How to bowl at the death?

[cnerd123]

Agree with HB. Bowling in the death is all about defying batsmen's expectations. Sometimes you can just bowl to a field, or repeat a specific delivery to good effect, but only if the skill gap between you and the batter is significant. Otherwise you're just trying to stay one step ahead, which can sometimes mean objectively bad balls (like a slower ball bouncer) can be a better choice than an objectively good ball (such as a yorker).

Having a good analyst on hand also helps a lot when it comes to preparing death bowling strategies to specific batters. Identify their main scoring zones and shut them down, find which types of deliveries they struggle to put away and bowl those non stop.

 

[thierry henry]

Modern batsmen set themselves up to hit slightly misdirected yorkers. Not just that, but there isn't even such a thing as a "perfect yorker" since the batsman just has to shuffle forward, back, or to the side and then your yorker ain't a yorker no more.

Trying to bowl yorkers every ball is basically telling the batsman that every slight miss is going to be in their arc and that they just have to move a little bit if you aren't missing.

So with that being said, I dunno how y'all can really think that yorker yorker yorker is still the way

 

[TheJediBrah]

The first thing about bowling at the death is to not be predictable.

This has been step 1 in the coaching manual for a while now and it's being followed to excess. All anyone cares about is being unpredictable and a lot of the time they end up bowling trash both sides of the wicket that it is impossible to set a field to. Some of the best death bowling even recently has been utterly predictable, eg. wide yorkers. The batsman knows it's coming, the field is set for it, but it still works.

Trying to be unpredictable at the expense of things like bowling to a set field, and the consistency of a repeatable action/line & length, is leading even some of the best bowlers astray.

 

[honestbharani]

This has been step 1 in the coaching manual for a while now and it's being followed to excess. All anyone cares about is being unpredictable and a lot of the time they end up bowling trash both sides of the wicket that it is impossible to set a field to. Some of the best death bowling even recently has been utterly predictable, eg. wide yorkers. The batsman knows it's coming, the field is set for it, but it still works.

Trying to be unpredictable at the expense of things like bowling to a set field, and the consistency of a repeatable action/line & length, is leading even some of the best bowlers astray.

Yeah.. which is why I said its the first thing and not the only thing. To me, there is no such thing as a certain way to be successful at the death. It depends on your strengths as a bowler for the most part and to some extent, on the strengths of the batters facing up to you. One thing is for sure though, you ain't gonna be a good death bowler if you are a one trick pony. In fact, that applies to all of LO bowling.

Also, as @Manee pointed out, bowling at the death at the highest level is different to bowling at the death at the club level, say. So, at that level, specific deliveries like leg cutters and maybe even decently landed knuckle balls can be killer stuff, even more than yorkers which have always been hard to nail consistently at all levels.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yeah.. which is why I said its the first thing and not the only thing.

The reason I focused on that as an issue is because of how prevalent it is in the professional game right now. If there was a side that players are erring on right now it's too much "unpredictability" not enough consistency. Maybe just trying to bowl Yorkers in the same spot 100% of the time isn't the ideal method, but a bit more of that and a bit less of the "unpredictability" would improve a lot of current professional death bowling.

 

[honestbharani]

The reason I focused on that as an issue is because of how prevalent it is in the professional game right now. If there was a side that players are erring on right now it's too much "unpredictability" not enough consistency. Maybe just trying to bowl Yorkers in the same spot 100% of the time isn't the ideal method, but a bit more of that and a bit less of the "unpredictability" would improve a lot of current professional death bowling.

Sure, but its what you get when you got so many analysts and number crunchers working in a sport.

 

[NotMcKenzie]

Modern batsmen set themselves up to hit slightly misdirected yorkers. Not just that, but there isn't even such a thing as a "perfect yorker" since the batsman just has to shuffle forward, back, or to the side and then your yorker ain't a yorker no more.

Having watch foreign bowlers bowl against Australia and vice versa, I don't buy any of that in the context of internationals at least. Sure, if Ben Laughlin is bowling in the Big Bash, it might be a different story.

Nothing's completely clear cut and sometimes things happen (and sometimes not), but those statements I see continually trotted out as excuses for when a bowler makes a hash of it at the death and fails to use yorkers while doing so.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Having watch foreign bowlers bowl against Australia and vice versa, I don't buy any of that in the context of internationals at least. Sure, if Ben Laughlin is bowling in the Big Bash, it might be a different story.

Nothing's completely clear cut and sometimes things happen (and sometimes not), but those statements I see continually trotted out as excuses for when a bowler makes a hash of it at the death and fails to use yorkers while doing so.

One of the main reasons is the emergence of the lap/scoop. Makes full and straight bowling harder to set a field to. Still don't think it's a good enough reason to avoid it though.

 

[Manee]

Interesting discussion, right?

 

[NotMcKenzie]

One of the main reasons is the emergence of the lap/scoop. Makes full and straight bowling harder to set a field to. Still don't think it's a good enough reason to avoid it though.

It's been around a while though, and having seen bowlers who do clearly actually put thought into bowling yorkers (i.e. not Australians) still successfully do so in spite of it being played, it only goes so far as an explanation. I reckon scoops happen more often with pitched deliveries as well, or loopier, slower full tosses.

That said, it'd make my day if a batsman had to be carried off after being hit while trying to scoop.

 

[NotMcKenzie]

That said, again, my perspective is mostly based on watching the difference between Big Bash and Internationals

 

[karan_fromthestands]

This is an interesting read.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ottis-gibsons-guide-to-death-bowling-vbzw3mcwq

 

[Flem274*]

150kph inswinging yorkers

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

What if the death begins at the start of the innings?

 

[Manee]

What if the death begins at the start of the innings?

To tell you the truth, the more I watch the more I feel that a good length - not the slot and not short of a length, is difficult to hit at all times of the innings. If a batsman can hit a good length ball which is top of off then good on them but it feels the "slot" balls are a bit fuller than that.

Is there a conflation between good length bowling and the slot?

 

[Manee]

150kph inswinging yorkers

Yes. AB has retired - those balls are safe now!