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Why so less medium pace spin bowlers??

karan316

State Vice-Captain
The Spin | Rejoicing in the Twirlymen and the forgotten art of medium-paced spin | Andy Bull | Sport | guardian.co.uk

by medium paced spin bowler, i don't mean a slightly quick spin bowler like mendis, i mean a bowler who has the resources of a medium pacer as well as a spinner, it is possible to have an in between run up from which you can bowl medium pace as well as spin.

If a bowler can mixup his spin bowling along with his medium pace in swing out swing deliveries, then he can be a headache for any batsman, why do such bowlers don't exist?? especially with the shorter formats around??
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Article pretty much answers the Q itself:

Partly it must be the pitches, which are so much better to bat on than they once were. Covers mean that there are no sticky dogs any more, and improved drainage and groundskeeping ensure that there will always be less help for the bowler.
There's been a few (mostly not fantastic) bowlers of recent times whose stock delivery is the medium paced cutter; off the top of my head Chris Harris, Virat Kohli & Paul Collingwood spring to mind, former two bowled leg-cutters, the latter off-cutters. There's also been a few chaps who started off as medium paced seamers and who moved to finger spin: Mark Waugh, Mike Watkinson & Funky Miller; the latter two proving adept enough to play tests as specialist twirlers.
 

Hurricane

Hall of Fame Member
Indeed - Scott Styris in his final years comes to mind as well. He would bowl 95% of his deliveries as fast off cutters by rolling his fingers. And occassionally bowl one seam up. I don't recall him swinging it though so I he didn't really maximise his seam up delivery.

Strangely even though the scouting reports must have said he was going to bowl cutters. Batsman always seemed surprised by the first one he bowled every game.
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
Hard to take an article on medium pace spinners seriously if it doesn't mention Bob Appleyard
 
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Arachnodouche

International Captain
I think the OP means bowlers who can bowl legitimate spin and medium pace without altering their actions and run ups much? Or are different actions allowed for the two styles?
 

karan316

State Vice-Captain
There's been a few (mostly not fantastic) bowlers of recent times whose stock delivery is the medium paced cutter; off the top of my head Chris Harris, Virat Kohli & Paul Collingwood spring to mind, former two bowled leg-cutters, the latter off-cutters. There's also been a few chaps who started off as medium paced seamers and who moved to finger spin: Mark Waugh, Mike Watkinson & Funky Miller; the latter two proving adept enough to play tests as specialist twirlers.
I do understand that the pitches are one factor as mentioned in the article but despite of that a bowler capable of swinging the ball at 115-120kmph along with deceiving spinning deliveries can be tough to deal with. And the examples you have mentioned are mostly gentle medium pacers who bowl CUTTERS and do not spin the bowl like a normal spinner does, and guys like Miller and Mark Waugh changed their bowling style from seam to spin, m talking about bowling a mix up of spin and seam/swing with the same run up and action which is very much possible.
Bob Appleyard mentioned by Goughy is a good example of that.

And one more thing that goes in favour of bowling with that style is that the ball swings the most at the speed of 113kmph which is the pace around which most medium pacers bowl. So if you combine it with some good spin bowling, it can be deadly.
 
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BoyBrumby

Englishman
Does Kumble qualify?
Was only about Mendis pace, wasn't he? I know someone once (might have been Bumble when he was our coach) advocated playing him as an inswing bowler if the batsman couldn't pick him from the hand. Occasionally one would turn past the right-hander's outside edge and then thet just have to hope they missed it.
 

karan316

State Vice-Captain
Something like this

Andrew Symonds to Suresh Raina - YouTube

Symonds is bowling with a smooth run up and bowling medium pace with a bit of movement,
if with the same action, he bowls flighted off spin deliveries and arm balls at around 80 - 85 kmph and mix it up with his medium pace deliveries, it can become difficult for the batsmen.
His run up is too big in this case, but with a slightly short run up, he can achieve both spin and swing/seam bowling.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Something like this

Andrew Symonds to Suresh Raina - YouTube

Symonds is bowling with a smooth run up and bowling medium pace with a bit of movement,
if with the same action, he bowls flighted off spin deliveries and arm balls at around 80 - 85 kmph and mix it up with his medium pace deliveries, it can become difficult for the batsmen.
His run up is too big in this case, but with a slightly short run up, he can achieve both spin and swing/seam bowling.
Like Kohli then?

He comes in off the same run every ball and bowls with a similar action every time, delivering a variety of leg rollers and seam up slow medium pace.
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
Was only about Mendis pace, wasn't he? I know someone once (might have been Bumble when he was our coach) advocated playing him as an inswing bowler if the batsman couldn't pick him from the hand. Occasionally one would turn past the right-hander's outside edge and then thet just have to hope they missed it.
Kumble was about 5-10k quicker than Mendis when he first came. He had a very quick flipper which was termed the "rocket ball" by saffies in 1994 tour IIRC. When speed guns first came along he bowled some 115k workers at back end of ODI innings.
 

stumpski

International Captain
Afridi is probably the quickest spinner around, isn't he?

Medium-pace/medium-fast bowlers who became spinners: add Jim Laker, Ashley Giles. Maurice Tate went the other way.

I can't comment on Kohli as I don't think I've ever seen him bowl.

One for another thread I know, but why do leg-spinners never get reported for a dodgy action? I know that you couldn't straighten the arm at the point of release as an off-spinner might, but could the arm start straight and then bend as it comes over? I would think that's quite common with the googly. Or would there be no advantage in that?
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
One for another thread I know, but why do leg-spinners never get reported for a dodgy action? I know that you couldn't straighten the arm at the point of release as an off-spinner might, but could the arm start straight and then bend as it comes over? I would think that's quite common with the googly. Or would there be no advantage in that?
Apparently Shane Warne, amongst all his other talents, was able to chuck his leg break
 

karan316

State Vice-Captain
Piyush Chawla is doing exactly what I was talking about, bowling spin along with medium paced deliveries in between with the same action,he has been doing it since 4 5 matches now,
Just look at his bowling speed in the video, and look at Uthappa's reaction:-)

Wicket of Robin Uthappa taken by Piyush Chawla in over 8.6 Inning 1 - YouTube

Even in this video, look at the second wicket, chawla gets watson with a medium pace delivery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0NHKzDGBA

In both the cases he is bowling around 120kph, around 30-35kph higher than his normal pace.
 
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Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
Piyush Chawla is doing exactly what I was talking about, bowling spin along with medium paced deliveries in between with the same action,he has been doing it since 4 5 matches now,
Just look at his bowling speed in the video, and look at Uthappa's reaction:-)

Wicket of Robin Uthappa taken by Piyush Chawla in over 8.6 Inning 1 - YouTube

Even in this video, look at the second wicket, chawla gets watson with a medium pace delivery

Wickets taken by Kings XI Punjab - 2nd Inning : Pepsi IPL 2013 - KXIP vs RR, Match 55 - YouTube

In both the cases he is bowling around 120kph, around 30-35kph higher than his normal pace.
Hasn't made an impact in international cricket yet though... will be interesting to see how he develops, still just 24.
 

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