Page:Jubilee Book of Cricket (Second edition, 1897).djvu/220

198 ball, not to sacrifice getting over the ball to the desire of making a very forcible stroke. Slow bowling is not very easy to cut, as the ball has no particular impetus of its own. It is a mistake to try to hit a slow bowler to the boundary every ball he bowls. The great thing is to watch the ball and exercise a certain amount of self-restraint. It is an old saying, and a true one, that people get themselves out off slow bowling more often than the bowler gets them out. The one ball, especially from a slow bowler, that a batsman ought to be able to treat as he likes is the long-hop. Such balls should be made the most of: they do not come too often.

Batsmen are prone to certain weaknesses and faults apart from badly played strokes. The chief of these is nervousness, the paralysing effects of which most of us know only too well. I do not believe a batsman ever existed who has not fallen a victim to this weakness at one time or another. Beginners are proverbially nervous. Nervousness usually comes either from lack of confidence or from a desire to do oneself justice in some particular match. Few batsmen have been lucky enough to feel quite comfortable the first time they played in school or university matches, to say nothing of county matches and Gentlemen v. Players. A player feels as if the eyes of the whole world are upon him, and that he owes his side a certain amount of runs. In addition, he is keen to do himself justice. It is not difficult to see that the terrors of bowling increase with the batsman's desire not to get out. In his nervousness he is afraid to play his own game, and he is hardly likely to succeed well if he plays some one else's game, or nobody's game, instead. Young players should try to get over this weakness as soon as possible, otherwise they are sure to be handicapped in their progress in the game. Perhaps the best thing to do is to try and convince oneself that nervousness is nothing more nor less than mere sensitiveness. It is a great mistake ever to alter one's game save under extraordinary conditions. Another fault or weakness to which batsmen are prone is over-eagerness to score their first run. Players have a feverish desire to "crack their duck's egg," as it is called. Personally I cannot see that a man is more disgraced by getting no runs at all than by only getting one or two. When it comes to the second innings, and it is a question of a "pair-of-spectacles," good batsmen sometimes play as if they had never had a bat in their hands before. It is a great mistake to bustle oneself in any circumstances. As long as the batsman is at the wicket he has a chance of