The essential bowling action was still underarm but the introduction of a ball travelling through the air coupled with a bounce was a key point of evolution in the sport's history, especially as it was the catalyst for the invention of the straight bat, which replaced the old "hockey stick" design.
The hitting however could neither have been of a high character nor indeed safe, as may be gathered from the figure of the bat at that time; which was similar to an old-fashioned dinner knife, curved at the back and sweeping in the form of a volute at the front and end.
The batsman addresses the delivery with a bat that resembles a modern hockey stick, this shape being ideal for dealing with a ball on the ground.
If he did not time his shot correctly, the chances were high that he would miss the ball and be bowled or stumped; or else if he hit it poorly, he would not clear the fielder and be caught out.
[2] Although the Hambledon Club is widely and erroneously called the "Cradle of Cricket", it can at least, wrote F. S. Ashley-Cooper, "claim to have been the centre in which the game was first brought to a certain degree of perfection and was developed in several respects to its lasting advantage".
With the transition from the pioneering era of cricket, Hambledon saw in a new "pre-modern" phase defined by underarm pitching which lasted until the introduction of roundarm bowling in the years following the Napoleonic Wars.
It is not known who first bowled a pitched delivery, or when, or where, but it is likely that the style was developed primarily at Hambledon, although the leading bowler of the 1760s and 1770s, Lumpy Stevens, played for Chertsey and Surrey.