I don't know much about spin bowling but would like to know it all.

I have never played cricket as growing up in Derby it is not a big thing and isn't widely played (even at County level) so I just need to be told from a fans point of view. I am aware of a few phrases but don't really know much.

What is the difference between finger and wrist spin?
Who does the above?
Does anyone do both?
Is one better than the other?
Is one harder than the other?
What is a leg break?
What types of spin are there?

As you can see I know very little but would like to learn, don't limit your answers to the example questions above.

Cheers

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Steven

The channel4 website gives really easy to understand descriptions. Try the cricket section there.

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I'll have the Mouseburger please, with a side of Goldfish.

Alistair Campbell is the best at spin in Britain

What is the difference between finger and wrist spin?

Wrist spin (or leg break bowling) is when you try to spin the ball from the leg stump towards the off stump. The ball normally pitches on or around leg and spins back into the batsman.

wrist spin is a style of bowling in which the bowler spins the ball by releasing it from the back of his hand, running the third and fourth fingers down the side of the ball as it is released;leg spin for a right-handed bowler, left arm unorthodox spin for a left-handed bowler. the standard type of ball bowled by a leg spin bowler, which spins from the leg to the off to a right-handed batsman.

Leg spin is a style of bowling in which the (right-handed) bowler spins the ball so that when it bounces on the pitch it moves from the leg to the off to a right-handed batsman. I suppose you could call leg spin 'on spin'?


Off spin (or finger spin) is when you try to spin the ball from off stup to leg stump; the ball pitches on off stump and spins in to the batsman,a style of bowling in which the (right-handed) bowler spins the ball so that when it bounces on the pitch it moves from the off to the leg to a right-handed batsman. The ball is held like a door knob and turned using the fingers upon delivery, without bending the elbow.....
Does anyone do both? Not at international level ! I've seen bowlers do this at club level, even had a go at both myself.

Is one harder than the other?
Finger spin is much easier . You need to tell the umpire if you change the style I think.... Anyway the grips are completly different.

http://www.dangermouse.net/cricket/bowling.html shows pitures of the off spin and leg spin grip

Leg spin
Warne
Mcgill
Anil Kumble
Richie Benaud

Off spin
Jim Laker
Ashley Giles
Robert croft
Muralitheran
Saqulin

Is one better than the other.... Off spin produced the games greatest figures. Leg spin produces the games greatest threat.

Slow Bowling Terminology

Right Handed spin bowlers

Off spin / Off break:
A slow ball which turns towards the bowling hand side of the bowler after pitched. The spin is produced mostly by Fingers

For a right handed bowler, the ball will turn towards the right side of the bowler and a RHB will see the turn as Off to Leg direction.

For a left handed bowler, the ball will turn towards the left side of the bowler and a RHB will see the turn as Leg to Off direction. (See SLA below)


Leg spin / Leg break:
A slow ball which turns opposite the bowling hand side of the bowler after pitched. The spin is produced mostly by Wrist.

For a right handed bowler, the ball will turn towards the left side of the bowler and a RHB will see the turn as Leg to Off direction.

For a left handed bowler, the ball will turn towards the right side of the bowler and a RHB will see the turn as Off to Leg direction. (See SLC below)


Left Handed spin bowlers

Left-arm orthodox spin:
Left-handed Off spin. Generally called Slow Left Arm (SLA).

Since this is Off spin, the ball will turn towards the left side (bowling hand side) of the bowler and a RHB will see the turn as Leg to Off direction (just like leg spin).


Left-arm unorthodox spin:
Left-handed Leg spin. Generally called Slow Left arm Chinaman (SLC).

Since this is Leg spin, the ball will turn towards the right side (opposite the bowling hand side) of the bowler and a RHB will see the turn as Off to Leg direction (just like off spin).


Variations:

Googly and Chinaman:
Off spin bowled with a Leg spin action and grip by a right handed bowler is called Googly.
Off spin bowled with a Leg spin action and grip by a left handed bowler is called Chinaman.

Googly bowlers are basically Right handed Leg spin bowlers and
Chinaman bowlers are basically Left handed Leg spin bowlers (Left-arm unorthodox).
Both Googly and Chinaman are called Wrong-un in Australia (and now by many as well).

Off spin bowlers produce off spin with off spin action and grip, not with leg spin action and grip. That’s why they are not called Googly or Chinaman bowlers.

A RHB will see Googly as Off spin (Off to Leg) and Chinaman as Leg spin (Leg to Off).

Arm Ball:
Spin bowler sometimes make a delivery with more pace but without spin to fool the batsman.

Doosra:
Leg spin bowled with an Off spin action and grip. Doosra bowlers are basically Off spin bowlers. No separate name for right or left handed bowlers, yet!

