Left-arm unorthodox spin

Animation of a left-arm unorthodox spin.

Left-arm unorthodox spin is a term of Cricket Sports and refers to a specific type, the ball to bowl . As a subspecies of spin bowling , the ball is bowled by a left-hander and the so-called wrist-spin technique is used.

The bowler uses his wrist to create the drift . The bowler holds the ball with his index and ring fingers, with the and middle fingers also resting on the seam of the ball. When leaving the ball from the hand, the fingers are stretched and the ball is controlled by the ring finger. Furthermore, the wrist is folded down so that the palm is facing up. This process ensures that the ball spins clockwise.

The ball leaves the bowler's hand at speeds typically slower than 90 km / h. The risk here is not in the rate as the pace bowling , but in the spin ( "spinning") which the ball gets. The spin causes the ball to change its direction of movement after it hits the ground. In leg spin , the ball spins to the right as seen from the left-handed bowler.

Mainly in Great Britain the standard throw (English. Stock ball ) of this type of bowling described above is called chinaman , while in Australia and the West Indies the ball that is bowled from the hindquarters and thus rotates in the opposite direction is called that. Regardless of its name, the latter ball is the mirror image of the googly of the (right-handed) leg spin bowler.

This type of bowling is quite rare as it is very difficult to control the amount of spin accurately and over a large number of overs . A right-handed batsman usually has fewer problems with this type of bowling than with left-arm orthodox spin bowling because the ball flies towards him after it hits the ground. For this reason, there are only a few left-arm unorthodox spin bowlers who are used in test matches or one-day internationals .

Well-known left-arm unorthodox weirdos

 Australia

• Leslie Fleetwood-Smith (1935-1938)
• George Tribe (1946-1947)
• Lindsay Kline (1957–1961)
• Johnny Martin (1961-1967)
• David Sincock (1964–1966)
• Michael Bevan (1994-2004)
• Brad Hogg (1996-2008)
• Simon Katich (2001-)
• Beau Casson (2008-)

 England

• Johnny Wardle (1948-1957)

 South Africa

• Charlie Llewellyn (1896-1912)
• Paul Adams (1996-2004)

West Indies cricket team

• Ellis Achong (1930-1935)
• Garfield Sobers (1954-1974)
• Inshan Ali (1971–1977)
• Dave Mohammed (2004-2008)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Leg-spin ( English ) BBC.
2. ↑ Michael Rundell: The Dictionary of Cricket . 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 1995, ISBN 0-19-866198-3 .