Page:The Cricket Field (1854).djvu/192

168 according to the length of the ball. A ball so far pitched as to require little stride of left leg, will be hit with nearly a straight bat: a ball as short as you can stride to, will require nearly horizontal bat. The ball you can reach with straight bat, will go off on the principle of tie cover-hit—the more square the better. But, when a ball is only just within reach, by using a horizontal bat, you know where to find the bill just before it has risen; for, your bat covers the space about the pitch. If you reach far enough, even a shooter may be picked up; and if a few inches short of the pitch, you may have all the joyous spring of a half-volley. The better pitched the bowling, the easier is the hit, if the ball be only a little to the leg. In using a horizontal hit, if you cannot reach nearer than about a foot from the pitch, sweep your bat through the line in which the ball should rise. Look at fig. 7. p. 173. The bat should coincide with or sweep a fair bat's length of that dotted line. But if the point of the bat cannot reach to within a foot of the pitch, that ball must be played back.

needs no comment, save that, according as it is more or less to the wicket, you may,—1. Draw it; 2. Play it by a new hit, to be explained, a Draw or glance outside your leg; 3. You may step back on your wicket to gain space, and play it away to