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I have played regular cricket for a number of years but am now not able to spend the many hours required on weekends to play. I have instead taken up indoor cricket. To be specific, this is the standard form of indoor cricket that originated in Australia, but is now played in a number of countries. Full details of the rules etc can be found here.

I have been a decent bowler in outdoor cricket bowling line and length medium pace outswingers with an inswinger and off and leg cutters as variations (the leg cutter also functions as a slower ball). When bowling in indoor cricket though, I am getting worse results than players who on the face of it appear to be much worse bowlers. Clearly I am not adapting my game to the different requirements of indoor cricket. I tend to get driven to the back fence a lot.

Can anyone outline the approach to take when bowling in indoor cricket, given the type of bowler I have been in outdoor cricket?

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    I assume that you used to play with a leather ball when you mean you could swing the ball both the ways outdoors. By indoor cricket, do you still use leather balls or has this shifted to tennis balls? What kind of pitches are used? Matted ones, artificial turf, etc. More information would be useful to provide an answer. Oct 31, 2012 at 16:26
  • Thanks, I've added a link to clarify what I mean by 'Indoor cricket'. In Australia, that term is unambiguous but I guess elsewhere it might be less well known and differences between types of indoor cricket might exist. Oct 31, 2012 at 20:09
  • Are you achieving any swing with the indoor cricket ball?
    – Spinner
    Jun 10, 2013 at 13:17
  • Yes, like a banana. mainly outswing (I'm a RHB) but I can get a more subtle amount of inswing as well. I find the off-cutter a useful variation. I am actually now in a position where I could answer this old question, since I've been playing for a while now and have learned a lot. I was thinking about providing an answer, but please provide an answer if you have any ideas. Jun 11, 2013 at 23:55

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It's not very easy to say what you are doing wrong while bowling in indoor cricket.

As a person who has never played indoor cricket, I cannot pin-point any differences. However, while I play with leather balls and tennis balls, I notice that there is a marked difference in batting and bowling techniques.

Timing the ball is of utmost importance while batting in leather ball cricket and hitting the ball hard is optional, as timing can get the ball to the boundary with very little effort. However in tennis ball cricket, timing is obsolete and power is everything as the ball is very light comparatively and hardly has any momentum while travelling forward compared to a leather ball. I guess the same goes with indoor cricket, as there isn't a huge distance for the ball to be covered.

The adjustment I try to make during bowling with a tennis ball is to knock off the pace for beginners, which forces genuine batsmen to use all their power in getting the ball over the infield or to the boundary. To tail-enders and players who find batting hard, I bowl with full speed which gives them less time to adjust to a particular shot, thereby increasing my changes of getting a wicket. The other adjustment is with the length. As there is no swing with a tennis ball, I drop try to pitch the ball on the short of length spot. This is basically to prevent the batsman from freely swinging his arms to a length/half volley ball. However, the margin of error in tennis ball is very less. Bowl a little forward, the batsman swings you over long-on/off. Drop the ball short and the ball literally stops and stands to be hit over cover or mid-wicket or hooked to the square-leg boundary. Apart from this, variety (quicker/slower deliveries, off/leg cutters, etc) also keeps batsman guessing as to what will come next and increases a chance of a dismissal.

Considering that the balls used in indoor cricket are lighter than the actual leather balls used in outdoor cricket, the above tips might be of help. It takes a bit of practice and knowledge of the places where you can pitch the ball which can help you as you go along. This generally comes with experience. So, I guess the answer would be to play and learn as you go along with each practice session or match and thereby fine-tuning your bowling strengths to indoor cricket bowling.

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I also had this problem. Initially I would go for lot of runs with a tennis ball, but now I try to hold my nerve and bowl a short of a length outside off line. To prevent the batsman from running the ball fine or late cutting it, bluff him with a slip. At the death change your pace a lot and bowl short of length quick and into ribs (no room). Slower balls must be well outside off, even if the batsman gets deceived by the slowness you will get slog swept over midwicket, if it is wide he has to reach for it.

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    Thanks for the response. As with the other answer provided, the issue is that the question is specific to indoor cricket, which has some very difficult rules to summer cricket, particularly the way the scoring works. That is the main issue with getting bowling tactics right in this form of the game, rather than the use of a tennis ball vs an outdoor cricket ball. I think indoor cricket is perhaps not played very much outside of Australia, so this question is probably a little obscure. In any case it is impossible to answer without having played that game. Jun 30, 2013 at 22:30
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We in South Africa call it Action Cricket (Indoor Cricket). The best answer is to bowl in a manner that the batsmen cant hit the "down-up-net" shot. It is where the batsmen hits the ball into the ground and lets the ball bounce high up against the net, this giving him the 1 bonus run and enables him to run the single very easy, scoring 2 runs of every ball is the name of the game and hitting into the ground not to loose your wicket.

So how do you bowl to avoid this? I found it very difficult for the batsmen to play the "down-up-net" shot when the delivery bounces knee or hip height with medium pace.

Hope this answers your question.

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