left-arm-spin

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leftnright

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left-arm-spin

All,
I have been bowling left-arm orthrodox for the past few seasons. Not a big turner of the ball but can get the ball to flight,dip and bounce decently well to make the batsmen misjudge the length.

The ball goes scrambled and I notice that it is mostly a topspinner with varying pace and sometimes turns in slightly(for a RHB) like a doosra.

My problem is: When I start my spell - the first over is usually trashy - the first two balls invariably go to leg side mostly short. Then I recover to control the damage. Usually first over ends up expensive. If I continue to next over generally I am on mark and start dominating. But due to bad first over, captain loses confidence and does not call me back. Basically I am somewhere on the field moping around.

Any suggestions on how to fix this from your experiences and also help on turning the ball more.
 
Re: left-arm-spin

more turn involves putting more revs on the ball. also, maybe for the first couple of balls you could go wider on the crease? get your lines right?
 
Re: left-arm-spin

Thanks Tumo,

Will try that. I notice that there are lot of revs on the ball, even when it goes in top-spinny way.
The pitches where we play are concrete with a carpet on top of it - there i notice that ball bounces more and probably straightens
 
Re: left-arm-spin

On plain concrete pitch - I am able to turn the ball - the same does not happen when I bowl on a concret pitch with a green mat on the top.
 
Re: left-arm-spin

there is a slow left armer at my club who was originally a seamer. his seam bowling was pretty good, but his left arm spin is even better. he bowls on a middle stump line from over the wicket meaning the ball is always angling into the right hander, and he pitches it very full. its hard to hit him aggressively because he bowls with a pretty quick pace but still gets turn. when ive faced him in nets he has always clean bowled me regularly, usually 3 or 4 times in 12 balls lol. i just cant bat against him with my unorthodox style.

finger spinners will very rarely get the same consistently large turn as a wrist spinner, so just because the ball turns the same way as a leg spinner, you cant bowl like a leg spinner. in my opinion you need to bowl faster and on a consistent middle/off stump line. pitching outside leg will never end well because the ball just isnt likely to turn back in from there, especially not on a concrete pitch.

personally i think slow left armers are a defensive bowler, based on all of the ones that i have seen. they get their wickets by building pressure and suffocating the batsman. so your biggest weapon is consistency and dot balls, then wait for the batsman to make a mistake. however someone like Monty Panesar who is fairly aggressive can take wickets in a similar manner to a leg spinner. you have to play to your strengths though, if you dont turn the ball big then look at someone like Paul Harris for inspiration. hes the most boring bowler on the planet, but he still takes plenty of wickets without really turning the ball!
 
Re: left-arm-spin

Jim2109;399373 said:
there is a slow left armer at my club who was originally a seamer. his seam bowling was pretty good, but his left arm spin is even better. he bowls on a middle stump line from over the wicket meaning the ball is always angling into the right hander, and he pitches it very full. its hard to hit him aggressively because he bowls with a pretty quick pace but still gets turn. when ive faced him in nets he has always clean bowled me regularly, usually 3 or 4 times in 12 balls lol. i just cant bat against him with my unorthodox style.

finger spinners will very rarely get the same consistently large turn as a wrist spinner, so just because the ball turns the same way as a leg spinner, you cant bowl like a leg spinner. in my opinion you need to bowl faster and on a consistent middle/off stump line. pitching outside leg will never end well because the ball just isnt likely to turn back in from there, especially not on a concrete pitch.

personally i think slow left armers are a defensive bowler, based on all of the ones that i have seen. they get their wickets by building pressure and suffocating the batsman. so your biggest weapon is consistency and dot balls, then wait for the batsman to make a mistake. however someone like Monty Panesar who is fairly aggressive can take wickets in a similar manner to a leg spinner. you have to play to your strengths though, if you dont turn the ball big then look at someone like Paul Harris for inspiration. hes the most boring bowler on the planet, but he still takes plenty of wickets without really turning the ball!
Click to expand...

As a No.11 in the batting line up in the nets I was mostly cleaned up by one of our Offies who turned the ball into the body at varying degrees of angles, but his biggest asset was the incredible variation in speed whilst still maintaining a good degree of turn.
 
Re: left-arm-spin

the left armer at my club varies pace quite a bit as well actually. he can go from slow and loopy upto flat and very fast. his stock ball is fairly flat though so its hard to pick the extra pace straight away. and then its on you before you know it. one of the part time leggies does this as well, hes an opening seamer, but he has an "arm ball" that is basically just a seamer bowled from a leg spin grip. you can see it coming as soon as he throws his arm over, but youve still only got fractions of a second to adjust to it.

i can also vary my pace quite substantially. i really want my bowling to get clocked by a speed gun so i know for sure, but i reckon i can go from 40mph to over 50mph at full effort. my stock ball in matches is probably around 43mph, my stock ball in nets is more like 47mph. for some reason i slow things down in matches at the moment, but its resulting in much better accuracy and consistency.

one thing to note is that varied pace only really works against tail enders. top order batsmen see the ball too well and they pick the pace very early. i generally find that top batsmen fall into 1 of 2 categories - they either thrive on quicker balls, even if they are doing plenty in flight and off the pitch, but find the slower loopy balls really hard to play. or they play the slower balls well but struggle if its a bit quicker. middle order and tail enders struggle against faster balls full stop.
 
