The art of tackling the pacemen

By A. C. De Silva

FLASHBACK: It's a must that the batsman taking strike must watch the bowler as he runs up to deliver the ball. As the bowler comes up near the delivery stride, the batsman must concentrate on his bowling arm and after that, it's back to basics and the instinctive reactions.

The batsman usually has a slight backlift at the start of his knock, may be a foot off the ground - and the bat would be going up as the bowler lets fly. It's then a spit-second thing, you can't wait to see where the ball is going to pitch, you pick up the line and its trajectory and work out instinctively whether it is on a full length or dropping short. You're on your own and have to back your judgement, such as it is. You can coach someone in the nets and send him out to the wicket with all the right theories in his hand, but then the batsman has to pick the correct shot for the appropriate ball.

Judging bounce

If the wicket's a bouncy one, you have to be extra careful to get behind the line, Lillee and Thomson got stacks of wickets in Australia against the West Indies and the English by surprising them with their bounce.

A typical dismissal would be when the batsman was surprised by the extra bounce, so that he was out of position and lamely edging the ball to Marsh or one of those superb slip fielders. Many of these deliveries would never have hit the stumps, but they kept coming in at the batsman so he was mesmerised eventually.

Players like Redpath and Boycott were always masters at swaying out of the way of such deliveries - they could pick up the line and the ball so quickly that they could easily sway gently away, even though the ball was fairly straight. Anyone would agree with this method on English wickets where the bounce isn't so steep, but it works in Australia too.

A different technique is needed on a typical English seamer's wicket. You need your pads as a second line of defence because the fall can deviate so much - if you're playing forward, and one should not play a shot and the ball nips back and hits your pad, you usually won't be given out lbw.

This is the way to avoid being bowled 'through the gate', i.e., when the ball passes between your bat and pad. This is a typical dismissal on a seamer's wicket and you must have that pad close to the bat and get well forward if the ball's keeping low.

Batsmen should not worry about lunging forward because if you're hit on the pad, the chances you're too far forward or the ball would have missed the stumps, so that you won't be given out lbw.

If you're getting dismissed a lot in the bat/pad position at short leg, perhaps that's because you're not hitting the ball hard enough - most of the catches in that position are from little nudges an half-cock shots, so follow through with your attacking shot and if the bloke at pad/pad picks you up off a full-blooded shot, then he deserves your wicket.

Playing swing

Late swing needs to be played calmly, a batsman should not commit oneself too soon.

Try to pick up the line of the ball quickly, but the batsman must remember it doesn't really start to swing until it's half way towards you.

The late out swinger is a problem - the batsman can have it nicely lined up about leg and middle, it starts to swing a little and you aim for the on-side, but then it straightens up and you're out lbw or (even worse) clean bowled. No real physical worries about swing bowling, but it keeps the person on his toes mentally.

To hook or not

One thing the batsman has to work for himself when facing fast bowling - is whether the batsman is going to play the hook or the pull shots? The batsman has to decide if he plays them well enough, so the batsman needs to take some advice and get in the nets to practice against short-hitched fast bowling.

If you can play them properly, you will be able to make a lot of runs and the batsman need not worry if he gets out to the hook or the pull now and then.

England batsman Graham Gooch says that he doesn't play the hook shot unless he is well settled, the bowlers are tired and he is seeing the ball well.

Viv Richards is the best hooker and puller of the fast stuff that he (Gooch) has seen. Anything fractionally short, Richards "murders". The former cricket great Sir Vivan Richards gave the impression that he could still do some damage at the crease.

Richards - a striking figure

Bowlers around the world once featured the powerfully built Richards, who remains a striking figure with hawk nose and shaven head. He has been the chairman of selectors for the West Indies Cricket Board.

The West Indies, who in Richards' late 1970s and 1980s era set a record for consecutive Test wins at 11, are no longer the swaggering stars of the world game.

And Richards' cricket empire embraces more than a dozen English-speaking Caribbean countries. Everyone has an opinion on what to do.

Though there may well be problems on the way, the former West Indies captain took the job the moment it was offered.

Cricket is a way of life in the Caribbean. Given time, Richards says he is certain that success will return.

Then Clive Lloyd gets over the ball well and rarely seems ruffled by the 'quickies'. Graeme Wood, the Australian opening batsman, plays the fast men well - very much an on-side player and not much of a driver, but nudges and deflects well and seems to enjoy the challenge.

Playing fast bowling can be fun if you get it right - but it's never as much fun as playing spin bowling.