20 Shocking Spin Deliveries in Cricket
Added 2026-01-07 03:13:15 +0000 UTCComments
Roll tide🌊
Squeaky
2026-01-07 22:04:42 +0000 UTCThe way bowlers hold a ball depends on a few things. (I'm not a professional, I just played a lot at school). Fast bowlers will usually have the seam of the ball vertically with the seam running either between the fore finger and middle finger, or between the middle finger and ring finger. The point of pressure, as you mentioned would be the thumb and the two fingers immediately either side of the seam. When bowling you release the thumb first and the guide the ball with the other two fingers. The exact position and way you release the ball allows you to alter the way the seam wobbles and allows you to add a backward spin by forcing the tips of the fingers downwards just as the ball leaves the hand. A good fast bowler can manipulate this in minute ways to make the ball swerve, or bounce in a certain direction, or change speed after the bounce. Spin bowling is much more nuanced. There are two types of spin bowling, one where the ball exits from the outside of the hand by the little finger and and the other leaves the hand by the forefinger. That being said nearly all of the time the spin bowler will hold the ball so that the seam runs under the fingers in the opposite way to a fast bowler. Depending on the type of delivery you want to make you may alter the way you hold it, but it's much more down to the bowler's preference, as it's about having a grip that gives you the most spin. Some might hold it with the thumb, the fore, and ring fingers spread round the ball pretty evenly, some will hold it with the middle finger and ring finger spread like a Vulcan salute (I think Shane Warne does this). A lot of the spin when bowling from the outside of the hand comes from the way you flick the wrist around. The other way the spin in caused more by the fingers forcing the ball to spin, probably more like Baseball. I think you can bowl more slowly and get more spin on the ball with it coming from the outside of the hand, but it's more difficult to be proficient and even more difficult to master. I'd also recommend looking for a 20-20 match to watch live if you can. One day cricket and test cricket are so much slower, to the point that there can be minutes between overs and on TV it can feel a bit sluggish. 20-20 format was designed to speed up the game and a match might only last a few hours. There are other rules that make for a more exciting games, but they are down to where you can place fielders and limiting each bowler to a maximum of 4 overs. Enjoy, it's a very information heavy game, much like Baseball, but also like Baseball it's easy to understand the basics well enough to enjoy the game. It just takes time to fully understand the strategies, know which position is where and why the fielders are positioned around the field depending on who is bowling and batting.
Chas N Dave
2026-01-07 16:41:31 +0000 UTCI’m going to guess hand size might have something to do with it.
David A Simmons
2026-01-07 03:53:02 +0000 UTCI also just can't figure out how they get enough traction on the ball in their hand with that kind of weird grip. Couldn't figure it out when i was trying to do it decades ago at school, and still can't. lol.
Jack TheLad
2026-01-07 03:20:36 +0000 UTC
