he was a very fine bowler. He could swing the ball when new and also made it cut back.
Making his debut at Lord's he bowled Sutcliffe and Holmes early on in the innings (though both had arrived after midnight from a match against Sussex in Leeds that finished the day before. No modern cricketer faces a schedule like this) and ended up with his country's first test five-for. He was less successful in the return series in India, but took 32 wickets in four matches against Jack Ryder's Australia 'has-been' side in 1935 and was moderately successful in England the next year. And with that his brief test career came to an end and India would wait more than forty years to find a comparable pace bowler.
Mahomed Nissar (as it is with the world's most ubiquitous name, transliterations vary, I've used Wisden's) was the fast bowler of the team, and for many years one could have mounted an argument that he was the best fast bowler India ever produced. Some people point out that he lived in Pakistan post-partition, but he was born in the bit of Punjab that is still in India. Nissar was a big, barrel-chested bowler in a time when fast bowlers were still commonly compact people of moderate height, and had an action well suited to his build. With a typically moderately-paced, twelve pace run he landed heavily on the back leg and slung the ball down with a powerful swing of the shoulders.
He was one of the faster bowlers going around, some sources paint him as being very quick but others make no mention of any exceptional pace, though all concur that he was a very fine bowler. He could swing the ball when new and also made it cut back.
Making his debut at Lord's he bowled Sutcliffe and Holmes early on in the innings (though both had arrived after midnight from a match against Sussex in Leeds that finished the day before. No modern cricketer faces a schedule like this) and ended up with his country's first test five-for. He was less successful in the return series in India, but took 32 wickets in four matches against Jack Ryder's Australia 'has-been' side in 1935 and was moderately successful in England the next year. And with that his brief test career came to an end and India would wait more than forty years to find a comparable pace bowler.
NotMcKenzie
International Debutant
Sound in that last video is interesting
Starfighter
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The other pace bowler in that side was of that intriguing type that was still in vogue then but is never seen today.
L. Amar Singh was a fine allrounder and a fast-medium bowler very similar in style to Maurice Tate. Nothing in his action indicated a world-class bowler, with a tiny shuffling run, awkward sidestep into the crease and a front arm thrust weakly forward in a manner reminisce too some slow to medium pacers of the era, yet he was able to generate surprising pace and lift off the wicket allied with sharp seam movement and a little bit of swing both ways. He was generally considered the best Indian bowler of the era, although this is somewhat surpassing when Nissar generally has the better figures (this may be Anglocentric, I think Amar may have been more successful overall on the tours of England, though Nissar was still better in the tests). With his test career, like many, cut short by the war he died in 1940 of typhoid fever, aged just 29.
L. Amar Singh was a fine allrounder and a fast-medium bowler very similar in style to Maurice Tate. Nothing in his action indicated a world-class bowler, with a tiny shuffling run, awkward sidestep into the crease and a front arm thrust weakly forward in a manner reminisce too some slow to medium pacers of the era, yet he was able to generate surprising pace and lift off the wicket allied with sharp seam movement and a little bit of swing both ways. He was generally considered the best Indian bowler of the era, although this is somewhat surpassing when Nissar generally has the better figures (this may be Anglocentric, I think Amar may have been more successful overall on the tours of England, though Nissar was still better in the tests). With his test career, like many, cut short by the war he died in 1940 of typhoid fever, aged just 29.
Starfighter
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Debuting in that match against India was England's original blond bombshell, decades before Stuart Broad was even a concept. The bespectacled Bill Bowes was one of the tallest bowlers and characters of English cricket in the thirties. He might well have been the finest pace bowler of the era in England, with his average of 16.76 standing well clear of other fast or fast-medium bowlers such as Larwood, Nichols or Smith, though it is hard not to conclude that he benefited from favourable conditions, with his county teammate Verity paying a ludicrous 14.9 runs per wicket. Batsmen certainly did not find visits to Yorkshire congenial at this time.
Two things strike one when watching Bowes. The first is that he is very messy looking, far from the free flowing bowlers of the fifties or the mechanical actions of today. Copying a local club bowler and content with a run up cut down to ten steps when playing for the MCC by that erstwhile advocate of not running far, Walter Brearley, Bowes' delivery is far from what we would expect of a professional bowler. He trotted in (especially later in his career), more a cart-horse than the thoroughbred gallop of today's express bowlers, and crossed his feet awkwardly while landing rather chest on for the time. Raising both arms stiffly up he then simply flopped the left down while the right wheeled around to follow it. Not very pretty, but often devastatingly effective.
