(apart from roughness of ground) the same delivery produces sometimes a contrary twist? "Because the ball may turn in the air, and the vertical spin become lateral. The side which on delivery was under, may, at the pitch, be the upper side, or the upper side may become under, or any modification of either may be produced in conjunction with inequality in the ground."
With throwing bowling, the ball comes from the ends of the fingers; why, then, does it not spin? Because, unlike Cobbett's delivery, as explained, wherein the ball left the fingers by degrees, and was sent spinning forth, the ball, in a throw, is held between fingers and thumb, which leave their hold at the same instant, without any tendency to rotate the ball. The fairer and more horizontal the delivery the more the fingers act, the more spin, and the more variety, after the pitch. A high and unfair delivery, it is true, is difficult from the height of the rise; otherwise it is too regular and too easy to calculate, to make first-rate bowling.
A little learning is a dangerous thing—and not least at cricket. The only piece of science I ever hear on a cricket field is this: "Sir, how can that be? The angle of reflection must always be equal to the angle of incidence."
That a cricketer should have only one bit of science, and that, as he applies it, a blunder, is indeed a pity.
