Simon Hughes
Yorkers
The yorker is the other extreme attacking option. Instead of bouncing the ball at the batsman's upper body, it's an attempt to sneak it under his bat. The derivation of the term reflects this. In the nineteenth century 'to york' or 'put Yorkshire on' someone meant to cheat them or deceive them.
Andy Caddick has done this brilliantly here (above), pitching his yorker right on the batting crease (bowlers often focus on the base of the stumps when they bowl a yorker) before it crashes into the stumps. You might wonder, given this result, why fast bowlers don't bowl yorkers all the time. The fact is, there is little margin for error. If you get the length a few inches out it will be either a half volley or
a full toss, and as likely as not will disappear to the boundary. Get the length right, though, and the batsman will need a shovel to dig it out.
Copyright material reproduced under license from Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London, England
Copyright © Simon Hughes 2001
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