| I made my debut for my school cricket team a long | | | | the ball, rotate your wrist anti clockwise so the palm |
| time ago, but the key skill that got me there was | | | | of your hand faces upwards, the back of your hand |
| knowing how to bowl a googly, or "wrong 'un". This is | | | | faces the batsman, and the seam points towards |
| a delivery that looks like a normal leg spinner, but | | | | fine leg. |
| turns toward a right hand batsman like an off break. | | | | The wrist and third finger do the work of spinning |
| If you've ever faced up to a leg spin bowler, you'll | | | | the ball anti clockwise - flick out this finger toward |
| know that the googly is extremely difficult to detect. | | | | the batsman. This is difficult to do, but practice |
| To my delight, I found that most junior batsmen had | | | | makes perfect - try using a soft ball to help improve |
| enough difficulty playing a leg break, but a well | | | | your wrist flexibility while spinning the ball from hand |
| delivered googly was almost unplayable. The vital | | | | to hand. |
| words here are "well delivered", because leg breaks | | | | Once you can do this, you can experiment with |
| and googlies are difficult to bowl with consistency. As | | | | flighting the ball different ways, and develop |
| you'll see, I found this out to my cost but you can | | | | intermediate deliveries like the top spinner. |
| learn from my mistakes. | | | | Leg breaks and googlies can be difficult to bowl |
| Both leg breaks and googlies impart strong spin using | | | | accurately because of the wrist action involved, so |
| wrist action. At the point of delivery, the palm of the | | | | you can expect to be hit for a few runs. But you'll |
| hand faces the batsman when bowling a leg break, | | | | also take wickets more quickly because they're so |
| but the googly shows the back of the hand to the | | | | difficult for batsmen to play. |
| batsman at the same point, meaning that spin is | | | | Here's the big health warning. If you over bowl the |
| imparted in the opposite direction. The batsman sees | | | | googly, your bowling action will get "bitten" so that |
| the same wrist action, but he needs very sharp eyes | | | | your natural delivery becomes the "wrong 'un", and |
| to spot the different timing of the release of the ball. | | | | you lose the ability to bowl a leg break. This |
| To bowl a googly, hold the ball as if for a normal leg | | | | happened to me, and has been a massive loss to my |
| break, with the top joints of the index and middle | | | | bowling even until today. So, please take care to use |
| fingers across the seam and the ball resting between | | | | the googly as a surprise, but deadly weapon. |
| a bent third finger and your thumb. As you release | | | | |