Underarm Bowling - Underarm in The Modern Game

Underarm in The Modern Game

Underarm bowling became virtually extinct after the First World War. Trevor Molony, who represented Surrey in three matches in 1921, is considered as the last lob-bowler to play first class cricket primarily as a bowler. However, Gerald Brodribb in his book on this subject lists about twenty-five instances since that time when underarm bowling was employed in first class matches. The list of bowlers who have tried this includes Hedley Verity, Jack Iverson, Mike Brearley, George Brown, Wilf Wooller, Maharaja of Patiala and Fred Root.

Bowlers have employed underarm bowling for a variety of reasons. When the Trinidadian cricketer Syed Mubarak Ali was no-balled 30 times for throwing in a match against Barbados in 1942, he resorted to rolling the ball along to avoid more no-balls. In similar circumstances, South African bowler Geoff Griffin did the same in an exhibition match that followed the Test against England at Lord's in 1960, where he had already been no-balled. As rain threatened to end the match between Victoria and MCC in 1928-29, the MCC bowler Fred Barratt rolled the ball along to allow Bill Woodfull to score a four to complete his hundred and Victoria to win. But most of the modern underarm bowlers did it to register some form of protest.

Graeme Fowler in his book Fox on the run records that Dilip Vengsarkar bowled an over of lobs in the match between West Zone and England in 1984-85 when the latter delayed their declaration . When Lancashire batted on for too long against Oxford University at Oxford in 1990, Phil Gerrans, an Australian playing for Oxford, bowled a ball underarm . Since he had not informed the umpire of the change of action, he was no-balled. These appear to be the last instances of underarm bowling in first class cricket.