Bowling offspin

[slowfinger]

Hi I'm playing for my district and I bowl offspin. I can't get the ball to spin propperly though and my coach tells me to go over the wicket alot.I'm useless bowling into right handers though as I dont know where to pitch it normally.
Any tips?

[thierry henry]

Chuck it. Just a little bit.

[slowfinger]

Chuck it. Just a little bit.

Okay... Should I also give it a flick of my wrist to get spin or should I use two fingers and force it out between them?Normally that is good for a wrong-un (in this case it's the leggy).

[Benaud]

Mate if you can't even land your stock off break then keep your attempts to bowl a doosra well at bay. Until you can land your stock ball (which should be a full length just outside off stump), don't try anything else.

[slowfinger]

Heh, that's what my coach says and I've tried and most of the time the batsman has time to get into the line to play accordingly. Unless I try to force it into him where I force him to play a shot or to leave it. If I land it outside off to a left hander though I can pick up many wickets.

[Eds]

So you're comfortable bowling to left handers but not right? Just do as much nets as you can against right handers as possible. Just bowl your stock ball over and over until you're really comfortable bowling it to a right hander, and it's working. If it's not working then speak to your coach again, and he will tell you what and how you need to improve. Once you've got your stock ball pretty much perfect to the right hander, try and develop one variation ball. And get that process keep going until you have plenty of variation. Variation is what gets batsmen out tbh.

[slowfinger]

Thanks, will do. I try to go to the nets 3/4 days a week in the summer and now winter nets are coming so I will be doing about 2 a week. I will try to bowl my stock as much as I can untill I can get it right and try to get that outside off stump delivery as my stock.

BTW Akso I don't get much bounce, usually making me bowl fuller and the risk of getting driven but I can't get it to rise to people on a normal wicket. Any tips on bounce?

[Eds]

Thanks, will do. I try to go to the nets 3/4 days a week in the summer and now winter nets are coming so I will be doing about 2 a week. I will try to bowl my stock as much as I can untill I can get it right and try to get that outside off stump delivery as my stock.

BTW Akso I don't get much bounce, usually making me bowl fuller and the risk of getting driven but I can't get it to rise to people on a normal wicket. Any tips on bounce?

You'll get driven a fair amount as an offspinner anyway, and it's not completely a bad thing. You'll probably get a fair amount of your wickets from batsmen getting their drives wrong. I'm a leggie myself, and get naturally alot of bounce, so I'm not too sure what you could do to get a bit more bounce. Just make sure you've got the right grip. You want the seam across in your hand, if that makes sense. Then you want to deliver the ball so that it lands with the seam hitting the floor. That's how I get my bounce as a leggie, and the same applied for off spinners, really.

[slowfinger]

Yeah I tried to bowl with the seam across but sometimes it hangs in the pitch and I can't get the most out of the delivery. I normally try to bowl with the seam tight up straight (well not straight-only just like 10 degrees slant) or rip the ball 45 degrees and that is what I do and it works some times. I also tried to bend my back a little but it really strained it bad and it didn't make too much of a difference, so should I try to get more flight or just stick to my stock delivery with my action tweaked a lil'?

[Eds]

Yeah I tried to bowl with the seam across but sometimes it hangs in the pitch and I can't get the most out of the delivery. I normally try to bowl with the seam tight up straight (well not straight-only just like 10 degrees slant) or rip the ball 45 degrees and that is what I do and it works some times. I also tried to bend my back a little but it really strained it bad and it didn't make too much of a difference, so should I try to get more flight or just stick to my stock delivery with my action tweaked a lil'?

I'm not an offspinning expert myself, and I haven't seen your stock ball or bowling at all, so I can't really judge whether you need more flight or not. If you aren't getting enough bounce, also try and overspin it.

Stick to your stock delivery for a while and see how that works. If it isn't working try talking to your coach and see what he reckons you can do. Then tweak it accordingly and work with it till it's perfect.

[slowfinger]

I'm not an offspinning expert myself, and I haven't seen your stock ball or bowling at all, so I can't really judge whether you need more flight or not. If you aren't getting enough bounce, also try and overspin it.

