Bowling
Any ball that goes straight can be hit, no matter how fast it is, because it is predictable. The whole art is making the ball do something the batter did not order, and doing it late enough that they have already committed.
Chapter 1Two lines
Down the left of each card: the thing itself, what goes wrong, what to do, how to win with it
A repeatable action, and something real to aim at
Two lines
Imagine two lines: one running straight out in front of you towards the target, and one running straight up above your head. Your whole action, the arm going back, the arm coming up, the release, stays on those two lines. It is a game of two seconds: from the moment you start your run up to the ball leaving your hand, that action is the only thing you are thinking about. Stay on those two lines and you get the same robot-like consistency every ball: the most accurate, most in control you can be.
The two lines keep the action the same every time. This is what you point it at.
Point at the spot
Look at, and point at, the exact spot where you want the ball to land.
Chapter 2The corridor of uncertainty
Line and length together
Hit the top of the stumps
Bowl a trajectory that, if left alone, would go on to hit the top of the stumps. That combination of line and length is what creates the corridor of uncertainty, it puts the batter in two minds about whether to come forward or stay back. Bowlers who consistently hit that spot take more wickets and concede fewer runs than those who do not, and the principle holds at every level, junior cricket right up to the greatest bowlers in the game’s history.