The middle finger is placed along the seam, and the index finger placed a couple of centimetres away

Often the first thing taught to a young bowler is to bowl the fifa 15 coins ball seam up. Seam up is probably the simplest type of delivery to bowl, but can still cause considerable problems for the batsman.

With seam up the ball is held between the middle and index finger of the bowler’s hand with the seam pointed upwards towards the sky. The seam then acts a bit like a ridge sending the ball away or towards the batsman once it bounces off the wicket.

A ball that jags away from the batsman towards the slip fielders is called a leg cutter (nothing to do with surgery!).

A ball that jags from the slip fielders towards the body of the batsman is called an off cutter.

However, nothing guarantees that the ball will move to leg or to the off side, it may well just carry on straight.

Seam bowlers do try to add some spin to a cricket ball. However, they don’t have the same variety of spinning deliveries as a spin bowler and they don’t vary the flight of a ball as a spin bowler. Leg cutters and off cutters – spinning deliveries bowled by seam bowlers – are normally used as a surprise tactic to bamboozle the batsman. Generally, seamers use seam movement and swing to beat batsmen.

More experienced bowlers won’t just trust to luck – they will use the follow- ing techniques to bowl off cutters and leg cutters.

The middle finger is placed along the seam, and the index finger placed a couple of centimetres away. The ball is cradled by the thumb and third finger. As the ball is released, the index and middle fingers move down the left hand side of the ball and the thumb passes over the top of the ball. The ball rolls out of the bowler’s hand over the little finger.