But on smooth wickets you would see Peel at one end, and perhaps Bates at the other, with eight fields on the off side, and three balls out of four pitched on the off side with good length. The result would very hkely be that the unwary batsman would send a catch to the field, or at any rate that his labour would be in vain, and the good hits would only be stopped. Obviously the best chance of making runs is to hit the ball where there are no fields. Nearly the whole of the on side is open, and if one of the off balls is suitable, either by being bowled a little short or too far up, the batsman will sweep it round without a moment's hesitation. Unorthodox this may be, but he will have accomplished five great and useful feats—he will have delighted himself, added to his score, disconcerted the fields, enraged the bowler, and set the opposite captain thinking. At the same time it is not a graceful stroke, but is one of the many instances of deterioration of style, regarded from a purely aesthetic point of view, which, we find, has taken place in comparing modern cricket with that of bygone days. So great must be the caution used in playing this extraordinarily accurate slow bowling almost entirely on the off stump, or on the off side of the wicket when seven or eight fields are on the off side, that it is becoming quite a common feature of the game to see balls of a dangerous length on the off side entirely ignored by the batsman, as far as the bat is concerned, while both legs are placed entirely in the front of the wicket in case the ball should break. This is safety play with a vengeance. At the same time the spectators may reasonably be excused if they find looking on at cricket a little dull. When the bowling is fast the general result is wickets or runs, and that was the case twenty years ago. We hear that the Australian spectators in their own country loudly expressed their disapproval when, in a great match, two batsmen were batting two hours, during which time they produced the magnificent result of forty-five runs and wore out the patience of bowlers, field, and gallery. The full discussion of the vexed question of l.b.w. will be found in the chapter on Cricket Reform.
