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In the sport of cricket there are two broad categories of bowlers: pace and spin. Pace bowlers rely mostly on the speed of the ball to dismiss batsmen, whereas spin bowlers rely on the rotation and turn off the ball to deceive the batter.
Pace bowlers, or fast bowlers or pacemen, rely on speed to get a batter out. This type of bowler can be further classified according to the speed at which they bowl the ball on average.
Most pace bowlers are medium-fast to fast in top level cricket. In general, bowlers of this type are described as right arm or left arm "fast" or "medium-fast". Another technique of fast bowling is the sling action. This action generates extra speed but sacrifices control. Exponents include Jeff Thomson, Waqar Younis, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Fidel Edwards, Shaun Tait and Jasprit Bumrah.
Though there may have been faster balls bowled, the highest electronically measured speed (after speed guns became popular) for a ball bowled by any bowler is 161.3 km/h (100.23 mph), bowled by Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar to England's Nick Knight on 22 February 2003 in a World Cup match at Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa; this was also the first ball ever officially measured to break the 100 mph barrier. [1]
Swing bowlers are pace bowlers who, apart from being fast, also use the seam of the ball to make it travel in a curved path through the air. This is further encouraged by systematically polishing one side of the ball while allowing the other side to become roughened and worn. The differing airflow around the two sides will cause the ball to swing in the air, towards the roughened side. By changing the orientation of the ball in his hand, a bowler may therefore cause the ball to swing into or away from the batter. In addition to a well-polished ball, other factors help the ball to swing, notably damp or humid weather conditions. However balls which have been in play for some time do not tend to swing so much due to the deterioration of the seam. In addition, bowlers of express pace do not tend to get as much swing as the fast-medium-to-medium pace bowlers.
Reverse swing as the name suggests, moves in the opposite direction to conventional swing. Instead of the ball drifting towards its rougher side, it veers towards the smooth. Typically, a ball needs to be older, and thoroughly knocked about, before it arrives in “the zone” to reverse; and it takes a faster bowler to inject enough velocity that the effect will take hold. Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan are credited as two of the earliest exponents of reverse-swing in International cricket. Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram perfected the art of reverse-swing and inspired many to learn the art.
An outswinger is a type of delivery of the ball in the sport of cricket. In such a delivery the ball curves—or "swings"—out and away from the batter's body and the wicket. By contrast, an inswinger swings in toward the batter and the wicket. Richard Hadlee, Malcolm Marshall, Dominic Cork, Dale Steyn and James Anderson are some of the bowlers who had the best outswingers of their time.
Pace bowlers frequently dismiss batsmen through variation and deception. A batter who has been "softened up" by a series of bouncers , which pitch nearer the bowler than normal and reach the batsman around head height, or even hit the batsman, may tend to play the next ball on the back foot, and thus be susceptible to a full-length yorker delivery that bounces at his toes. Many bowlers also develop a seam bowling and "slower ball"; these are bowled with the same arm action as their normal delivery, but come slower from the hand, usually due to the bowler gripping the ball differently or cocking his wrist at the last moment. With luck, the batsman will misread the pace, and will have finished his shot before the ball arrives. Other common variations include the leg cutter and off cutter , medium pace deliveries bowled with a spinner's wrist action, which can sometimes "turn" just like deliveries from a spinner. Steve Waugh is often credited as the bowler who pioneered and popularized the back of the hand slower deliveries and change of pace in order to baffle the batsmen.
Spin bowlers or spinners impart rotation to the ball to get a batter out. The spin on the ball makes its movement hard to predict, particularly when it bounces, hence spin bowlers try to deceive batsmen into making a mistake. Speed is not crucial in spin bowling, and spinners tend to bowl in the slow-medium to medium-slow range, around 45-55 mph. There are two broad categories of spin bowling: wrist spin and finger spin.
Wrist spinners are bowlers who use their wrists to spin the ball. A right-handed wrist spinner is known as a leg spinner and his or her mode of bowling is known as leg break . A leg break will move from right to left from the bowler's point of view, or from the leg-side to the off-side for a right-handed batsman. Some of the most successful wrist spinners include Shane Warne from Australia, Anil Kumble from India and Rashid Khan from Afghanistan.
