Otis Gibson has recently had things to say about Test match bowling... See Ingenious Ottis Gibson faces huge England test - Telegraph

I think you might agree Rachael that bowlers the likes of Marshall and Garner who bowled very quick, would be far more likely than fast medium seamers to take wickets even on a dead pitch.

I remember only to well when teals like Australia and the West Indies racked up huge score in excess of 500 against England on featherbed pitches.

But come Englands turn to bat, they were skittled out at time for sub 200 innings scores, when facing the likes of Lillee, Thompson, McGrath, Holding, Marshall, Garner, Walsh, and Ambrose - these bowlers as I recall could make things happen even on dead pitches.

With the bowling on offer at the moment - and without such greats, IMO a balanced attack is the better option but raw pace has it's place in any attack to ring the changes if for nothing else.

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Ern

I've no great personal recollection of Marshall bowling on sub-continental wickets... but I believe his preferred tactic was to bowl medium pace cutters as his stock ball... throwing in slower balls and faster balls for variation. Moreover, once he matured as a bowler, Ambrose relied more on the threat of the faster ball than the ACTUAL faster ball: unless "in the zone" (slang for being in such great rhythm that the ball would come out perfectly even when bowling flat out)... he mostly bowled within himself (high 80s rather than well into the 90s) in order to avoid the thing he hated (giving away runs) but (even at the end of his career) responded with something visciously fast the moment any batsman looked to get after him.

In both cases... the pattern was as Gibson recommends.

When he was very quick Marshalls tactic of bowling on dead wickets was to bowl as fast as possible with the new ball and then vary it with the older ball. The first time he bowled in India he blew their top order away and Gavaskar was quoted as saying "His [Marshalls] speed was amazing".

Who could forget Holding bowling on a dead wicket at the Oval in the mid 70's. His colleagues bowled meduim pace line and length and were totally innefective, as were the England bowlers who tried the same tactic. Holding bowled flat out and took 14 wickets in the match all of his victims beaten for pace.

If you have pace it is effective on any type of wicket.

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Mark.

Two points:

1. Fast bowlers, like batsmen, tennis players and others, will have spells where they feel as if they can do no wrong: spells where they can put everything into every delivery (shot) and just bowl (bat, play) fantastically well. I'd not dispute that when an exceptionally fast bowler hits that sort of form... he can be a handful: fortunately for cricket... such spells are few and far between in ANY bowler's career.

2. If you can give the batsman a torrid enough time with 88mph you can control pretty well and then slip one it at 92mph (at which pace your bowling might, on a normal day, become wayward)... you've got a game-plan that should work well for you for those vast swathes of your career when you just ain't in that miraculous "it just clicked" form.

People tend to remember and write about the spells when bowlers performed at their very best... but a coach has to work on what works most of the time: he needs a bowler who knows his own game and who has no hesitation in bowling within himself the vast majority of the time.

I wouldnt argue about your points but as someone who plays a fair bit of cricket i do know that bowling slower does not necessarily make you more accurate.

In simplistic terms every bower has a "natural" pace to bowl at. This pace can change from week to week.

When a bowler tries to bowl faster or slower than this pace thier direction can go astray because their bowling action has changed from what is natural i.e they are either not attacking the crease and completing their action (a fault of Harmisons and Anderson) or they strain too hard and lose their action (i.e Broad).

Whilst I agree that bowling slower balls and cutters is a way to go on falt wickets it isnt the only way. If a bowlers natural pace is 90mph i can see little point in trying to bowl at 80mph and getting it wrong. He would be better off learning a slower ball and using that and a quicker ball as variations.

The likes of Marshall, Holding and Ambrose when they were at their peak never slowed down on subcontinental wickets with the new ball.

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Mark.