Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

I noticed one somewhere whether in the nets pre game or during the game where I was thinking if you just bowled a stock leggy for the fun of it haha it all makes sense now

No haha I do sometimes just bowl a genuine leggy or seam up delivery in the nets for fun lol.

Oh I also bowled a couple of carrom balls in the game, one of which was almost stumped.
 
No haha I do sometimes just bowl a genuine leggy or seam up delivery in the nets for fun lol.

Oh I also bowled a couple of carrom balls in the game, one of which was almost stumped.
Nice man keep it up, it was a shit group today, more chances for stumpings at better ground with our main keeper.
 
I’m trying to think of how I can practice my turf bowling in synthetic nets.

I need to bowl faster but when I do that on syntho it tends to have a bit less lateral movement and I spend all training fetching the ball.

I guess instead of bowling it faster I just need to make everything faster? Like just make everything a bit whippier, which should also keep the revs up?
 
I’m trying to think of how I can practice my turf bowling in synthetic nets.

I need to bowl faster but when I do that on syntho it tends to have a bit less lateral movement and I spend all training fetching the ball.

I guess instead of bowling it faster I just need to make everything faster? Like just make everything a bit whippier, which should also keep the revs up?

I find just increasing the pace of the runup can help you bowl faster easier.
 
Hello Fleetwood. You've said - " All I've been doing is using an orthodox 2-up 2-down grip , and at delivery pulling the two "up " fingers straight down the back of the ball, like a seamer would, except with the arm whipping across the body to leg, this generally seems to produce what is basically a leg-cutter to a r/h batsman".

I went through periods when I tried that delivery, it seems like an obvious development as a wrist-spinner, but I've never heard anyone of any consequence use it and it just seems to be a variation of a medium pacers delivery? I have to concede, that as I've got older (My two lads have pointed this out) I'm probably a bit obsessive about details relating to this type of thing and maybe I should chill a bit! Perhaps, if I was as obsessed with seam up bowling, I'd be able to credit that delivery to a particular bowler and that would make me feel somewhat happier about it - it might even be a standard variation for medium pace bowler? I think it's definitely got a place in your armoury if you can deliver it well and yeah I'm sure the uninitiated batter facing it would walk down to his mate at the other end and say. "Watch out this blokes got a slider".

With your point about the top-spinner, I think you just have to work with it a lot and work out a way of bowling it. My Leg-Break sits quite deep in my hands, with a loose grip. If I work with my wrist and try and get the presentation so that I feels like it should produce more over-spin, I end up producing a variation of my usual leg-break - which often turns more. I have no idea how or why, but as far as my brain and body are concerned I've released the ball to execute a Leg-Break! I have to change the grip completely to produce a top-spinner, far higher in the hand, almost finger tips with a firmer grip.

Can you vary your arm angle and still execute your variations? I used to have a very good Googly with a high arm - scrapped bowling Googlies though because of Googly syndrome. I can bowl my leg-breaks with a lower arm and it's the only time I ever notice my balls drifting and dipping at the same time, but it's not something I do frequently enough to bring to the game on a consistent basis. I might try one or two if I'm bowling well, but it's 50/50 if I'm going to get it right, so I only do it if I'm bowling really well and have a low economy and can afford to be hit for a 4. The low arm delivery also turns well off the wicket. It kind begs the question why don't I work on it more? I'm pretty certain I can't execute the flipper well enough with the lower arm and the flipper would then stand out a mile if I bowled it normally with a high arm in isolation.

South coast/Hampshire - very nice part of the country. What's your club ground like?

Thanks for the response Dave - I'd agree that it's a pretty limited variation, and if I had a wrong'un or better command over the topspinner, I would focus on them for variation, but while I'm working on that, I need some sort of variation in the meantime. I suspect that nobody at the top level bowls it as a variation because any good batsman is going to spot it quite quickly (it must be fairly obvious), plus those lads play each other all the time, whereas I'm often bowling at someone who's never seen me before I find that batsman often struggle against me at first, probably due to unfamiliarity with the unusual angle, but soon line me up once they've got used to me a bit, so I need *something*

Re -Topspinner, I've found exactly the same as you - it often seems to produce a big-turning legbreak (offbreak in my case obvs) - I have a similar deep but loose grip, so I'll have a go at your suggestion re holding it in the finger tips.

