Being a swing bowler, bowling at the death is just an added facet in my bowling.
Whatever happens in the lower body is in direct relation to what is happening in the upper body, as far as bowling is concerned.
My father was one of the greatest professional bowlers of all time. Seriously. Billy Hardwick: PBA Hall of Fame, Player of the Year in ’63 and ’69, and the first winner of the triple crown of bowling, among other things.
Bowling at Steve Smith in his form is difficult and you have to make sure you take all your chances.
When I was a kid, I was at a bowling alley and I ran into a soda machine. I still have the scar on my right eyebrow obviously.
By the time I was 7, I did walk-ons, catalogue modeling, you name it. In the Queens where I grew up, you didn’t go bowling on Saturday; you went to dancing school.
All these years I have spent bowling have helped me understand the game better.
There has definitely been an improvement in my bowling in terms of pace and variations like the slower ball and knuckle-ball. To add to that, I have improved fitness-wise.
When you go to Australia you are always asked whether you can perform in hostile environments against high pace and every Australian side I have played against has had guys bowling over 90mph.
I have been bowling at the death sometimes. You need to focus. You know if you miss your target, you will go for a boundary, but it’s also good because it makes you a really good bowler. You practise hard, and you try to bowl in one area most of the time.
I’m now comfortable bowling long spells. Strength training has brought the pace up.
I’m happy when I’m juggling, but I feel like I’ve gone from, like, 3 balls to 10 bowling balls. But, that’s a good problem. I don’t really have a complaint about that.
You can be in India bowling at 90mph and it doesn’t matter because the wickets are flat and the batsmen are really good.
Every bowling center should have a house pro.
It is scary when bowling how hard batsmen hit it now.
I’ve been bowling for so long, and I really, really enjoy it.
I used to bowl a lot of seam-up for Tamil Nadu and then my pelvic disc slipped. Then I just started batting, I didn’t want to bowl at all. I wanted to do nothing with bowling.
Down the mine I dreamed of cricket; I bowled imaginery balls in the dark; I sent the stumps spinning and heard them rattling in the tunnels. No mishap was going to stop me from bowling in the real game, especially this one.
I was a little, skinny, runt kid, and I decided that bowling was what I was going to do in life.
The classical art of spin bowling, how you should bowl in Test match cricket, is disappearing.
I think it’s related. Batting and captaincy or bowling or captaincy. If you are doing your job well as a batsman, then the same confidence comes in to what you do as a leader.
In 2004 in England, there was one catch that was very special to me. I was bowling in a league match, and the batsman hit the ball over my head. I had to run back to between mid-off and mid-on to take the catch, and I did.
With my bowling, I didn’t know how I was doing it, so when it went wrong I didn’t know how to fix it.
Bowling was my natural skill. I didn’t know how I was doing it, but I was spinning it miles and bamboozling people.
Once you have a good bowling attack that can take 20 wickets anywhere, then no game is an away game. Every game is a home game. It doesn’t matter what the pitch is, you have the ammunition.
I have no idea what it is about bowling. It’s just a love I have for it. I can’t even explain why. Bowling is just fun for me.
Building a mechanical device for its appearance is like putting lace on a bowling ball.
I’ve dated girls and I always wait for that one right time to kiss. I don’t kiss on the first date, so I’ll take a girl out to dinners, and we’ll go bowling, and I make sure to charm them before I do it.
I performed in a bowling alley before while people were still bowling. Cut the check, and I will perform anywhere.
I go bowling, but I’m not very good!
I would have enjoyed Twenty20. A couple of things: it would have suited my batting style, and of course, it would have suited my bowling too. Because you need a lot of varieties in Twenty20.
I don’t think it matters too much if you are batting or bowling first on this pitch. The wicket remains the same throughout the 40 overs. There is only the dew factor that probably comes in the second innings.
There are a lot of misconceptions that we can’t play fast bowling or we can’t bowl fast. We should have mixed matches. I have also played a lot of matches against boys because that’s how we train.
It is always challenging bowling abroad – you don’t get much spin, bounce. You do get bounce, but you don’t get sideways spin. It is always drifting kind of spin you get.
I loved playing at Lord’s – I ended up with 26 wickets at 11.50 from three Tests there. Maybe the wicket, because of the slope, was perfect for my style of bowling.
I guess bowling is pretty mechanical. It’s kind of a natural motion, but you have to stick within those mechanics.
I was not picked immediately at any level, be it Under-14, Under-16 or Under-19. So apart from my batting, I bowled legspin. In one of the selection tournaments for Mumbai Under-19, I happened to pick 34 wickets. So I was finally picked, but as a bowling allrounder.
If I am the captain, I will not even give the ball to anyone. I will keep bowling from one end.
Bowling really was a big American sport in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, and then it kind of died off in the ’80s.
I’d like to explore the more abstract side of people’s minds, as opposed to the usual sitcom stuff. I don’t want to do the typical sitcom-type humor. I’d want to do stuff like go bowling with pineapples.
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