The other thing is that he isn't fast. Bowes had a deserved reputation early in his career for making the ball buzz about the heads of batsmen, which helped in his selection on the 32/33 Australia tour. Yet he was never ranked more than fast-medium, and found that his short bowling was often expensive on the desperately slow, flat pitches that dominated Australia at the time. That said Wagner has shown that you don't need to be quick to severely discomfort batsmen, and the even slower Copeland has recently found success with short stuff in the Sheffield Shield.
Instead Bowes' real strength was in skill, combined with the natural lift of his high, forward delivery and endurance. After repositioning his feet (I assume closing off a little) he learned to swing the ball deftly away as well as in, and in the old-fashioned manner could spin the ball off wet surfaces to devastating effect as he did when he took his best test figures against the West Indies in 1939. This was combined with great accuracy which he may not have possessed had he banked on speed.
His test career, like that of so many an English bowler in the era, was rather stop-start, even though he had the best average of any the main England pace bowlers of the time. His only test in 32/33 yielded his famous wicket of Bradman for a first ball duck, bowled pulling a simple long-hop onto the stumps. Yet this was his only wicket of the match, and when Voce was injured for a later match leg-spinner Mitchell was preferred. He would take 6/34 in a rain-ruined match against New Zealand but never toured again. He bowled well against the powerful 1934 Australian side on flat pitches but never played a full series against any team. After being taken prisoner of war at Tobruk in 1942 he lost much weight and with it his strength and endurance, being only capable of short spells. Although his one post-war test against India was ineffectual he could still get batsmen out domestically. He retired at the end of the 1947 season and went on to have a long career as a writer and journalist.
Two things strike one when watching Bowes. The first is that he is very messy looking, far from the free flowing bowlers of the fifties or the mechanical actions of today. Copying a local club bowler and content with a run up cut down to ten steps when playing for the MCC by that erstwhile advocate of not running far, Walter Brearley, Bowes' delivery is far from what we would expect of a professional bowler. He trotted in (especially later in his career), more a cart-horse than the thoroughbred gallop of today's express bowlers, and crossed his feet awkwardly while landing rather chest on for the time. Raising both arms stiffly up he then simply flopped the left down while the right wheeled around to follow it. Not very pretty, but often devastatingly effective.
The other thing is that he isn't fast. Bowes had a deserved reputation early in his career for making the ball buzz about the heads of batsmen, which helped in his selection on the 32/33 Australia tour. Yet he was never ranked more than fast-medium, and found that his short bowling was often expensive on the desperately slow, flat pitches that dominated Australia at the time. That said Wagner has shown that you don't need to be quick to severely discomfort batsmen, and the even slower Copeland has recently found success with short stuff in the Sheffield Shield.
Instead Bowes' real strength was in skill, combined with the natural lift of his high, forward delivery and endurance. After repositioning his feet (I assume closing off a little) he learned to swing the ball deftly away as well as in, and in the old-fashioned manner could spin the ball off wet surfaces to devastating effect as he did when he took his best test figures against the West Indies in 1939. This was combined with great accuracy which he may not have possessed had he banked on speed.
His test career, like that of so many an English bowler in the era, was rather stop-start, even though he had the best average of any the main England pace bowlers of the time. His only test in 32/33 yielded his famous wicket of Bradman for a first ball duck, bowled pulling a simple long-hop onto the stumps. Yet this was his only wicket of the match, and when Voce was injured for a later match leg-spinner Mitchell was preferred. He would take 6/34 in a rain-ruined match against New Zealand but never toured again. He bowled well against the powerful 1934 Australian side on flat pitches but never played a full series against any team. After being taken prisoner of war at Tobruk in 1942 he lost much weight and with it his strength and endurance, being only capable of short spells. Although his one post-war test against India was ineffectual he could still get batsmen out domestically. He retired at the end of the 1947 season and went on to have a long career as a writer and journalist.
Line and Length
Cricketer Of The Year
Excellent! Especially seeing footage of players that were discussed/still playing when I was a child.