Talk:Walter Lawrence Trophy

Declaration Bowling
What does this expression mean? I've seen it both here and the Mark Pettini page, with no explanation on either.--MartinUK (talk) 16:58, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Declaration bowling is deliberately bowling in such a fashion as to concede runs, usually to force a result in a game that looks like it's heading for a draw. I've never witnessed it personally, but it does seem to crop up occasionally. As far as I can makle out, it can be advantageous only in very specific circumstances. The first is if the batting team is down a few wickets and chasing a total which is more or less unatainable, but the bowling team needs a win and so bowls wides and sitters until the target starts looking realistic. The idea here is to tempt the batting team to bat more aggressively, thus risking wickets. I think there may be some other circumstance that gives rise to the practice, probably arising out of some arcane point-awarding system in county cricket. I have no idea why it's called "declaration bowling" as as far as I can tell nobody declares anything. As you can probably tell I'm not really that clear on it myself, so if you do ever find a better description, or if anyone else can help, here's the place to post. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.211.185.189 (talk) 20:41, 7 August 2008 (UTC)