Batter's behaviour during training when facing a bowling machine and when facing a bowler

Abstract

In cricket, expert batters must develop anticipatory skills to enable them to respond effectively to a delivery by the bowler. The batter is required to judge the delivery and to move into an appropriate position to respond to it within a limited time (i.e. the delivery transit time can be as little as 450ms for fast-paced bowlers). In training, the batter therefore needs to face numerous deliveries to hone this skill. However, because of the natural variation that occurs in bowling and the high impact experienced by the bowler, bowling machines are often employed to provide numerous similar deliveries for practice and to minimize the occurrence of overuse injuries to the bowler. The purpose of the study presented within this paper was to investigate how the batter reacts differently when facing a bowler and when facing a bowling machine. In a controlled single-subject pilot study a batter faced an unfamiliar bowler and also faced a bowling machine. The batter and the bowler or bowling machine were synchronously filmed using high-speed video cameras operating at 500frames/s and the reaction of the batter was analysed under both conditions. It was seen that the batter lifted his bat backwards significantly earlier (0.999s as opposed to 0.838s before ball release) and lifted his front foot significantly later (0.002s as opposed to 0.153s before ball release) when facing the bowling machine and when facing the bowler respectively.