Underarm bowling
There are surviving illustrations from the first half of the eighteenth century which depict the bowler with one knee bent forward and his bowling hand close to the ground, while the ball trundles (if slow) or skims (if quick) towards a batsman armed with a bat shaped something like a large hockey stick and guarding a two-stump wicket.
The rules for bowlers in the 1744 Laws focus on the position of the hind foot during delivery (i.e., it had to be behind the bowling crease) and overstepping is the only specified cause for calling a no-ball.
One of the first great bowlers to employ the pitched delivery to good effect was Edward "Lumpy" Stevens of Chertsey and Surrey.
In those days, the leading bowler on each side had choice of precisely where the wickets would be placed and Lumpy was adept at finding a spot where the turf was uneven on a good length so that he could use his repertoire of shooters, twisters and risers.
He is known to have observed the flight of the ball and experimented for long hours with variations of line, length and speed of delivery until he had mastered the art of pitching.
In time, especially after the opening of Lord's and the development of groundsmanship, pitches began to improve and batsmen were able to play longer innings than previously.
The roundarm style was promoted successively by John Willes, William Lillywhite and Jem Broadbridge until it was finally legalised, amid furious controversy, in 1835 with an amendment to the rule in 1845.
William Clarke, founder of the All England Eleven in 1845, remained a highly effective underarm bowler long after roundarm began.
He bowled with a much lower trajectory than most earlier lob bowlers, imparting great spin to the ball with constant variation of pace as well.
The last specialist lob bowler to play first-class cricket in England was Trevor Molony who made three appearances in the County Championship for Surrey in 1921, by which time the style was already essentially defunct.
However, Gerald Brodribb in his book on this subject lists about twenty-five instances since that time when underarm lob bowling was employed as an occasional tactic 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.
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.
A highly controversial incident occurred in the final of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup at the MCG in 1981 when Australian bowler Trevor Chappell, under orders from his captain and brother Greg Chappell, rolled the final ball along the ground to batsman Brian McKechnie to avoid the possibility of it being hit for the six runs that New Zealand needed to tie the match.
Since underarm bowling is also slower than overarm or roundarm, it is easier for novice batsmen to hit the ball, making it ideal for informal and children's cricket.
