Bowling (cricket)

Bowling was the act of throwing a cricket ball at a batsman during a cricket match. At least one of the aims of the activity was to fool the batsman into mis-hitting or not hitting at all. Nominally, bowlers were aiming to hit the stumps and thereby cause a bail to fall to the ground, which resulted in an out.

One metric by which bowlers were measured was speed, with two broad classifications being "slow" and "medium". The Fifth Doctor claimed his preferred bowling speed to be "fast", only to then bowl a man out while playing informally at Cranleigh Hall. (TV: Black Orchid) However, as the Fourth Doctor once indicated, "slow" had different meanings when it came to bowling. "Slow" could certainly refer to the speed of delivery, but he also indicated that slow bowlers were those who could apply generous spin on a ball. (TV: The Horns of Nimon)

The Tenth Doctor, while John Smith, may have remembered some of his earlier skill when he bowled a cricket ball so as to expertly prevent harm coming to a baby and its mother. (TV: Human Nature)