Leg spin

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Bowling Techniques Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. The stock delivery of a leg spinner is the leg break, and is bowled by using the wrist to spin the ball anti-clockwise at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left (as seen by the bowler) — i.e. away from the leg side of a right-handed batsman, which is the origin of the name "leg spin". The description applies exclusively to right-arm bowlers spinning the ball in this manner - the same action when performed with the left arm is known as left-arm unorthodox spin or "chinaman" bowling.

As with all spinners, leg spinners bowl the ball far slower than fast bowlers (45-55 miles per hour, whereas fast bowlers can top 90 mph), and typically use variations of flight by sometimes looping the ball in the air, allowing any cross-breeze and the aerodynamic effects of the spinning ball to cause the ball to dip and drift before bouncing and spinning (usually called "turning") sharply. While very difficult to bowl accurately, good leg spin is generally seen as the most threatening type of bowling to bat against, since the flight and sharp turn make the ball's movement extremely hard to read, and the turn away from the batsman (assuming he is right-handed) is more dangerous than the turn into the batsman generated by an off spinner.

Good leg spin bowlers are also able to bowl deliveries that behave unexpectedly, including the googly, which turns the opposite way to a normal leg break, and the topspinner, which doesn't deviate significantly. A few exceptional leg spinners (notably Shane Warne) have also mastered the flipper, a delivery that like a topspinner goes straight on landing but travels quickly and barely bounces, often dismissing batsmen leg before wicket or bowled. Another variation in the arsenal of some leg spinners is the slider, a leg break pushed out of the hand somewhat faster, so that it doesn't spin as much, but travels more straight on.

In the 1970s and 1980s it was feared that leg spin would disappear from the game with the success of Australian and later West Indian teams exclusively using fast bowlers. However, leg spin has again become popular with cricket fans and a successful part of cricket teams, driven largely by the success of Shane Warne, beginning with his spectacular Ball of the Century to Mike Gatting in 1993. Modern audiences now appreciate that the contest between batsman and leg spin bowler is more cerebral than the physical contest between batsmen and faster bowlers.

Notably, England not produced a great leg spinner since Sydney Barnes. This has usually been ascribed to the slow pitches in England, which allow batsmen time to read the spin. It is also significant that English batsmen tend to treat wrist spin very aggressively, which hampers the development of what is considered one of the hardest skills to master in cricket. Unsuccessful leg spinners are rarely given the time to develop that is often afforded to promising young batsmen or fast bowlers, as Chris Schofield and Ian Salisbury discovered in the 1990s.

[edit]

List of current or notable leg spinners

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
[edit]

See also

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Leg_spin"