Recently, I've been hit a bit over the top down the ground and I've been told it's because I bowl too many deliveries in the same place. Now, I might be missing something here, but I've always been told you build pressure by being consistent? It might be that recently I've been playing against some pretty class teams and it's the better batsmen who do it. Obviously, I do mix it up a bit - the odd shorter ball; occaisional yorker - but if you try to bowl something different every ball doesn't this give the impression of spraying it around?

I suppose my question is twofold, firstly how much should I be trying to mix it up to build pressure but not become too predictable, in your opinion?? And secondly, how do you/do you think it is best to mix it up?

Thanks

It's a hard one as it can really depend on your pace and what you're able to do with the ball.

If you bowl gentle medium pace, with little to no movement then a batsman with a good eye and confident technique may well chance his arm and attack you, especially if he's pretty sure of where the ball will be pitching etc.

There is nothing wrong with putting the ball in consistent areas but you have to be able to do enough with it to keep some element of doubt in the batting sides mind, whether it's with swing, seam or spin or indeed bounce amongst others. 

Also, make sure that you talk to your captain and set fields that help to reinforce any doubt that there may be.  If you are being clobbered over the top, put a man back, make it as hard as possible for them to score.

You can consistently put the ball in the wrong place and that will not help build pressure 

What you want to do is keep the batsmen guessing. If i find a batsmen is going after me, i throw in a bouncer or two, maybe a slower ball or two, try to put him off his timing.

My greatest weapon against batsmen is the ability to target their strengths rather than weaknessess. If I find a batsmen plays really well down the ground, I will drop two men back and cut out his runs there, force him to play a shot he's less comfortable with. You can try things like stacking the offside and constantly bowling wide of off.

Remember, try to build pressure and the mistake will come. Use your field!

and there was me thinking that all bowlers only take wickets with bad balls!

No, only the lucky ones.  All the decent players tend to find that their bad balls are thumped for 4 and the good ones are far too good for the batsman to get a nick on.

oh i c!

When I bowl pace I am very hot and cold, James Anderson-esque if you will. One innings I will be on the spot, take 3 wickets in my allocated 2 overs for 2 runs. Then in the second innings I will for for 15 off my 2 and no wickets (with a few dropped catches off my bowling to make matters worse). What I would give to be able to bowl consitently all the time. Oh and I'm not express, I bowl dibbles with no little amount of dobble.

My advice would be put someone at deep midwicket (if he's heaving) or someone deep and straight. Either that or bowl a lot of slower ones

The general consensus seems to be that just throwing in some form of change - be it change of length, speed or movement - is the way to go.

As far as the field went, the captain was inexperienced and wasn't listening to my advice - hence why there was no long-off and no slip when catches went there.

In terms of speed, I'm not what you might call express, but I'm far from slow either. I think 'nippy' would be reasonably accurate.

as a wicket keeper / captain i always encourage the bowlers to mix it up! something different and un exected always gets wickets

I would try & see where the batsmen is weak. Once I've found it, I experiment with differnent types of deliveries
to see how he plays them & with protection in that area just incase. When I see which ball he(or she) has trouble with
I'll keep that delivery in mind & try to make a plan for his wicket.

top of offstump, moving away slightly. Get a ball which moves in too (inswinger or cutter of it doesn't swing in), slower ball if you're quick enough for a slower ball to not be slowwwww and smashable.

Also, the wickie today really helped my line and length. Simply said "aim it at my gloves." - worked a treat. I was bowling in the last 5 overs of a forty over match and they only hit one four which was really in the air and singles. Think I went for about 3-4 an over with two LBW appeals which were plum... but the umpire was from their team (ah well) and got a couple right through em.

Maybe ask the wicket keeper to do that for you.. it gives you a real good target to work from.

I don't have any sort of problem putting it on a line and length. The problem comes when you go up a level and their top order start having a pop at you after an over or so.

I think I've got more than enough to think about thanks to you guys, just need to try it out in a game sometime.

also... sometimes it's good if they're gettin on that front foot and bangin it... if you've got a good  captain he'll notice, change the field - make them play a different shot and hopefully make a mistake =D

"but if you try to bowl something different every ball doesn't this give the impression of spraying it around?"

hahaha mate, you don't know the meaning of the phrase spraying it around unless you saw me bowl yesterday!!