Leg spin bowlers produce leg spin with leg spin action and grip, not with off spin action and grip. That’s why they are not called Doosra bowlers.

Top Spin / Over spin:
Forward spin. Ball "shoots" speedier after pitched.

Flipper / Under spin:
Back spin. Ball "flipps" slower after pitched. Extra flight sometimes causes the ball to be dropped closer to the batsman than anticipated.



What makes a spinner so dangerous? Well the ball's going slowly.So the batsmen's eye's light up. But it's spinning, in the air (and off the pitch) . Also on humid days, the ball can swerve, and this is more so with leg spinners; Frightening! And they've got variations in flight, spin, speed, length, direction, crease etc... When you move slowly things seem clearer.

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I have a dream.... (Martin Luther King)

Hi Phantom Ram, I'm no expert either but can give you a little insight.

Finger spin is so called as it involves simply 'rolling' the ball off a finger (usually the forefinger), often with only a small amount of wrist movement on release. Giles is a good example of a finger spinner. Right arm finger spin usually provides an off-break.

Wrist spin uses pretty much the whole rotation of wrist to impart the spin. The wrist will sort of start bent and will flick hard upon the release of the ball, differing angles of release and differing finger movements can provide different directions of sometimes big spin. Warne is the best wrist-spinner in the world. Right arm wrist spin usually results in leg-break.

I bet Warne could turn a few off-breaks square, but to my knowledge no top players change their style. Some player, e.g. Warne and Murali, can mix up their deliveries and make the ball spin both ways off a similar action.

On the whole, leg-spinners can spin the ball more because of the wrist action providing more rotation power, but leg-spin is more difficult to provide accuracy. Warne can be very accurate and so he is a major threat, Murali can spin the ball more than a usual off-break bowler and so can be deadly also. so it's difficult to say which is better, off-break often provides less spin but leg-break maybe gives away more bad balls.

Leg-spinnning (or wrist-spinning) is more difficult due to more moving parts I suppose. Have a look at the channel four website for the picture of actions and have a go in your garden or local park, see which you can bowl more accurately.

Consider bowling leg-break to a right-hand batsmen, the leg-breaking ball will spin towards the off-side after pitching (from leg to off), an off-breaking ball will spin from off to leg.

Mainly off-break (Murali, Saqlain Mustaq, Harbajhan Singh), leg-break (Warne, Kumble, Mustaq Ahmed), left-arm othodox, finger spinning with the ball going from right to left or leg-to-off for a right hand batsman (Giles, Vettori, Ray Price) and left-arm china man which is a mirror image of right-arm leg-break (Paul Adams, I think Bevan used to bowl a bit, but chinaman spinners are few and far between).

As I said, I'm not an expert but hopefully this will be a little use to you.

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Whatever your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you mine are far greater!
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

An excellent assessment of spin-bowling there Richard!

I think you're ok so long as you don't change the arm you are using or change whether you are bowling around the wicket or over the wicket. So long as the batman knows which arm to expect will release the ball and which direction the bowler comes from, you can do whatever you want with your delivery (e.g. a Seamer might roll the ball off his fingers to provide a slower ball).

Anyway, this is a side issue!

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Whatever your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you mine are far greater!
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

I think Murali can bowl legspin as well.

Thanks everyone for this it is really helpful. If you wanted to field 2 spinners in the same team are you better not having 2 fingers spinners or 2 wrist spinners and opting for a mix?

Why do we (England) pick a spinner who we are constantly told 'does not turn it much'?

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Steven

Brad Hogg. Gary Sobers used to bowl chinamen too!

Spin died a death until warne and muralitheran came along. it's only now that we start to see spinners on the world stage. in the 80's everyone wanted to bowl like the west indies and the crop of talent coming through all bowled fast. Also a spin bowler can go for a lot of runs. It's very difficult to bowl spin well. So most youngsters get discouraged and change to 'seam ' or 'fast' which arguably suit English conditions better. Also a lot depends on the pitch. if the pitch is taking spin then you'll change. I saw defreitus change from bowling fast to bowling spin and he bowled John embrury in a county game a few years ago doing so.... and it was because the pitch was taking spin that he was succesful, not because he could spin the ball a mile!

Why do England selectors pick usless sponners? Well basically all post war spinnrs have been from a similar mould. Embury, Tufnell,Edmunds,such,salisbury (leg spin but useless) and croft (the big spinners post 70's) and so on all come from similar stock. Whilst they were all test class none were really world class or capable of winning a match on their own, with the possible exception of tuffers.

Why can't the bowlers spin it,
Coaching from an early age and grass roots set up, captains havinbg faith and using spin as an attacking option, England selectors continuing with the captains bum boy,covered pitches, etc etc ( i could go on ....)

http://www.world-a-team.com/showthre...pinner+mystery
http://www.world-a-team.com/showthre...hlight=spinner

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