Iverson-Gleeson technique & off spin off middle finger technique

[Daryn Hanright]

haha - yes! Almost spot on!

Although having read the book about Iverson by Gideon Haigh, it could be equally likely that Iverson switched nets purely on his own accord. He didn't know how to handle getting belted, so he'd switch nets to bowl to weaker batsmen. Basically he had absolutely no confidence in his own ability. He either had to be getting swags of wickets for nothing, otherwise he'd think he was bowling terrible & be ready to retire, even if his figures were still excellent.

 

[macca]

Definately not for kids to try with a cricket ball, even the junior sized ball i am having trouble trying to get the iverson hand to hand myself. Getting a sore 2nd finger as well.

But with a smaller softer ball you can have a bit of fun almost straight away.

 

[mystikiel]

Funny, I find the gleeson off spinner a lot easier than the leggies (its sort of the same mechanism as a flipper). I also find that a useful variation when bowling from an iverson grip is the quicker ball. You just put your middle finger behind the ball and push it forward with your hand facing forward. It comes out quicker than even a flipper I find.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Mystikiel, are you right armed? In which case you're getting this to spin like a Leg Break?

 

[Daryn Hanright]

If Mystikiel is right arm, then the Iverson offie would spin like an off-break (i.e into a right handed batsmen).

Its interesting how different body types/shoulders/fingers find things easier. For me I find the Iverson-Gleeson leg-break easier. Iverson himself couldn't get the hang of the leg-break. Its sounds though he didn't bowl it like Gleeson, almost like with his middle finger grip he was actually trying to bowl an orthodox leg-break with it. Whereas Gleeson just did the more logical front of the hand delivery to impart the leg-break.

 

[mystikiel]

Daryn/Dave,
To make it spin like an off break, I just tweak the ball between middle finger and thumb, in the same way as I would spin a flipper. I suppose there is not much difference between this and an off spinning flipper.

I dont know if this is correct or not. However looking at the video of Mendis' deliveries this seems to be more or less what he is doing:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL9-D-Hp2GI

The Iverson leggie, basically just using the thumb and middle finger to roll the ball the other way out of the front of the hand, is called a "doosra" in the video - it doesnt seem much like Murali's doosra to me. It also seems as though Mendis spins the offspinner a lot harder than he spins the legspinner/doosra.

I saw a video of Gleeson years ago where he said for variation he used to put the wall in the webbing between index finger and middle finger (with the index finger on top) and tweak the two fingers together so it came out spinning like a leg break. I can do this though not very accurately, but it does spin a lot more than trying to legspin the ball with middle finger and thumb.

Anyway Im confused now.

 

[Daryn Hanright]

Thats interesting about Gleeson & the vid Mystikiel. Do you recall where you saw it?

It 1969 he reckoned he had the Iverson offie/toppie/leggie, as well as an orthodox offie & a leg cutter. I wonder if that ball you described is what Gleeson called his leg-cutter?

Alan Knott described really well how Gleeson bowled his orthodox offie. From the sounds he kept his Iverson grip in delivery, but "...the protruding finger is brought down onto the seam just before delivery and the wrist turned slightly clockwise..."