on the off can be made without a suspicion of wildness in them.
With regard to pulling, unless a batsman is an experienced and finished player he ought not to try to pull straight balls, especially if they are fast ones. The only circumstance that justifies the pull is a feeling of complete command over a ball well watched from the pitch. Blind pulls and the scientific hook-strokes are as different as chalk from cheese. A pull ought never to be a short-cut out of a difficulty; it should be a manner of dealing with a very easy ball, or a ball that has been made very easy by the batsman's judgment.
In playing back, it is just as much a mistake to play behind the legs as it is to play in front of them when playing forward. At least, so it seems to me. All the really strong back-players draw back in making back-strokes and meet the ball with the bat held well in front of them. It is impossible to put any power into a stroke when the bat is held nearer to the wicket than the batsman himself is standing. This does not apply to the cut, which is an entirely different stroke.
The batsman must exercise his discretion as to the height he keeps the bottom of the bat from the ground in playing either back or forward. When the ground is dry and true it is fairly easy to judge the exact height the ball will rise. On a treacherous wicket all the batsman can do is to watch the ball with all his might and let the bat follow his eye. When a shooter comes, the closer the end of the bat is to the ground, the less chance is there of the ball passing it. Shooters have a most extraordinary trick of avoiding the bat even when it is dug half an inch into the ground. When a batsman feels he can impart more power to a stroke by playing it with his bat higher above the ground, by all means let him make the stroke exactly as he thinks fit. The great thing is to watch the ball closely and let the bat follow the unconscious dictates of the eye.
Experience soon teaches a man what balls ought to be played forward and what back. I believe tremendously in back-play. No forward-stroke is absolutely safe unless the ball is smothered. There are many very beautiful strokes effected by forward-play at the rising ball. Such strokes, however, are purely plumb wicket-strokes, for unless the ball does exactly what it is expected to do, what happens is merely a matter of luck.
There is a stroke which is neither forward nor yet back. It is termed the half-cock stroke. Dr Grace and Mr F. S. Jackson use it very frequently. It is a wonderfully good defensive stroke.
