What does "It was a skill they had, like bowling" suggest, humorously, about the other boys?

The ball went higher than any ball Sameer had ever hit. For one glorious second the whole lane watched it climb. Then it came down, as balls do, straight into Mrs Fernandes's balcony, and they heard the crash of a clay pot.

The other boys vanished. It was a skill they had, like bowling. Sameer stood alone in the lane with the bat in his hand.

He could have run too. The bat was his, but nobody had seen who was holding it. Instead he climbed the stairs, very slowly, and knocked.

Mrs Fernandes opened the door with the ball in one hand and a broken piece of pot in the other. Behind her, on the balcony, soil and a small green plant lay across the tiles.

"I'm sorry," said Sameer. "It was me. I will pay for the pot."

She looked at him for a long moment. Then she held out the ball. "The pot was twenty rupees," she said. "The plant is a curry leaf. It will live if you help me repot it."

So he spent the evening on her balcony with his hands in the soil, while she told him about the village in Goa where the plant's mother had grown. When he went home, she gave him a bag of curry leaves for his mother.

The next Sunday, the ball went into her balcony again. This time Mrs Fernandes threw it back herself.