Stick to your stock delivery for a while and see how that works. If it isn't working try talking to your coach and see what he reckons you can do. Then tweak it accordingly and work with it till it's perfect.

Thanks for the info, I'll just work on it or have a word with my coach and hopefully get it right before summer starts to get it right, shouldn't be a major issue by the end of the winter and I should be able to work on my variations by the time summer starts .

[Migara]

Thanks, will do. I try to go to the nets 3/4 days a week in the summer and now winter nets are coming so I will be doing about 2 a week. I will try to bowl my stock as much as I can untill I can get it right and try to get that outside off stump delivery as my stock.

BTW Akso I don't get much bounce, usually making me bowl fuller and the risk of getting driven but I can't get it to rise to people on a normal wicket. Any tips on bounce?

first of all, bowling off spin to RHB is a challenge. Accept that, and accept that you'll be smoked few times as well. Classic spin through the gate dismissals are rare and far apart at least in the part of world i am from. most dismissals are mis hits to mid on, mid wicket or failed sweeps.

The spot to land depends on how much you spin. If you give it a serious rip (like Swann or Harbhajan), then ball the attacking line of off breaks (looking for bowled, stumpled and catch at slip), which is 6-12 inches outside off with plenty of variation of flight and speed. And to succeed you need a good arm ball as well.

If you spin it a little (like Suraj Randiv) then the line should be wicket to wicket looking for the lbw and the close catch on the leg side (the defensive style of off spin). Here also suble changes of pace and flight and use of the crease. just watch these three off spinners, and you can learn a lot from their approach.

Then develop the arm ball( who cares about the doosra?) so it drifts away from RHB. You can bowl that closer to the stumps as well.

[slowfinger]

first of all, bowling off spin to RHB is a challenge. Accept that, and accept that you'll be smoked few times as well. Classic spin through the gate dismissals are rare and far apart at least in the part of world i am from. most dismissals are mis hits to mid on, mid wicket or failed sweeps.

The spot to land depends on how much you spin. If you give it a serious rip (like Swann or Harbhajan), then ball the attacking line of off breaks (looking for bowled, stumpled and catch at slip), which is 6-12 inches outside off with plenty of variation of flight and speed. And to succeed you need a good arm ball as well.

If you spin it a little (like Suraj Randiv) then the line should be wicket to wicket looking for the lbw and the close catch on the leg side (the defensive style of off spin). Here also suble changes of pace and flight and use of the crease. just watch these three off spinners, and you can learn a lot from their approach.

Then develop the arm ball( who cares about the doosra?) so it drifts away from RHB. You can bowl that closer to the stumps as well.

Okay thanks for the help and yes, my main strategy is wicket to wicket bowling with pace variation as the key. Ripping the ball isn't my strength so I have to focus on bowling accurate and often, when and untill I learn that will I go to stuff like my arm ball and trying to rip it more.

[Lee1981]

Does your follow through with your arm and driving your leg through help you spin the ball more, or is all based on what you do with your fingers?

I have a very random action right now, and i lose my it very quickly if i start bowling badly. When im bowling in the indoor nets i can sometimes turn it a good 10 inches or so, would you say on that basis i could get some decent turn out in the middle or does the indoor mat have no bearing on my abilities to spin the ball.
I have pretty much no experience of bowling in a match.

Nice to meet you all by the way.

[slowfinger]

Does your follow through with your arm and driving your leg through help you spin the ball more, or is all based on what you do with your fingers?

I have a very random action right now, and i lose my it very quickly if i start bowling badly. When im bowling in the indoor nets i can sometimes turn it a good 10 inches or so, would you say on that basis i could get some decent turn out in the middle or does the indoor mat have no bearing on my abilities to spin the ball.
I have pretty much no experience of bowling in a match.

Nice to meet you all by the way.

Quite same at the moment, I have a Saeed Ajmal action sometimes, Graeme Swanne some others. I try just to be consistent but I can't seem to find that lethal delivery that no-one can play. I don't want to be average, I want to be so much more. And I was towards the end of last season. But the nets aren't encouraging, I need to create a magical delivery because my stock delivery (6 inch outside off) is just too easy to play.. I feel like slogging myself.