With Gordon Parsons or Darren Maddy bowling from the other end.

This was fun to read but I’m not sure about the veracity of the final paragraph. There are plenty of dibbly-dobblers who bowl(ed) long unbroken spells in ODIs; rather like spinners they eat up the overs before you know it. Part-time dobblers are often only employed in short confusing bursts but I wonder if that is to conflate “filth” with those exponents of high-class dobble. I don’t believe the kiwi modus operandi was two or three overs per dobbler, nor were later overs flayed with abandon once the batsmen had got their eye in.

And I reckon even a part-timer having one of his rare days transcending filth, when the atmosphere or pitch or opposition or the toothlessness of the professional bowling attack have suddenly turned them into their captain’s most effective option, can end up bowling quite long unbroken dibbling spells. One for the stats nuts to check perhaps, but I seem to recall quite lengthy spells from Butcher and Gooch (best FC figures a smashing 7/14 btw).

yeah, andre adams could be pretty quick at times. craig mcmillan? should get bonus points for bowling bouncers at 60mph

Batsmen feed on predictability. You can take the world’s best delivery – say a Shane Warne ripper, or a Waqar Younis in-swinging Yorker at 90mph – and render it completely harmless by having the bowler bowl it again and again and again, one after another. The reason these deliveries are so damaging is because they are unexpected. A batsman sees the ball on a line outside off stump, full of a length, and sets himself to drive through the covers. Then he hobbles off, slightly confused, having been given out lbw to a ball that broke his toes.

As for dibbly-dobbly, nobody knows what is going to happen. Will it dibble, and if so how much will it dibble? Or will it dobble, and again by how much? Maybe it will start to dibble, and then dobble for a bit. Maybe it will look just like the previous ball, which dibbled tremendously, but in fact will neither dibble nor dobble.

Top batsmen look for clues from the bowler – seam position, wrist angle, the set of the body in the delivery stride. But for this type of bowling there are no clues, because (and this is the absolutely essential part of dibbly-dobbly) even the bowler hasn’t got the first idea what’s going to happen. I’ll nip this one back at him, he thinks as he approaches, and then he takes the congratulations of his team mates as the batsman edges an out-swinger to second slip. What chance does the batsman have? And knowing this makes it even worse for him.

After three overs it’s all done. The batsman has worked it out, and has relaxed as a consequence. He’s got used to the fact that he doesn’t have to select his shot as the ball leaves the bowlers hand – he can simply wait the few minutes it takes to reach him and play it from there. The fourth over will go for nineteen. A decent captain will then bring his opening bowler back on and reap the rewards.

God damn it. I haven’t played that game in years and now I’m about to waste and entire day remembering it’s nuances!

I had the same reaction. But then I consoled myself with the fact that at least I’m not as old as Gavin Larsen himself.

Andre Adams could bowl a heavy ball.

Anyone who ever bowled a heavy ball was immediately disqualified from the dibble-dobble stakes, by definition.

Ponder on that when you wake up, Lbking.