Pace bowlers
Most pace bowlers are medium-fast to fast in top level cricket. In general, bowlers of this type are described as right arm or "fast", or right arm or left arm "fast-medium", and so on. Though Jeff "Thommo" Thomson of Australia was long regarded as the fastest bowler in the world (with a fastest ball clocked at 99.7 mph and rumoured to have broken the 100mph barrier), today Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan, Brett Lee and Shaun Tait of Australia are considered the fastest bowlers in the history of the game.
Swing bowlers are pace bowlers who, apart from being fast, also use the seam of the ball to make it travel in a curved path through the air. This is further encouraged by systematically polishing one side of the ball while allowing the other side to become roughened and worn. The differing airflow around the two sides will cause the ball to swing in the air, towards the roughened side. By changing the orientation of the ball in his hand, a bowler may therefore cause the ball to swing into or away from the batsman. In addition to a well-polished ball, other factors help the ball to swing, notably damp or humid weather conditions. However balls which have been in play for some time do not tend to swing so much due to the deterioration of the seam. In addition, bowlers of express pace do not tend to get as much swing as the fast-medium-to-medium pace bowlers.
Spin bowlers
Spin bowlers or spinners impart rotation to the ball to get a batsman out. The spin on the ball makes its movement hard to predict, particularly when it bounces, hence spin bowlers try to deceive batsmen into making a mistake. Speed is not crucial in spin bowling, and spinners tend to bowl in the slow-medium to medium-slow range, around 45-55 mph. There are two broad categories of spin bowling: wrist spin and finger spin.
Wrist spinners are bowlers who use their wrists to spin the ball. A right-handed wrist spinner is known as a leg spinner and his or her mode of bowling is known as leg break. A leg break will move from right to left from the bowler's point of view, or from the leg-side to the off-side for a right-handed batsman. Shane Warne of Australia, one of the most successful bowlers in Test cricket history, and Anil Kumble of India are two of the contemporary bowlers of this type.
Finger spinners make use of their fingers to rotate the ball. A right-arm finger spinner is known as an off-spinner and their mode of bowling is known as off break. The ball will appear to move just as the chinaman does, from off to leg for a right-handed batsman. Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, one of the most successful bowlers in Test and ODI cricket history, is an off-spinner, although his bowling style is unusual. Indian Harbhajan Singh also employs this bowling style.
Bowling abbreviations
Bowling styles are often abbreviated in scorecards as follows :
| Pace bowling | RF | Right-arm fast |
| RFM | Right-arm fast medium | |
| RMF | Right-arm medium fast | |
| RM | Right-arm medium | |
| LF | Left-arm fast | |
| LFM | Left-arm fast medium | |
| LMF | Left-arm medium fast | |
| LM | Left-arm medium | |
| Spin bowling | OB | Off break (right-arm) |
| LB | Leg break (right-arm) | |
| LBG | Leg break googly (right-arm) | |
| SLA | Slow left-arm orthodox | |
| SLC | Slow left-arm chinaman |