Left-handed wrist spinners, who are much rarer than right-handed wrist-spinners, are called Left-arm unorthodox spin bowlers. This form of delivery was often termed a chinaman after an early left-arm finger spinner of Chinese descent, Ellis Achong, who sometimes bowled wrist spinners as a variation while playing for the West Indies. This term has fallen out of fashion. A ball delivered in this way will spin from the off-side to the leg-side for a right-handed batsman. Paul Adams and Tabraiz Shamsi of South Africa, as well as Kuldeep Yadav from India, are the best-known recent left-arm unorthodox bowlers. Former Australian one-day all-rounder Brad Hogg is another exponent of left-arm wrist-spin, as were his teammates Simon Katich and Beau Casson.
Finger spinners make use of their fingers to rotate the ball. A right-arm finger spinner is known as an off-spinner and their mode of bowling is known as off break . The ball will appear to move just as the left-arm unorthodox ball does, from off to leg for a right-handed batsman. Muttiah Muralitharan (often called "Murali") of Sri Lanka and Graeme Swann of England, two of the most successful bowlers in Test and ODI cricket history, are off-spinners. Murali's bowling style is unique, while Swann's is more conventional. Indian Ravichandran Ashwin and Pakistanis Saqlain Mushtaq and Saeed Ajmal are amongst contemporary bowlers of this type, who also employ this bowling style. Saqlain Mushtaq invented a new delivery with this style of bowling called "Doosra", this delivery is bowled with almost same action as off break however it spins like a leg break or goes straight on with the angle of the delivery. This delivery has become one of the most effective deliveries in an off spin bowler's variety of deliveries, but in recent times, many off-spinners have been reported for throwing as a result of bowling the doosra. This delivery has been employed by other famous bowlers after Saqlain Mushtaq, such as Murali and Saeed Ajmal. Another type of delivery, the carrom ball, was invented in the 1940s but largely vanished by the 1970s before being revived in the early 21st century by Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis; Ashwin also uses this delivery as a second style.
Almost all left-handed bowlers are finger spinners. As a result, this style has no fixed name and the bowling mode is simply known as (slow) left-arm orthodox . The ball turns like a leg break, from leg to off. Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh, New Zealand's Daniel Vettori, Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath, and Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja from India employ this bowling style.
A bowler equally skilled in both types of bowling is known as a mixed bag or an all round bowler. Such bowlers are rare. The great West Indian all rounder Sir Garfield Sobers bowled effectively in the left-arm fast-medium, left-arm orthodox, and left-arm unorthodox styles. Sachin Tendulkar, known primarily as a batsman, bowled right arm medium fast in his starting days and later changed his bowling style into both right arm leg break and off break.
Bowling styles are often abbreviated in scorecards as follows :
| Right arm pace/seam bowling | RF/RAF | Right-arm fast |
| RFM/RAFM | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| RMF/RAMF | Right-arm medium-fast | |
| RM/RAM | Right-arm medium | |
| RMS/RAMS | Right-arm medium-slow | |
| RSM/RASM | Right-arm slow-medium | |
| RS/RAS | Right-arm slow |
| Left arm pace/seam bowling | LF/LAF | Left-arm fast |
| LFM/LAFM | Left-arm fast-medium | |
| LMF/LAMF | Left-arm medium-fast | |
| LM/LAM | Left-arm medium | |
| LMS/LAMS | Left-arm medium-slow | |
| LSM/LASM | Left-arm slow-medium | |
| LS/LAS | Left-arm slow |
| Right-arm spin bowling | OB | Off break |
| LB | Leg break | |
| LBG | Leg break googly [2] [ circular reference ] |
| Left-arm spin bowling | S/LA | Slow left-arm orthodox |
| S/LW | Slow left-arm wrist spin | |
| LAG | Left-arm googly |
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called a leg spinner. Leg spinners bowl with their right-arm and a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery is called a leg break, which spins from right to left when the ball bounces on the pitch. For a right-handed batter, the ball breaks towards them from the leg side, hence the name 'leg break'.
Left-arm unorthodox spin, also known as slow left-arm wrist spin, is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. Left-arm unorthodox spin bowlers use wrist spin to spin the ball, and make it deviate, or 'turn' from left to right after pitching. The direction of turn is the same as that of a traditional right-handed off spin bowler, although the ball will usually turn more sharply due to the spin being imparted predominantly by the wrist.
The flipper is a particular bowling delivery used in cricket, generally by a leg spin bowler. In essence it is a back spin ball. Squeezed out of the front of the hand with the thumb and first and second fingers, it keeps deceptively low after pitching and can accordingly be very difficult to play. The flipper is comparable to a riseball in fast-pitch softball.
Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to right when the ball bounces on the pitch. For a right-handed batsman, the ball breaks towards them from the off side, hence the name 'off break'.
