BOWLING
Captains cannot ever set a field for people bowling both sides of the wicket.
You must aim to bowl a line on one side of the wicket and this ought to be the off-side. Can we all in the future work hard at bowling an offline so that every ball goes down the off.
It helps if you look down the line that you intend to bowl and direct your front arm in that direction.
Concentrate from the time you start your run-up. Concentrate on what? Two things only – what you going to bowl and where are you going to bowl it. .e.g. what’ (an off-break) where’ (9 Inches outside the off-stump and on a full length) exclude everything else from your mind.
It is said that the biggest cause of inaccuracy is worrying about the action etc. when you bowl, you mustn’t. Sessions connected with working on actions should be separate and specific.
Length
Not only is it difficult to set a field when a bowler bowls both sides of the wicket, it is equally hard when he bowls 3 half volleys and 3 long hops i.e. 3 to which the batsman scores off the front foot and three to which he scores off the back foot.
Consider
Shots that can be played off the front foot:-
Off-drive, on-drive, straight drive, glance, sweep
Shots that can be played off the back foot:-
Glance, late cut, square cut, pull, hook and all the drives
As a bowler you should seek to restrict the shots a batsman can play and for this reason alone it is wise to keep him on the front foot.
Where exactly do I bowl?
Ideally it’s where the batsman is unsure whether to play off the front foot or the back foot. Its about half way between a short pitched delivery and full Pitched delivery
The classic answer is to bowl as short as you can, but still to bring the batsman front foot. I hope this is clear hence the lengths diagram. I am not discouraging bowlers from pinning batsmen on the back foot, but you need to be quick and the pitch has to have bounce in it.
Swing bowlers need to bowl a fuller length. The longer a ball is in the air the more it has the chance to swing. Seam bowler tend to bowl a bit shorter and bang it into the pitch, They would still be wise to bowl the length suggested above.