Legspin Bowling - Length

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someblokecalleddave

someblokecalleddave

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I'm updating my blogs (See links below) and I'll be writing about length, but to be honest length is a bit of a mystery for me and the stuff I've written so far has been a big wishy washy. So, I'm looking for other peoples understanding and descriptions of what a good length is and what variables you have to consider when bowling to batsmem of differing abilities, strengths and approaches. Up till now, the approach I've adopted that was explained to me by an Indian bloke, was to stand with your back foot on the popping crease and then reach out with your bat and arm fully extended and then draw an arc with the bats toe from that position. He said to bowl the ball onto the line created by the imaginary drawn arc. The reason I liked this was because it then follows that depending on the height of the batsman, this imaginary line/arc would differ and it moves on from the advice of bowling at x length from the stump or batsman because needless to say the height of the batsman does make a difference.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Cricket_pitch.svg

In the nets last week I bowled against a very good 1st team batsman, who is also a coach and he was saying that when I was getting the length right, the ball was unplayable and he had no option other than to play a front foot defensive block which then plays right into my hands as it brings in the potential for the ball to find the edge and be caught by the keeper or slips. Reading Woolmer (The art and science of cricket) he talks about decisions having to be made as soon as the ball is released and if the ball is bowled above the eye-level. If the ball then is estimated to be travelling on a trajectory that is neither full or short and on that mystical length to cause indecision, that's when the problems are caused because the initial plan to play the ball with an agressive shot has to then be scrapped and an evasive/defensive approach has to be adopted. Does this sound right, has anyone got any other opinions or theories as I'd be interested in hearing what you've got to say especially if you're a half decent batsman who like playing spin.
 
From my observations in the nets I would say a good length for me varies between about 8 1/2 feet to about 13 feet from the stumps. Anything outside this range for all batsman is a bad ball, with the possible exception being a yorker length.
Within this range the shorter lengths of 12-13 feet seem to only trouble the lesser batsman or if I bowl a bit quicker. From this 8 1/2 to 13 foot range I then try and find the lenght that gets the batsman on the front foot. I notice 90% of the wickets I get occur when the batsman is on the front foot.
The hardest batsman I find to bowl to are good back foot players. They get on the back foot early and because of the bouncyness of the synthetic wickets there is little chance of them getting bowled or lbw. So I push the length up further and further to get them on the front foot and then overpitch and its easy for them to drive. I find with these batsman that there is a very small area of 2foot that is a good length. I need to really work on my slider for these batsman.
These lenghts are individual to me of course for sythetic wickets but I think the theory is good, first working out your bigger range and then working out the length within that range for each individual batsman.
I get excited when a batsman starts coming forward and disappointed when they go back basically.
 
chippyben said:
From my observations in the nets I would say a good length for me varies between about 8 1/2 feet to about 13 feet from the stumps. Anything outside this range for all batsman is a bad ball, with the possible exception being a yorker length.
Within this range the shorter lengths of 12-13 feet seem to only trouble the lesser batsman or if I bowl a bit quicker. From this 8 1/2 to 13 foot range I then try and find the lenght that gets the batsman on the front foot. I notice 90% of the wickets I get occur when the batsman is on the front foot.
The hardest batsman I find to bowl to are good back foot players. They get on the back foot early and because of the bouncyness of the synthetic wickets there is little chance of them getting bowled or lbw. So I push the length up further and further to get them on the front foot and then overpitch and its easy for them to drive. I find with these batsman that there is a very small area of 2foot that is a good length. I need to really work on my slider for these batsman.
These lenghts are individual to me of course for sythetic wickets but I think the theory is good, first working out your bigger range and then working out the length within that range for each individual batsman.
I get excited when a batsman starts coming forward and disappointed when they go back basically.
Click to expand...

Not being a batsman at all, how do you think they prefer to play spin - back foot or front foot and what would the pros and cons of either approach be from their point of view?
 
My understanding of length comes from Bob Woolmer's book, where he says that it has been found that batsman need 0.2 of a second to adjust his stroke. This sets one limiting factor - how far away from a batsman is too short, since if it pitches more that 0.2 seconds before it reaches the batsman he has time to adjust. The other limiting factor is how full you can bowl without the batsman coming forward (while staying within his crease) to make it a full toss. So my understanding is you have an area determined on the full end by the length of the batsman's stride and on the short end by how fast you bowl.

That said, where the ball actually pitches probably doesn't matter as much as where the batsman thinks it's going to pitch, so a flipper that pitches on a yorker length, or a top-spinner fractionally short, may not be bad balls provided the batsman misreads the length as being in the area described above.
 
not had a chance to read through the posts in full, but i find my perfect length is about 2-3 yards from the bat. short enough that the batsman cant just smother the ball, but full enough that he still wants/has to come forwards to it. if the batsman can play off the back foot then youre too short. if hes able to smother it easily then its too full. length varies with the style of batsman.
 
As above but also length is dependant on pitch as well. if it's coming on faster you should bring it back to you a bit so that it continues to be troublesome, but if it's slow and being held up you have to push it towards the batsmen slightly. Just remember, a good length in the nets probably isn't going to be a good length in game.
 
Chap3rs said:
As above but also length is dependant on pitch as well. if it's coming on faster you should bring it back to you a bit so that it continues to be troublesome, but if it's slow and being held up you have to push it towards the batsmen slightly. Just remember, a good length in the nets probably isn't going to be a good length in game.
Click to expand...

So in essence it's not as simple as a bunch of numbers, it's all down to indecipherable variables, which I think I stated at the start. I think last years match at the start of the season where I went for 10 an over against that bloke that scored 200 was in part due to 'Net aclimatisation'.
 
There is no single length which can be bowled to all batsmen. It depends upon the batsman's reach, as to where you pitch your leg spinning delivery. You must bowl a length, which is uncomfortable to the batsman. Some batsmen like the delivery pitched a little short, while others like the delivery pitched more full. It is absolutely impossible to say, which is the ideal length. To keep the art of leg spin pure, I suggest that bowlers bowl the same line. This will make it easier for the bowler to gauge the length that he should bowl.
 
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