Re: left-arm-spin

Thanks guys,

Generally during practice after couple of balls (may be after one over) I get into a rythym where I can control the line, vary the pace very well..most batsmen mistime catches to deep-mid off and long-on. It is in matches - I dont hit rythym immediately and get screwed.

Also I always bowl left-arm-orthrodox around the stumps to right handers, I am not comfortable at all bowling over the stumps and it becomes very difficult to bowl to left-hand batsmen as they pick the angled flighted ball from around the stump very easily.
 
Re: left-arm-spin

leftnright;399399 said:
Thanks guys,

Generally during practice after couple of balls (may be after one over) I get into a rythym where I can control the line, vary the pace very well..most batsmen mistime catches to deep-mid off and long-on. It is in matches - I dont hit rythym immediately and get screwed.

Also I always bowl left-arm-orthrodox around the stumps to right handers, I am not comfortable at all bowling over the stumps and it becomes very difficult to bowl to left-hand batsmen as they pick the angled flighted ball from around the stump very easily.
Click to expand...

have you tried bowling in nets prior to the match to help find your rhythm? that can sometimes help.

the most solid method in my opinion is to set your field accordingly. if you know that you have issues early in your spell then set the field to defend those problems. then as you find your rhythm adjust the field to suit. this is primarily the captains fault as he should be supporting your bowling. however most captains work on the mentality that bowlers should "bowl to their field". which is complete and utter nonsense. the field should be set to the bowling. "bowling to your field" is just a captains way of passing the responsibility onto the bowler if things go wrong.

which is why its so important for spin bowlers to understand their own field requirements. captains rarely do unless they are spinners themselves, so by taking on the responsibility yourself you at least take someone elses errors out of the equation, and then if it goes wrong youve only got yourself to blame.

in your case, if you drop a few balls short and leg side, then having men at deep mid wicket and deep square leg, as well as mid wicket, square leg and fine leg should help to restrict scoring. with your first few deliveries its always better to pitch too full than too short. dont be afraid of a full toss at the batsmans legs because you open up good catching opportunities in the deep. a short ball is much easier to get on top of and will almost always result in runs. there is no harm in having loads of fielders "defending" bad balls early on, once you find your rhythm you can move them into more attacking positions. its pointless having an attacking field if your first over is going to be loose deliveries, because youll always end up getting spanked for runs, and then the captain is going to lose faith.

Shane Warne always says that the first job for a leg spinner is to stay on. this holds true for all bowlers really, your first few balls/overs need to be tight. once youve established yourself in the match youll have the upper hand on the batsmen, and then you can get more aggressive.

i tend to flaunt this advice by looking to be super aggressive from ball one. this season its worked every time, but last season i got hammered (however my bowling has improved 1000% over the winter), and im yet to face any really good players of spin who have played themselves in this year.
 
Re: left-arm-spin

Yeah I would definitely recommend having a bowl before the game, the first 12 balls I bowl will always be a bit ropey unless I've had a bowl already, and this can be 2 hours before the match or maybe just before the match otherwise I'm bowling from cold. Same with my kids, they have to bowl a bit before they do it for real otherwise it's all over the shop!
 
Re: left-arm-spin

I had (still have, but not as bad) the problem of the terrible first over. It wasn't just the first over of the day, but the first over of a spell. I'd normally bowl about 4 overs, then come back again for a second spell another 8 or so overs later as the captain had a plan he sticked to most games (as we seemed to win most, so changing stuff impromptu was never really necessary) and he bowled players as set to that plan.

I conquered most of my first over nerves by bowling 'first overs' in the nets. I approached the net session like I was bowling to that batsman in a game, bowled six balls and then went off and did some fielding practice. 10 minutes later I would come back and bowl six more balls and gave myself a result as to how accurate and successful my 'over' was. I made sure I bowled with only one other bowling at the time too, so I didn't have to line up and not get the next ball for another couple of minutes, so it was more like an actual over.

The stopping and starting helped me land it properly from the get go. Also helped my fielding a lot, because I wouldn't let myself start bowling longer 'spells' until I was happy with my 'over'. At first that meant a two hour training session turned into 1.5 hours of fielding! :D
 
Re: left-arm-spin

Here is a video of me bowling Left arm orthodox in a match - i ended up at 4-30-3 (4 overs 30 runs 3 wickets)..

My bowling starts from 3:49 on the video. you will see all the six balls in my over - 2nd ball a catch missed by keeper, 3rd ball a six, 5th ball catch at long on

This is the first time i am seeing my self bowling - I would like some comments on the flight (loop) i am giving, my action and also do you think I am bowling too slow??

YouTube - ptcc vs spcc

Would love your comments
 
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