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[FattusCattus]

Just interested in batsmen's preferences as I tinker about with my bowling to make a quart out of a pint pot.

I am a lefty who bowls dribbly little in-duckers - on a good day, I can swing it a little bit and swing it late, but bowling around the wicket, I can't really move it away from the RH batsman and I;ve been denied a lot of (plumb!) LBWs!!!

My thinking is do I keep bowling round the wicket and hope to straighten the odd one, or do I try over the wicket, pitching on or just outside off to swing in and hit the stumps. If I bowl over the wicket, my 'straight-onner' will actually go away from the right hander with the angle, thus add a bit more variety.

My question to you batter types is what would you find trickier - left arm in-duckers from round the wicket or over the wicket (bearing in mind from over the wicket I would be able to get more deliveries to go away)?

Just intrigued as to what people might think would be more effective?

[roco]

From over the wicket is more difficult for me as you have the natural variation that will sometimes make the ball go straight on so you can't just plant

from round you can line up the arm easier and pick your shot earlier

[GoodLeave]

Dislike round the wicket in-duckers if pitched in line.

Absolute pain.

[FattusCattus]

I have to pitch mine about a foot outside off from round.

[WalkingWicket37]

Left arm over should be banned!

Your "swing it a little bit" bends like a banana! You'd be lethal going over the wicket with some going across and others coming back in

[ppccopener]

left arm at any pace from over the wicket that comes back in is a nightmare

because if it looks outside off foot to the pitch and it's a free hit as the ball is going across you. Unless you have great balance your head(right hander) is going to go over to the offside, it's hard to avoid this

so the ball coming back in causes all sorts of issues.

however, once you know the ball is coming back in and it's sliding in straight to start with it's likely to carry on down leg-in which case it the easiest ball to hit in the book.

which begs the question, if you have the ball that ducks in and the ball the goes straight across you have hit the jackpot and are made of gold.

I think this is how Wasim got a lot of wickets-he def had both deliveries.....

and he was different class of course

[six and out]

i will take left arm round any day of the week as it pretty much rules out LBW if you play it right.

whereas (as said above) left arm over gives you far more ways to get out - LBW if it pitches in line and straightens or even bowled through the gate! then caught behind if it goes straight on etc...

[FattusCattus]

Right then - who wants a net? There's a new kind of bender in town!

[JK Lewis]

I take Middle-and-off, so I'd always prefer you to bowl left arm round. When lefties come over I have to change my guard, which is annoying, and I have a tendency to step too far across, risking the pain of being bowled behind my legs - as happened at nets last week. Lesson learned, again!

[Gurujames]

I was brought up on left arm over and love facing it. The better bowlers stay over the wicket pitch in line. Some straighten, some don't, if you bowl like that you will cause right handlers problems as they have to play at them all and increase the chance of LBW, caught behind and clean bowled as the batsman plays inside/outside the line.
Bowling round the wicket makes it easy for the batsman to use the angle to play through mid on/mid wicket for easy runs.

[Buzz]

Left arm over asks more questions if a batsman that left arm round where your chances of a caught behind or lbw are significantly reduced.

Also as a batsman, for left arm over you have to change from your normal stance and pick up a different line which is unnatural.

[WalkingWicket37]

Right then - who wants a net? There's a new kind of bender in town!

Me, Me, Me!
I'll snick you off and have my off stump pegged back all day for you Bruce!

[WalkingWicket37]

Left arm over asks more questions if a batsman that left arm round where your chances of a caught behind or lbw are significantly reduced.

I'm more than capable of both from over or round the wicket...

[Seniorplayer]

As a left hand batter love left arm around bowlers  have them for breakfast

[northernboy1987]

I generally agree with @roco (and almost everyone else for that matter) but I also think it depends on the particular batter, I've known lads who are great against all kinds of bowling but get in an extreme tangle trying to face left arm over as the can't bring themselves to open up their stance a little bit (or if they do it completely throws them off). Also if you're over the wicket you have both options available (on with the angle or moving back) therefore creating doubt in the batters mind, not many people could bowl left arm round and move it away from a rh batter so all the only question in the batters mind is how much it's going to come back in.