A COMPARISON OF PITCH LENGTH VARIATIONS AND THE ABILITY TO CONTROL LENGTH IN CRICKET FAST BOWLING

This study aimed to identify differences between ball release parameters and different pitch length deliveries in cricket fast bowling. A total of 707 fast bowling trials (bouncers, yorkers, stock balls) performed by 21 male fast bowlers were recorded and used to investigate the variations in ball release parameters. Ball release angle (p \u3c 0.05) was significantly different between all three deliveries, while resultant ball release speed and ball release height of the bouncer deliveries were significantly different (p \u3c 0.05) to yorker and stock deliveries. Furthermore, the success rates of bowlers achieving their intended variation highlighted a difficulty in delivering yorker deliveries compared to bouncer and stock deliveries. Results provide a foundation for coaching and future research, in particularly investigating the kinematic and kinetic factors linked with different length fast bowling deliveries