Bowler facts for kids
A bowler is a person who bowls a ball to the batsman in the game of cricket. Unlike the pitcher in a game of baseball, a bowler delivers with a straight arm (see photo). A ball bowled with the elbow bent is a throw, and that is illegal.
A bowler who can also bat well, is called an all rounder. There are different types of bowler, and a cricket team will usually have a mix of different types.
Fast bowler
A fast bowler uses simple speed to defeat a batsman. They can send the ball to the batsman at a speed of 145 km/h. They take a long run up before bowling each ball to build speed. Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan was the first to bowl at a speed of 160 km/h. Another famous fast bowler is Australian Brett Lee.
Medium pace bowler
A medium pace bowler bowls more slowly. They often use other tricks to defeat the batsman. They can get the ball able to curve in the air or change the speed or length (where the ball hits the ground) to fool the batsman. Some are very accurate so they can repeatedly send the ball to a place which forces the batsman to defend rather than scoring runs. Others grip the ball so that it lands on its seam; this makes the path of the ball unpredictable.
Spin bowler
A spin bowler usually bowls quite slowly and puts a lot of spin on the ball which makes it bounce at an angle off the ground. This makes the batsman play each ball carefully. Generally spin bowlers give up the most runs but they all have "tricks" that they use to fool the batsman and get him or her out. These tricks are given names such as the arm ball, googly, flipper, topspinner or doosra. Spin bowling is very much about fooling the batsman rather than speed. A fast off spin is the normal off spin action but with more pace. Off spin is when the cricket ball spins towards a right-handed batsmen's bat (bowler's left to right). With more pace, there usually is less turn (amount of spin). Off-spin is also called an off-break or finger spin. A famous spin bowler was the Australian Shane Warne, but his type was the leg break, which uses the wrist to spin the ball from the bowler's right to left. This is varied with the top spin, when the ball comes on straight and low.
Images for kids
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Spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan bowling to the batsman, Adam Gilchrist
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Australian fast bowler Brett Lee in action in 2005.
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Philadelphian cricketer Bart King bowling
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Jim Allenby in midflight, illustrating the position of the body during a delivery at the end of a run up, prior to bowling the ball.
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The typical bowling action of a fast bowler.
