Cricket Leg Spin Bowling

The leg spin stock delivery is the normal delivery for the cricket leg spin bowler. Having a good stock ball delivery is one of the most important cricket tips around. Not only does a cricket bowler become more dangerous but his variations have a bigger impact as well.

The important cricket bowling techniques to focus on as a cricket leg spin bowler are the grip, action and follow through.

The leg spin bowling grip is the pinkie and ring finger down and the middle and index finger up: Two fingers up and two fingers down and the seam running between the up-fingers. The ball has to sit comfortably but firm in the hand. The ring finger is the spinning finger. The thumb can be on or off the ball – whatever feels the most comfortable.

It is important that the whole hand works together as one to impart the leg spin. At release the wrist must not be straight and has to be cocked.

The back of the wrist should face the bowler and the palm should face the batsman.

The seam of the ball has to leave the hand facing upwards. This will result in greater leg-spin, more bounce and will assist in creating drift.

The recommended run-up for a leg-spin bowler should straight. Running in straight to the wicket allows the bowler more options, both with his action and where he wants to direct his delivery. The energy is also channelled into the delivery and not unnecessarily wasted during long bowling spells.

There are plenty of coaches who will tell you that a run-up is a personal thing and that the most important thing is that the bowler must just feel comfortable. Although that is true it is also true that your run-up can have an influence on the difficulty in releasing certain leg-spin variation deliveries. There are plenty leg-spin bowlers who run into the wicket with an angle of +30?. This is not a major problem if the bowler is comfortable with the run-up; however a straight run-up does make it easier to bowl variation deliveries. A quick study of all the international leg-spin bowlers, such as Shane Warne and Anil Kumble, will show you they all run into the wicket with a fairly straight run-up.

The shoulders, hip and feet should be aligned with the target. The front arm leads and steers the action and pulls down driving the action forward. As the front arm pulls down, the right shoulder will come forward generating the power in the delivery. Look behind the non bowling arm (and not around it). Your head must be held upright as far as is possible. The right shoulder should rotate towards the target and finish with that shoulder facing the stumps.

The back foot must land parallel to the return crease. Your feet need to be aligned or slightly crossed over towards target (front foot may be slightly inside the line of the back foot).

The delivery stride should be within the space of the crease. If your delivery stride is too long it can reduce your height at the crease and prevent you getting through the action (and reduce the amount of bounce you generate from the pitch). If the delivery stride is too short it can give you an unstable base and make you lose your balance during the release.

Before releasing a vicious leg-spinner, the bowler should try to get the point of delivery as high as possible. This is done by pivoting on the landing foot. The landing stride should also be short in order to aid the bowler in getting more height when he pivots the landing foot. As mentioned, if the landing stride is too long then it becomes very difficult to obtain the full height of the bowler. The height is very important as this aides the bowler to achieve more bounce and more leg-spin of the track.

The follow through should extend a few paces down the pitch. The follow through should end with the bowler facing the batsmen front-on and legs spread – ready to move in any direction.

All deliveries should have a proper follow through. There are three reasons for this:

The non-delivery arm is aggressively pulled through in the action and it should create momentum that takes the bowler forward. If there is no good follow through it is a sign of a weak non-delivery arm.

A good follow through shows signs of aggressiveness which puts pressure on the batsmen.

It helps the bowler be ready to field off his own bowling. If there is no proper follow through the bowler is caught flat-footed when the ball is hit straight back and could lose out on many caught and bowl chances.