There are basically two ways to bowl a cricket ball.

The first is trying for the 'magic' ball. Perhaps it's the yorker that swings in fast and late, or the off spinner that drifts away before turning and bouncing. They are unplayable and make the batsman look helpless against your superior skills.

A lot of bowlers spend a lot of time trying to run through the opposition by bowling like this and ending up frustrated. The yorker is slightly over-pitched and becomes a full toss. The off break doesn't turn or spit and is smashed through the covers.

My own team played a game recently where we won against the odds by attempting a different approach: To bowl at the stumps.

Conditions in this game were not conducive to ripping through the opposition. The pitch and the outfield were slow. The sun was warming us in a cloudless sky.

The captain was quick to pick up on the situation. He knew no matter how good or bad his bowlers, scoring would be difficult. He told the bowlers to keep the ball on a length hitting off stump or a little straighter. The bowlers responded and what do you think happened?

Frustration set in. The batsmen had nothing to hit. They tried to manufacture runs but none of them had professional level skills to do so; most of the time they ended up hitting it to a fielder. We stood in the slip cordon watching them gradually commit cricketing suicide.

And we won by bowling them out, despite only having 118 runs to defend.

My point is that you don't need to swing it round corners or turn it square to take wickets. If you stay patient, set fields well and keep smiling even when it's going wrong then you are in the game.

And you can only win if you stay in the game.

Image credit: salsaboy

Want to be a better captain? Learn from the best with the interactive online course Cricket Captaincy by Mike Brearley.