Spin bowling is a technique used for bowling

Bowling (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler; a bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder...

 in the sport of cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

. Practitioners are known as spinners or spin bowlers.

Purpose

The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ball

Cricket ball

A cricket ball is a hard, solid leather ball used to play cricket. Constructed of cork and leather, a cricket ball is heavily regulated by cricket law at first class level...

 with rapid rotation so that when it bounces on the pitch

Cricket pitch

In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...

 it will deviate, thus making it difficult for the batsman to hit the ball cleanly. The speed the ball travels is not critical, and is significantly slower than for fast bowling

Fast bowling

Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...

. A typical spin delivery has a speed in the range 70–90 km/h (45–55 mph).

Techniques

Spin bowling is divided into four different categories, depending on the particular physical technique used. There is virtually no overlap between the two basic biomechanical techniques of wrist spin

Wrist spin

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...

 and finger spin

Finger spin

Finger 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, generally used to spin the ball in the opposite direction, is wrist spin...

.

• Leg spin
  Leg spin
  Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
  
   - Right-handed with wrist spin technique. (e.g. Shane Warne
  Shane Warne
  Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
  
  )
• Left-arm orthodox spin
  Left-arm orthodox spin
  Left-arm orthodox spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket.Left-arm orthodox spin is bowled by a left arm bowler using the fingers to spin the ball from right to left of the cricket pitch...
  
   - Left-handed with finger spin technique. (e.g. Daniel Vettori
  Daniel Vettori
  Daniel Luca Vettori ONZM is a cricketer for the New Zealand cricket team. He is the eighth player in Test history to take 300 wickets and score 3,000 runs. He is the youngest player to have represented New Zealand in Test cricket, having made his debut in 1996–97 at the age of 18...
  
  )
• Left-arm unorthodox spin
  Left-arm unorthodox spin
  Left-arm unorthodox spin, or chinaman, is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket using the hand wrist. Left-arm unorthodox spin bowlers use a wrist hand action to spin the ball which turns from off to leg side of the cricket pitch...
  
   - Left-handed with wrist spin technique. (e.g. Brad Hogg
  Brad Hogg
  George Bradley "Brad" Hogg , is an Australian cricketer currently listed with the Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League. He is a left-arm chinaman bowler, and a capable lower-order left-handed batsman, as well as an excellent fielder....
  
  )
• Off spin
  Off spin
  Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
  
   - Right-handed with finger spin technique. (e.g. Muttiah Muralidaran)

Depending on technique, a spin bowler uses either predominant wrist or finger motion to impart spin to the ball around a horizontal axis that is at an oblique angle to the length of the pitch. This sort of spin means it is also possible for the Magnus effect

Magnus effect

The Magnus effect is the phenomenon whereby a spinning object flying in a fluid creates a whirlpool of fluid around itself, and experiences a force perpendicular to the line of motion...

to cause the ball to deviate sideways through the air, before it bounces. Such deviation is called drift. The combination of drift and spin can make the ball's trajectory complex, with a change of direction at the bounce.

This variety of trajectories achievable by a spin bowler can bewilder inexperienced or poor batsmen.

Spin bowlers are generally given the task of bowling with an old, worn cricket ball. A new cricket ball better suits the techniques of fast bowling than spin bowling, while a worn one grips the pitch better and achieves greater spin. Spin bowlers are also more effective later in a game, as the pitch dries up and begins to crack and crumble. This again provides more purchase for the spinning ball and produces greater deviation.

Equivalencies

Both finger spin and wrist spin bowler use a range of different angles of spin to confuse the batsman and dismiss him. Many of these variations have direct equivalents in the other discipline, but the names used for the various deliveries may be different.

Analogous concepts and terminology
Description	Finger spin	Wrist spin
A delivery in which the ball spins towards the batsman to produce dip and bounce.	topspinner	topspinner
A delivery in which the ball spins in the opposite direction to the stock delivery ( the "wrong 'un").	doosra	googly (aka bosey)
A delivery in which the ball spins away from the batsmen, scrambed seam.	backspinner (aka teesra)	slider (aka zooter)
A delivery in which the ball spins away from the batsmen, seam upright to produce swing.	arm ball	also the slider - rarely used
A delivery in which the ball is squeezed out of the fingers with backspin.	no real equivalent	flipper
A delivery in which the ball spins horizontally on its axis to produce drift but no turn.	undercutter	no real equivalent

Conditions

In recent times, spin bowling has been a forte of the bowlers from the Indian sub-continent. The primary reason for that is that the pitches in the sub-continent provide more help to the spin bowlers. The faster the pitch degenerates, the earlier the spinners come into the picture. Australian and South African wickets are usually very hard and bouncy, helping the fast bowlers more. They do not break very much during the entire duration of the test match. But pitches in the sub-continent are not that hard. They are not usually held together by the grass as much. They break up quicker and help spin bowlers and leg spin is considered to be one of the toughest type to have control but very effective in terms of picking off wickets.

External links

• BBC Guide to Spin Bowling