STROKES BOWLERS DO NOT LIKE . 
329 
length into a half- volley, and makes the 
bowler wonder what he has done to deserve 
such treatment. This stroke is usually 
regarded as purely a punitive effort, as 
something intended to knock the cover half 
off the ball. So it is when it is a drive, but 
if I may be pardoned the apparent contra- 
diction there is a variety of this quick-footed 
drive which is purposely not 
quite so vigorous, and may 
on occasion be nothing but 
an ordinary forward stroke 
played at the end of a 
journey instead of in the 
usual manner. 
The stroke is most useful 
in dealing with that wicked 
ball which pitches just where 
one does not care about 
playing back to it, and 
where a forward stroke 
played in orthodox fashion 
means nothing but a blind 
lunge forward at where you 
hope and trust the ball will 
be when your bat happens 
to get in its way. The 
“ half-cock ” stroke is a use- 
ful compromise when a bats- 
man is in this predicament, 
but I do not think he need 
be in such an undecided 
frame of mind as to affow 
the ball to hit the bat, if 
he steps out and simply 
plays as good a forward 
stroke as he can without 
indulging in the risk 
inseparable from a strong, hard drive. 
But if, as is so frequently the case, the 
ball a batsman goes out to meet is the one 
he means to smite right lustily, then he must 
never overlook one golden rule, neglect of 
which has lost more wickets than anything 
else incidental to any one stroke. From the 
moment a batsman decides to depart from 
his crease to drive a ball, he must forget 
everything behind him. Any idea of missing 
the ball acts as a species of self-hypnotism, 
which reduces the would - be aggressive 
batsman to ridiculous impotence. 
As regards the method of running out, 
there. is scarcely a point in cricket on which 
individuals differ so greatly. Some batsmen 
seem to shuffle out towards the ball with a 
kind of gliding action, others make a distinct 
run of it, others keep the left foot forward 
all the time and advance by bringing the 
right foot up with a continuous and rapid 
AGGRESSi VE BATSMAN TO RIDICULOUS 
IMPOTENCE.” 
“ change step ” action, others make one 
step and a big jump, which brings them down 
with both feet together ready for their 
prodigious smite, and some of the most 
powerful, quick-footed drivers the game has 
ever seen have seldom made more than one 
big jump of it before getting to work with 
the bat to good purpose. 
The queer part of it is 
that either of the foregoing 
methods appears to answer 
equally well, so the indivi- 
dual batsman seems quite at 
liberty to choose which ever 
method of progression ap- 
peals to hkn personally. 
But I should like to suggest 
that the method which 
keeps the eyes as level as 
possible while the batsman 
is on the move is always 
preferable. No matter how 
the batsman may get to the 
pitch of the ball, he must 
arrive well balanced, and 
with his feet so nearly in 
line with the ball that he 
has the essential command 
over the stroke. Then the 
action of the arms and 
wrists does not differ from 
that employed in the ordi- 
nary firm-footed drive. 
In each case the bat 
moves in a perfectly straight 
line. It is lifted straight 
and easily, and swung in 
the same manner, its course 
view r ed sideways, looking 
just for all the world like a diagram of a 
high trajectory turned upside down, and 
flattened considerably soon after its com- 
mencement. In other words, the swing is 
a sharp curve downwards at first, then sweeps 
along at about the same height for some 
distance, and finally rises again into a sharp 
curve as the stroke is completed. The 
longer the bat can be kept in that straightened 
portion of its circular swing — to contradict 
myself in w r ords but not in meaning — the 
greater the certainty of hitting the bail well 
and truly. And as body movement gives 
this peculiar action to the swiftly-moving 
bat, it is easy to see how important it is that 
at the end of his journey the man intent on 
accomplishing a quick-footed drive should be 
well poised. Then he is quite capable of 
hitting the right sort of ball for six — the one 
stroke above all others a bowler does not like. 
through the air, 
