Mixing a fast ball or an off cutter with a bouncer is a great way to confuse the batter. From learning to perfect the reverse swing in the last blog post, today’s post primarily focuses on perfecting the slow and fast ball bouncer. Let’s get started.

Moving to the next blog post, we learn the art of bowling the perfect bouncer. Irrespective of the format, bowling the bouncer in between fast deliveries is the best way to rattle a batter. However, before executing a bouncer, ensure that you read the nature and bounce of the wicket.

As for the grip, place your middle finger and index finger near the seam with your thumb resting under the ball, however, on the seam. The idea to bowl a fast ball bouncer is to surprise a batter to make a mistake. As these are angled towards the rib cage or the shoulder, the batter has less room to play with. However, when you decide to bowl the fast ball bouncer, place a fielder in the deep square leg position. This is to trick the batter to play a pull shot and get caught somewhere near the boundary.

Perfecting the slow ball bouncer

The best part about a bouncer is that it can be perfected regardless of the pace. In this case, the grip stays the same along with the length, which is ideally short. Place your middle finger and index finger near the seam with your thumb underneath, and on the seam to grip the ball.

As you release the ball, roll your fingers to the left of the seam if you need the ball to move away from the batter. On the other hand, add the element of off-cutters to a slow ball bouncer by rolling your fingers pointing towards the leg side of the wicket. This moves the ball into the batter.

Just like the fast ball bouncer, the slow ball bouncer requires practise as perfecting it at the right pace is hard work. As for the next blog, we learn to bowl the yorker.