I haven't really consciously tried to change my arm angle yet, I'm more at the stage of trying to find some consistency and repeatability in my basic action , it's pretty early days - I'm trying not to walk before I can run! I think non-bowlers may not appreciate the difficulty of working variations in when there's a good chance of it going wrong - to vary the height of the arm across deliveries would seem quite tricky to me at the moment , I've got a relatively low arm at delivery, probably another reason I've struggled with the wrongun. I gather that the orthodox flipper is more or less your stock delivery - it seems to be quite rare at the top level now, is anyone out there regularly bowling it? White ball wristspinners around at the moment seem to rely mostly on wronguns.

My club ground is about 50 m from the sea (Southsea, at the bottom of Portsmouth) , it's an astroturf pitch, which does offer a bit of turn because it's quite old and worn, but obviously not as much as turf would - most of our opponents have turf, except for one venue with a brand new astroturf pitch which offers no turn whatsover, and a square boundary about 40m from the stumps on one side. I might get a tactical injury shortly before I play there again...
 
Right now I'm experimenting with having my slider really loose in my fingers and bowling it quite round arm, trying to get a touch of backspin. Certainly think this could come out faster than just a leg cutter, and with more drift and revs? I feel with the loose grip it almost slips out, coming out quicker than normal. However I find this harder to control, but certainly nice when I get it right.

Yeah, that's sort of what I'm aiming for, hopefully a slightly faster ball with the same arm speed. Even for an orthodox legbreak, it's funny & counterintuitive how a looser grip can mean more revs - every instinct is rip the ball harder when I'm trying to spin it more, but the odd time that I've really ripped it, it almost seems to float out of the hand with just a light flick
 
Thanks for the response Dave - I'd agree that it's a pretty limited variation, and if I had a wrong'un or better command over the topspinner, I would focus on them for variation, but while I'm working on that, I need some sort of variation in the meantime. I suspect that nobody at the top level bowls it as a variation because any good batsman is going to spot it quite quickly (it must be fairly obvious), plus those lads play each other all the time, whereas I'm often bowling at someone who's never seen me before I find that batsman often struggle against me at first, probably due to unfamiliarity with the unusual angle, but soon line me up once they've got used to me a bit, so I need *something*

Re -Topspinner, I've found exactly the same as you - it often seems to produce a big-turning legbreak (offbreak in my case obvs) - I have a similar deep but loose grip, so I'll have a go at your suggestion re holding it in the finger tips.

I haven't really consciously tried to change my arm angle yet, I'm more at the stage of trying to find some consistency and repeatability in my basic action , it's pretty early days - I'm trying not to walk before I can run! I think non-bowlers may not appreciate the difficulty of working variations in when there's a good chance of it going wrong - to vary the height of the arm across deliveries would seem quite tricky to me at the moment , I've got a relatively low arm at delivery, probably another reason I've struggled with the wrongun. I gather that the orthodox flipper is more or less your stock delivery - it seems to be quite rare at the top level now, is anyone out there regularly bowling it? White ball wristspinners around at the moment seem to rely mostly on wronguns.

My club ground is about 50 m from the sea (Southsea, at the bottom of Portsmouth) , it's an astroturf pitch, which does offer a bit of turn because it's quite old and worn, but obviously not as much as turf would - most of our opponents have turf, except for one venue with a brand new astroturf pitch which offers no turn whatsover, and a square boundary about 40m from the stumps on one side. I might get a tactical injury shortly before I play there again...

Fleetwood, I have to keep remembering that you're primarily bowling off-breaks to a right-hander. So, my observations with that scenario are... I went for 2-3 years only able to bowl Wrong-uns and found that once the batters had recognised that as being the case, the threat was for the most part dealt with. Leading up to succumbing completely to 'Googly syndrome' I had an ever-decreasing Leg-Break, but during that phase I used to take wickets and was a bit of a handful despite being a particularly wayward bowler. The period only bowling Wrong-uns was a bit of a low ebb and only improved once I started bowling The Flipper, so I can see where you're coming from and with your 2up 2down seam ball and if it works, I wouldn't bust a gut changing it to be honest. I've never read about anyone bowling it, maybe Amol Rajan (Twirlymen)? He writes about some pretty weird variations in his book and that might be one of them? I'd have to re-read it and check, so don't take that as gospel.

