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Main \\ Outdoor Activities \\ Earth \\ Cricket \\ Bowling: Right arm Fast \\
  Bowling: Leg Spin

Leg spin is by far the most exciting and potentially devastating type of spin, and also the hardest to master. It is frequently described as 'wrist spin' while off-spin and left-arm spin are labelled as 'finger spin'. It seems a fairly subtle distinction since all three types use both wrist and fingers to turn the ball, but there we are.


Leg spin


Leg spin is a bit of a throwback to the early part of the twentieth century when leg spinners were almost ten a penny. The legendary Tich Freeman, only 5ft 2in, had an extraordinary first class career for Kent and England during which he took 3,776 wickets - the second most in cricket history. Not only will this now never be beaten, but it also suggests that English batsmen were as bad at playing leg spin in the 1920s as they are renowned to be today.


A new master


Leg spin was in the doldrums in world cricket until Shane Warne came on the scene in 1990 with his beach-boy image, vicious leg spin and exceptional accuracy. He found the going tough at first, taking 1-150 on his Test debut, but it wasn't long before he routed the all powerful West Indies and then England in 1993. His hard spun leg breaks and other devilish deliveries made him an Aussie hero and soon every young Australian wanted to be a 'leggie'.


googly1

googly2


Shane Warne


Strong fingers and lots of shoulder rotation apply prodigious leg spin to the ball, causing it to dip into the batsman before spinning away.






What makes Warne's brand of leg spin so devastating is the amount of spin his strong hands and explosive action put on the ball. As with any leg spinner, his stock ball spins from right to left (away from the right-hander) but, because of the humming spin, as the ball moves through the air it dips in towards the batsman. It is this dip, as much as the actual turn, that makes life so difficult for the batsman. The ball appears to veer in towards the pads, dropping down late in flight, before biting the pitch and spinning away. Warne, like all spinners, is classified as a 'slow' bowler, but his average ball is around 56mph and so - at this speed, and with all that's happening on the ball - there is not much time to react.


trickster


Confidence trickster


Warne has more than half a dozen different deliveries including the 'Zooter', which drifts in without turning. Seeing a novice face him is like watching a newborn foal on roller skates.






The googly


A leg spinner's unique asset is the googly, if he can bowl it (not all can). This is the most misunderstood delivery in cricket. It's not nearly as difficult to comprehend as it is to play. The googly spins the opposite way from the leg break, i.e. from left to right (like an off-break). The clever thing is it's bowled with the same wrist action as the leg spinner, but the release out of the back of the hand makes it spin the other way.


Toppers and Flippers


A top-class leg spinner has two other deliveries in his armoury: a topper and a flipper. The top spinner has a release mid-way between the leggie and the googly. It goes straight on, dips in flight and usually kicks up from the pitch, like a top spin return in tennis. Because of its extra bounce it often hits the batsman on the glove or gets a top edge.


The flipper


The flipper is a fiendishly difficult delivery to bowl. Richie Benaud said it took him four years before he had the confidence to use it in a match. It's actually a back-spinner, bowled underhand in a motion a bit like clicking your fingers. It floats through the air in smiling innocence, then skids wickedly along the ground on landing, like a chopped backhand in tennis. Often it's bowled short, and the unsuspecting batsman lays back to cut, thinking the ball is a long hop. But when it bounces, it scuttles, pinning him on the ankle or sneaking under the bat and rattling into the base of the stumps.


topspinner


Top spinner


Delivered out of the back of the hand, it goes straight on and bounces up.








flipper


Flipper


This delivery, sometimes called a back spinner, is released from the front of the hand, goes straight on and keeps low.








Setting a field
With all these variations and contortions, leg spinners, it won't surprise you to know, are notoriously inaccurate. They are difficult to set a field for because of all the different spins and the possibility that they'll send down one ball every over asking to be spanked to the boundary. However, they are invaluable in that they can make something happen on any pitch and soon demand the kind of attacking field not seen for any other kind of spinner, with four men (slip, gully, silly point and short leg) clustered round the bat. On those days, they can bowl anyone out (as Mike Gatting remembers having received the 'Ball of the Century' from Warne in 1993). On other days, they can be an expensive luxury

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