Short of a length (sometimes referred to as "back of a length" or "short of a good length") is a term used in the sport of cricket. It describes a delivery from the bowler that pitches short of the optimum length.
Length in cricket defines where the ball pitches on the wicket. A good length ball is one that pitches at a distance that makes it difficult for the batsman to ascertain whether to play the ball on the front foot or back foot. A bouncer is a ball that passes the batsman above chest height. A short of a length delivery is one that pitches in the area between the bouncer and good length balls.
This delivery can be dangerous for a batsman as it can bounce higher into the midriff. Also, the delivery can be extremely useful to a seam bowler. Good exponents include Stephen Harmison and Glenn McGrath.
Famous quotes containing the words short of, short and/or length:
“Friendship is the perfection of love, and superior to love; it is love purified, exalted, proved by experience and a consent of minds. Love, Madam, may, and love does, often stop short of friendship.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“How, in one short century, has this ersatz sport so strangled the consciousness of the country in the grip of its flabby tentacles that the mention of women’s baseball gets no reaction other than blank amazement?”
—Darlene Mehrer, As quoted in Women in Baseball. Ch. 6, by Gai Ingham Berlage (1994)
“No doubt, the short distance to which you can see in the woods, and the general twilight, would at length react on the inhabitants, and make them savages. The lakes also reveal the mountains, and give ample scope and range to our thought.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)