Page:Cricket (Lyttelton, 1898).djvu/27



get a side out you require two bowlers at least; one at each end, and nine fields, whose places must be arranged according as the circumstances require. Bowling is the most difficult of the arts of cricket to acquire; indeed, so difficult that of it may almost, though not quite, be said, "Nascitur, non fit." You cannot learn from others, or acquire by practice nearly so much for the improvement of your bowling as for that of your batting. Some bowlers have a natural curl in the air, some a break, some a great spin on the ball; but these are all natural gifts, and I have known many instances of their departing as suddenly and as unaccountably as they came. A bowler can acquire by diligent practice a certain command over