I think looking forwards it sounds like you've got the foundations for potential long term gains. I bowl with a very high arm generally, but sometimes in games I lower it and take a risk with a lower arm because it brings so much more to the party as such, other than accuracy. My lower arm action increases dip, creates drift which isn't a feature of my bowling generally, more action on the ball and far more bounce and turn off the wicket. I think if I was where you are, I'd not go looking to change the action in the short term and stick with it this coming season and work with it? I think you're probably right with regards to lower arm making the top-spinner potentially harder to bowl. However, I don't think it's impossible and with some work on wrist presentation it's potentially achievable, I don't know what Leggie would say about that as I think he bowls with a fairly low action and he bowls a top-spinner? It might be worth a punt using the Screenshot 2024-02-08 210718.png fingery technique in the nets pre-season and see how it works out you might be surprised?

Yeah, if you don't bowl wrist-spin I don't think people realise how hard it is to develop and maintain accuracy with 2 variations let alone three or more! For me, gone are the days when I'd be trying to bowl 5 variations. Yeah, you're right the Flipper is my main ball - the basic back-spinner, but with sub-variations in the form of seam-up, cross seamed and mixed seam, even though they are minimal changes it makes a significant difference in the way the ball feels in my hand and the classic Shane Warne seam up flipper is the one I bowl the least because it feels so odd to me these days. It used to be the only way I bowled the back-spinner once upon a time. Increasingly, in games where I have good support in the field and play with better players (Friendlies) I bowl more Leg-Breaks knowing that the batters are familiar with the delivery and come out with that notion of 'Not letting the Leggie settle' and look to tee off at the earliest opportunity. It was interesting today that Rehan Ahmed was saying that he had the license to bowl in a way that was going to enable the batters to hit him for 4's and 6's, but also knowing that at some point that was going to result in a wicket - stumped/caught in the deep. Those dismissals in my regular team, are just not going to happen (5th XI) but in 3rd XI games and friendlies with a mix of players from all teams and the better youth players, I come into my own tossing up Leg-breaks on a more frequent basis in between the Flippers and generally have a good game. I was listening to the commentary of the live test match and Pietersen was saying the same thing -bring the field up, offer the chance for the batter to go over mid-on and mid-off... yeah if gets it right and hits you for 4 or 6... well batted, but at some point he's going to run past the ball or mis-time it and be caught.

Therefore, I don't think it's necessary to have all the 'Toys in the box' as Terry Jenner says? You just need to be able to bowl a good Leg-break and have some control over that - smaller and larger turn, good control of length and line, speed & flight plus increase/decrease in the revs you put on the ball. We have a girl in our team Kirby. I think last season she tied with me for 3rd highest wicket taker at the club (5 teams) but her strike rate was so much better than mine and yet by her own admission she hardly turns the ball, she just floats the ball up and lands it on a good length and varies the speed. She's brought on frequently when everyone else is getting carted around the ground for 4's and 6's by some wanna-be Steve Smith/Virat Kholi/Ben Stokes (Delete as appropriate) and generally destroys them within a couple of overs. It's so good to watch!

Re the rarity of The Flipper, yeah you're right. I couldn't name a single player that bowls it at first class or international level. I think I've said before, I've only known my mate Alex 'The Wizard' McClellan bowl it other than me and that's because I encouraged him to bowl it.

So in conclusion, I'd say work with what you've got at the moment and maybe try and add the 'Fingery' release and see if that helps with getting the ball down with more over-spin, even a little straighter will have benefits. That's all I'm working on - adding the straighter ball with over-spin, if it's not pure top-spin it wont matter just the fact that it turns less and bounces more will do for most batters when mixed with my other 2 balls.
 