A googly, also known as a wrong'un or Bosie, is a type of delivery in the game of cricket bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is different from the normal delivery for a leg-spin bowler in that it is turning the other way. The googly is not a variation of the typical off spin type of delivery, in that the cricket ball is presented from the bowler's hand in such a way that once the ball pitches; instead, it deviates in the opposite direction of a leg spinning type of delivery. It has also been colloquially referred to as the wrong'un, Bosie or Bosey, with the latter two eponyms referring to Bernard Bosanquet, the bowler who originally devised and began using the googly. He first employed it in July 1900, during the second innings of a County Championship match between Middlesex and Leicestershire at Lord's. In that game, Sam Coe became the first batter known to have been dismissed by a googly. During the Edwardian era, some considered its use to be an example of cheating.
Bowling, in cricket, is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batter. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler; a bowler who is also a competent batter is known as an all-rounder. Bowling the ball is distinguished from throwing the ball by a strictly specified biomechanical definition, which restricts the angle of extension of the elbow. A single act of bowling the ball towards the batsman is called a ball or a delivery. Bowlers bowl deliveries in sets of six, called an over. Once a bowler has bowled an over, a teammate will bowl an over from the other end of the pitch. The Laws of Cricket govern how a ball must be bowled. If a ball is bowled illegally, an umpire will rule it a no-ball. If a ball is bowled too wide of the striker for the batsman to be able to play at it with a proper cricket shot, the bowler's end umpire will rule it a wide.
A topspinner is a type of delivery bowled by a cricketer bowling either wrist spin or finger spin. In either case, the bowler imparts the ball with top spin by twisting it with his or her fingers prior to delivery. In both cases, the topspinner is the halfway house between the stock delivery and the wrong'un - in the wrist spinner's case his googly, and in the finger spinner's case his doosra.
This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cricket statistics and the naming of fielding positions is explained at fielding (cricket).
A doosra is a particular type of delivery by an off-spin bowler in cricket. The doosra spins in the opposite direction to an off break, and aims to confuse the batter into playing an unavoidable shot.
Seam bowling is a bowling technique in cricket, whereby the ball is deliberately bowled to hit the ground on its seam(join with a seam or indentation), to cause a random deviation when it bounces. A bowler who uses this technique is called a seam bowler or seamer.
Spin bowling is a bowling technique in cricket, in which the ball is delivered relatively slowly but with rapid rotation, giving it the potential to deviate sharply after bouncing. A bowler who uses this technique is called a spinner, a spin bowler, or a slow bowler.
An arm ball is a type of delivery in cricket. It is a variation delivery bowled by an off spin bowler or slow left-arm orthodox bowler. It is the finger spin equivalent of a wrist spinner's slider or zooter.
A leg cutter is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is bowled by fast bowlers.
An off cutter is a type of delivery in the game of cricket. It is bowled by fast bowlers.
In the sport of cricket, a slower ball is a slower-than-usual delivery from a fast bowler. The bowler's intention is to deceive the batsman into playing too early so that he either misses the ball completely or hits it high up in the air to offer an easy catch. It is analogous to a changeup in baseball.
A delivery or ball in cricket is a single action of bowling a cricket ball toward the batter. Once the ball has been delivered, batters may attempt to score runs, with the bowler and other fielders attempting to stop this by getting the batters out. When the ball becomes dead, the next delivery can begin.
Wrist spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket. It refers to the cricket technique and specific hand movements associated with imparting a particular direction of spin to the cricket ball. The other spinning technique, usually used to spin the ball in the opposite direction, is finger spin. Wrist spin is bowled by releasing the ball from the back of the hand, so that it passes over the little finger. Done by a right-handed bowler, this imparts an anticlockwise rotation to the ball, as seen from the bowler's perspective; a left-handed wrist spinner rotates the ball clockwise.
Finger spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket. It refers to the technique and specific hand movements associated with imparting a particular direction of spin to the cricket ball. The other spinning technique, generally used to spin the ball in the opposite direction, is wrist spin. Although there are exceptions, finger spinners generally turn the ball less than wrist spinners. However, because the technique is simpler and easier to master, finger spinners tend to be more accurate.
In the sport of cricket, the bowling action is the set of movements that result in the bowler releasing the ball in the direction of the batsman.
The teesra, also known as the jalebi, is a particular type of delivery by an off-spin bowler in the sport of cricket, which renowned off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq said he had invented. However, upon closer inspection, the ball is simply an orthodox backspinner, a very common delivery that has been bowled by finger spinners as long as cricket has been played.