Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/255

 every time the ball got past the batsman it hit the wicket. No greater compliment can be paid to any bowler, for his ability to do it shows that he has perfect command of the ball. If the bowler be right-handed, he breaks, as a rule, from the off; if left-handed, generally from leg. Here and there you may find a phenomenon who can do it both ways; but then he is a phenomenon, and one does not write for that class of bowler.

The state of the wicket has much to do with the amount of break to be obtained. When it is dry and hard you must be content with very little indeed; but after heavy rains, with a strong sun drying it, you may be able to perform wonders. A. G. Steel and Spofforth amongst the amateurs, Peate, Alfred Shaw and J. C. Shaw amongst the professionals, used to perform great things then, the amount of curl they got on being simply astonishing. Mr. D. Buchanan, Jimmy Southerton and Barratt belonged to that school; and Messrs. Turner and Ferris, and Peel and Briggs, of our own time, are very effective also.

The next point to be considered is: learn something about the nature and condition of the wicket on which you are bowling. Nothing shows the experienced captain so much as the thought he exercises before a match. Before he has tossed for choice of innings, he has examined the wicket carefully, taken into consideration the changes which are likely to occur during the next hour or two, and deliberated whether they will be in favour of the batsman or the bowler. Surely it is not too much to expect the bowler, upon whom so much depends, to give the same thought.

Remember it is a very old saying that "a match well made is half won." There are very few grounds on which a bowler may not find one end more helpful than the other. Perhaps there is a slight slope which will enable him to get a great deal of twist on the ball, or