Leg spin bowling - the dying art

By A.C. De Silva

Leg-spin bowling has become the dying art of cricket. Leg-spinners would be more dangerous to the right hand batsman because the ball's leaving the bat. Unfortunately there aren't too many 'leggies' around these days.

One-day cricket hasn't exactly helped them it's true they are expensive than other brands of spinners because the very nature of their delivery means there's more risk of looseness.

One of the important things when batting against legbreak bowlers is to know where your stumps are. If the ball's turning, you shouldn't be playing deliveries that are wide and getting wider with the leg-spin. If you're taking middle-stump guard on a turning wicket, you should be telling yourself that a ball which you're moving a few inches over to should be ignored because it's going wide of the stumps. Get-your pad outside the line as a second means of defence when the ball is turning away from you on the off-stump, because you can't be lbw to a ball that's pitched outside the off-stump, provided you are truing to play a shot-even if the ball would have turned in and hit the wicket if your pad not been in the way.

The same principles for playing 'leggies' apply for the right-hand batsman against slow left-arm spin. Don't commit yourself to early, don't lunge forward automatically even though you're looking to play off the front foot on a good wicket. Discipline yourself to hit with the spin - in this case on the off-side rather than playing across the line to the leg-side (the reverse applies to the off-spinners). I

t's always easier to hit or stroke the ball with the spin because if the ball turns more than you expected, there's a chance to edge won't go in the air if your left hand is doing its proper work at the top of the handle and keeping down the stroke.

Steel yourself to ignore the left-arm spin outside the off-stump, he'll get tired before you do and the full tosses and long hops will come.

Whatever the style of spin, footwork is a vital part of the technique of batting against at. It's an exhilarating feeling to get your movements right to execute the shot perfectly and for the spectator it's nice to see a battle of wils going on with the keeper hoping to benefit with a smart stumping.

A word on the position of the feet when facing up to the spinners. According to Gooch he prefers to have one foot on either side of the crease while his back foot would be on the line if batting -against a pace bowler. Some batsmen don't move their position, irrespective of the bowler's speed, but good says that he finds the backfoot inside the crease stops him bothering about being stumped when playing forward defensively.

Some tips on certain shots to play against the spinners. The late cut and the square cut are productive shots against the ball that's turning away from the bat, but the batsman must be careful - avoid cutting off-spinners on a turning wicket because the ball could turn back into the stumps and there's risk of dragging the ball on. Gooch says that he wouldn't always advocate playing the pull shot unless the ball is very short and is not one of those deceptively quick ones that hustle through. Gooch says that he doesn't play the lap or the sweep - to play the former the batsman must put the left pad outside the off-stump and play the ball round to leg.

That's a safe shot on a turning wicket - because the left pad outside the line of the off-stump will prevent an low decision. Gooch says that he will only play the sweep to a ball just outside the leg-stump.