With the topspinner I almost think like I'm going to bowl a small googly. Overcompensate, and then you will find you will be close to 100% topspinner, and yeah I do find that when I get it slightly off it turns massively because of the topspin causing it to grip. I would slow the action down, bowl from 10 metres until you are getting the wrist and spin in the right direction and then gradually increase until you are bowling normally, that's how I got it.

I also try and bowl the topspinner with a higher arm, and this causes it to naturally come out slower, as like a slower variation - maybe this is the reason for increased turn? Likewise, I bowl a sidespinner with a lower arm, and this makes it come out quicker, as a slider type variation that often drifts and grips the pitch a bit, or slides on.
 
I like Rehan Ahmed even more after reading this quote " Golf, in his words, is a “shocking sport”.

I love watching him, he bowls the wrongun every second ball. It looks like a real weapon, I wish I could get my wrongun to come out the same pace and flight as my legbreak like he does. Currently my wrongun has become a bit more flighted and slower, if it could be a touch faster and flatter it'd be more dangerous with less time for the batter to adjust. Another thing that has not been spoken about enough is the fact that some days he gets hit for 20 runs off two overs, and Stokes still keeps him on, often leading to a wicket. Great courageous captaincy.
 


Stream for my match tomorrow again if anyone is interested.

This one is on synthetic but I think I’ve figured my pace issues. It’s also C grade so slightly lower quality. I’m also batting at 8.

For anyone else’s interest there is also a left arm spinner playing. He bowls a mix of finger and wrist spin and has been working on a more round arm delivery that seems to turn more but bounce about half the height of his stock ball. He bowled really well last week too.
 


Stream for my match tomorrow again if anyone is interested.

This one is on synthetic but I think I’ve figured my pace issues. It’s also C grade so slightly lower quality. I’m also batting at 8.

For anyone else’s interest there is also a left arm spinner playing. He bowls a mix of finger and wrist spin and has been working on a more round arm delivery that seems to turn more but bounce about half the height of his stock ball. He bowled really well last week too.

Here that's 4 in the morning! I'm watching a game in WA already, is yours short format hence the later start?
 
Here that's 4 in the morning! I'm watching a game in WA already, is yours short format hence the later start?

It’s a 50 over match so it’s starting at 12:30 and goes until 6ish.

Not sure what match you’re watching? It’d make more sense if it was a T20 match that starts at like 8pm here. That’d be midday for you right?
 
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Looks like a beautiful day until you realise it’s 42 degrees.
 
Well that was a bit of an eh game.

Maynard bowled so well to take 5. Only thing that made the game look close really. Batters didn’t score enough.

I feel like I actually bowled well , almost had a bloke LBW on a forward defence if not for a fine inside edge. Got hit *just* over cover like 3 times. And got dragged after getting slogged for 6.

0-16 (3).

Bowling spin is so weird, I can feel like I’m bowling really well and do nothing or even get smashed.

And then I can feel like I’m bowling shit and take 3 wickets in 2 overs. Although I have noticed that K. David tends to do well/poorly whenever I do as well, so I guess they just didn’t have enough pressure on them for me to be dangerous enough on a synthetic wicket.
 


Stream for my match tomorrow again if anyone is interested.

This one is on synthetic but I think I’ve figured my pace issues. It’s also C grade so slightly lower quality. I’m also batting at 8.

For anyone else’s interest there is also a left arm spinner playing. He bowls a mix of finger and wrist spin and has been working on a more round arm delivery that seems to turn more but bounce about half the height of his stock ball. He bowled really well last week too.

What point do you come on and bowl - what's your proper name on the score card?
 
I think I’m transitioning from being able to turn it a bit and bowl it near the spot and hope a batsman plays a dumb shot to actually having to get the batsman out.

Same bro, I find my accuracy is not at the point where I can do that well enough however. Like its all well and good having a plan, but if you can't execute the plan then its no good.
 
Same bro, I find my accuracy is not at the point where I can do that well enough however. Like its all well and good having a plan, but if you can't execute the plan then its no good.

It’s not really that as much, I’m fairly happy with my accuracy, like I’ll get it roughly where I want 9/10 balls.

It’s just trying to figure out how to actually get people out traditionally. Just an experience thing tbh.
 
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