For many years spinners have graced the game with their skill and trickery, none more so than in this day and age. Looking back it is quite fascinating to see how simple line and length spinners who would just be used to give the seamers a break have developed some of the most eye-catching deliveries and tactics in the game.
Shane Warne was a great ambassador for leg-spin and some people might argue that he was the greatest leg-spinner to play international cricket. Shane played Test and One Day cricket and excelled in both. A total of 1001 wickets combined in both of those formats rightly gave him the nickname of ‘Mr Leg-spin’. What impressed me about Shane Warne wasn’t his spunky attitude, or outrageous slip fielding, but his ability to change the game with one delivery. Warne had one of the greatest cricketing brains of his time and he showed this constantly with bowling in all situations. He’d pull some magic out of the bag when his captain needed it and tormented batsman in so many different ways with his variations.
Warne’s stock ball was of course his standard leg-spinning delivery which would pitch and turn away from a right handed batsman, and when turning out of a rough patch, it was deadly enough, but combined with the innovative ‘googly’ and ‘flipper’ balls they were enough to cause even the best in the world serious issues. The googly would essentially spin the other way and confuse batsman as to which way the ball would turn, meaning he wouldn’t become too predictable. The flipper was the ball that didn’t turn and just went straight on. This delivery was made famous by Warne in his early days before he had to receive surgery on his dislocated shoulder in 1998.
Warne was just one of the previous generation’s spinners who revolutionised cricket. Others, such as Anil Kumble, Muttiah Muralitharan and, more recently, Graeme Swann to name but a few, all made their own little marks on the game in some way in the 1990s and 2000s.
Despite the retirements of these greats, the game is blessed with a surplus of talented spin bowlers still playing today. These spinners have mastered the trickery of their predecessors to the extent that even their wicket-keepers can’t recognise their deliveries.
Sunil Narine is a player who has grown a reputation around his mystery spin, due to how well he can keep it hidden. Even when slowed down majorly and viewed over and over again on tape it is still so hard to predict how much it’s going to turn. Recently, Narine was asked to have his action reviewed by the ICC and it was changed slightly, but we are yet to see in the long run how that has affected him. Narine combines a unique grip of the ball with a low arm action which adds to his deception. He gives the illusion the ball might spin by keeping the arm bent properly and bowling exactly like he would normally, except the ball is pushed out of his hand via his knuckles and finger and goes straight on.
Other bowlers such as Saeed Ajmal employ similar tactics when going about their bowling. With the size of boundaries in T20 and One Day cricket nowadays batsmen have a better chance than ever to knock a slow bowler out of the park and it has come down to spinners using these sorts of crafty and deceptive deliveries to make sure they don’t become bait to big-hitters.
Not every spinner in this era uses deceptive tactics to overcome batsmen. Some rely on common sense and awareness to get their wickets. Rangana Hearth of Sri Lanka likes to let batsman become their own enemy by laying traps and other such ploys in order to catch them out. Drying up runs and covering gaps in order to mentally attack batsmen is something that can cause weaker batsmen to implode and get themselves out by playing a silly shot or missing one and getting stumped. Herath will bowl consistently in good areas and notice when a batsman is looking edgy. He will then proceed to make sure he takes his chance and pick up the wicket with what he makes look like ease from afar, yet when tuned in properly it is clear that Herath is slowly picking away at the batsman and knows exactly what he is doing.
These are three different techniques used by three different players who have all shared success in cricket with their brilliant minds and ability to spin the ball. Each man adopts a different type of spin and shows exactly how that type of spin can be used in international cricket.
