Intimidatory Bowling
Intimidatory or aggressive bowling refers to a legitimate tactic of bowling with the intent of hitting the batsman with the ball. This is somewhat restrained by some of the laws of cricket, including those which disallow excessive use of bouncers and any use of the "beamer", which is aimed directly at the head on the full. Successful intimidatory bowling usually employs a mixture of bouncers and short-pitched deliveries aimed at the batsman's head, chest, and rib cage. The intention is to disrupt a batsman's focus, and ultimately induce a mistake that leads to the loss of the batsman's wicket. Often the eventual wicket will not fall to a bouncer or short-pitched ball, but instead to a more standard delivery that the batsman is no longer expecting, or is rendered temporarily unable to play in his usual way (by fear, pain, surprise, or some combination of the three).
One classic approach is to deliver several short balls into the batsman's chest, forcing the batsman onto the back foot to defend with a high bat, and then fire in a fast yorker, aimed at the base of the stumps. If the batsman is expecting to play a high back foot defensive, the time it takes to shift their weight to play the ball at their feet may just be enough for the delivery to surprise the batsman and cause him or her to panic, and thus cause the loss of their wicket.
A fast bowler can also employ intimidatory tactics to anger (or frustrate) a batsman into playing a rash shot, by directing the ball to strike the batsman. Intimidatory bowling plays a part in every fast bowlers attack to varying degrees, and even the best batsmen sometimes sustain serious injuries that can force them off the field and out of the game. In almost all instances verbal 'sledging' accompanies the attack.
Excessive use of intimidatory tactics by elite fast bowlers is considered unsportsmanlike, and is shunned by many teams and players. One instance of excessive use was the Bodyline series, where the English Cricket Captain at the time (1932-1933), Douglas Jardine, employed a tactic to restrain the skills of the Australian cricket team, and their star player, Donald Bradman. The tactic was to bowl, very fast and very short, at the batsman's body. After the Bodyline series, as it became known, several laws of cricket were altered to prevent such a tactic being used again, such as a restriction on the number of fielders that can occupy the rear leg-side quadrant of the cricket to two (excluding the wicketkeeper).
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