Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/155

124 inferior batsman, who ought never on his merits to score above 50 runs in an innings, going in ninth or tenth, on perfect wickets, and against fatigued bowlers, finds it easy to hit away all over the place, and the runs come in numbers. The result of such run-getting is in every way pernicious. Drawn games mount up to nearly 50 per cent. of the total number of matches begun, and cricket, the finest game that ever was invented, stands in the inglorious position of being the one game in which such a state of things exists.

Bowling, however the ignorant spectator may regard it, when well done, is one of the finest sights in cricket to the skilled spectator. Yet it is crippled, because on the perfect wickets the shooter is abolished, and the ball cannot be got to turn, which, by causing such a number of runs to be made, throws on bowlers work that has greatly reduced the length of their lives as cricketers.

This state of things has driven bowlers to other expedients. They bowl in a great many cases beyond their strength so as to produce fast balls and length, and the science of the art is thereby