Okay so while the game was going the other night i started to take some notes on peoples bowling to aim to give you some tips. Obviously i don’t really know what i am talking about, and i am purely basing these off years of sitting on the couch watching cricket and watching Richie talk through people’s actions in the slow mo camera. So hardly a pro. Some of the comments are based off watching you bowl multiple times and seeing you do a good one and a bad and noticing what you did different between the two and then watching for you to do it again to see the result.

On the cricket centre in town, i found it after a bit of a search. Its behind the chemist warehouse (i walked past havey norman with no love.. heh). They have 2 nets, each with a bowling machine. Can’t practice bowling there at present. 25 bucks to hire a pitch for an hour. Can get through about 200 odd balls in that time. Two pitches would be 50 bucks.

So yeah.. don’t take it personal or anything silly like that, just trying to help. I chatted to Duncan today and he noticed a few things as well. So When we practice we should chat to each other about actions etc.

Ivan – Not much to talk about really. Action is much better now than it was back in the sore back days. I reckon you should bowl a few more balls pitching on middle and leg. You tend swing/seam it outwards to the right hander, or at worst straighten down the line. Most of your balls seem to pitch on or outside off stump, which is good. But if you got them to pitch on middle and leg and then do what they do you have a chance at the stumps, and it’s also harder to hit (especially to people with no foot work). Also usual comment that you bowl no balls based on your feet. 3 of the 6 in the second over were no balls. Shouldn’t always rely on the umpires to be ignorant/blind.

Duncan – All good, just need more variation of your bowling. Hopefully in time as everyone else improves you might be able to slow it down a fraction and get more movement.

Tim – Your problem seems to be very much in your hands/release. The ball just seems to launch, almost like an airball in basketball, with no rotation of any kind (even not bowling spin should have some rotation backwards). Which to me implies you are releasing it fractionally early, and maybe not holding it tight enough. With a pace delivery you want your pointer and middle finger to run down the back of the ball. When ling bowls a good ball he tends to have great hand/fingers. Watch his.

Ling – Your problem seems to be with your feet. Your last step and delivery stride are tiny. You really want to be planting that back foot and stretching that front foot out in front of you more. It serves as the foundation of your bowl.. so if it’s nice and straight, hopefully the ball should be too. Plus it’s what builds the momentum of your body rotation. So with a better delivery stride your bowling would probably be a notch faster. Which, with your nice ball release (which consistency of will come with practice obvious) the ball will swing more (or at least swing more with older balls that mightn’t have swung for you before).

Manny – Your issue seems to be that your delivery stride isn’t always consistent. When you get it right there is very little to go wrong with the rest of your action. But sometimes you feet aren’t pointing in the right direction, they are pointing more down leg side, and then the ball follows it. Often when you do that you body is also a bit askew, which means you don’t get a full rotation, which is probably why the balls strays to leg.

Dave – Your bowling is all pretty good, but the one thing that stands out is that your left arm seems to get in the way in your delivery rotation. Which slows down, or at least pre-emptively ends the rotation. You want to try and lead with your left arm more so that when you rotate it comes down past your left hip, instead of ending in front of your thighs. With a slightly fuller rotation, and a little more practice on getting the hand release perfect you would probably bowl a bit quicker.

X-sane - Perfect! Everyone should just watch this guy bowl and try to reproduce his action as best as possible.