The Googly

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Billywhizz

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I set myself a goal for this off season to a gain a consistent delivery that breaks from off to leg.
I've tinkered with the offcutter, the offspinning flipper, and the googly over the years, and recently given each a good working over.

The offcutter though starting to get accurate, lacks energy and I think would work in the lower divs okay but against decent bats pobably picked and dispatched.

The offspinning flipper showed potential but I realised it was going to take a lot of work to get the accuracy needed and it was also hurting my shoulder.

The googly always used to come out mostly as a toppie and occasionally a wrongun....but ...lightbulb moment!!. I took my thumb off the ball completely, which allowed me to get the whole of the back of my hand facing the batsman at point of release. I realised the two up two down grip with thumb resting on the seam was impossible for me to do with the angle required.

Its taken a while getting used to having no thumb on the ball, but what I also like about it, it feels totally different to the leggie because of the thumb (although looks very similar on camera) so its easier to separate in my mind. I'm also getting a similar amount of revs to the legspinner.

The next few months will be target practice and see if I can get decent accuracy before first nets in Feb.
 
Used to play with a leggie who used an off cutter as his quicker ball, with great success. The batsman would spot it was a quicker ball and jam down on the line, but then get beaten on the inside edge.

He also had a decent googly, which I think he could have used more often, especially against lefthanders, so it's not necessarily a case of either or. Obviously the googly gets the dip and bounce that an off cutter doesn't
 
Billywhizz said:
I set myself a goal for this off season to a gain a consistent delivery that breaks from off to leg.
I've tinkered with the offcutter, the offspinning flipper, and the googly over the years, and recently given each a good working over.

The offcutter though starting to get accurate, lacks energy and I think would work in the lower divs okay but against decent bats pobably picked and dispatched.

The offspinning flipper showed potential but I realised it was going to take a lot of work to get the accuracy needed and it was also hurting my shoulder.

The googly always used to come out mostly as a toppie and occasionally a wrongun....but ...lightbulb moment!!. I took my thumb off the ball completely, which allowed me to get the whole of the back of my hand facing the batsman at point of release. I realised the two up two down grip with thumb resting on the seam was impossible for me to do with the angle required.

Its taken a while getting used to having no thumb on the ball, but what I also like about it, it feels totally different to the leggie because of the thumb (although looks very similar on camera) so its easier to separate in my mind. I'm also getting a similar amount of revs to the legspinner.

The next few months will be target practice and see if I can get decent accuracy before first nets in Feb.
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Have you tried rather giving the slider a go? In my opinion it's a far more effective delivery and easier to disguise as well.
I recall in Bob Woolmers book The art and science of Cricket, there is a chapter devoted to variations and how easily batsmen can pick them. A large group of professional batsmen were shown clips of a bowler's action and the ball travelling through the air, but were not shown what it did after pitching, and they had to call out what they thought the delivery had been.
I think about 50% of them could pick the googly, and the percentage that could pick the slider was maybe less than half that.
Warne also had more success with the slider, although that might be because he struggled with the googly due to his low arm position.
But anyway, if you insist on the googly, it's far easier to bowl in my experience with a high point of delivery and a dropped front shoulder, which definitely makes it easier to pick. If your natural leg break already looks like that that won't be as much of an issue.
Also there is the issue of turn. If your googly turns too much it becomes a bit of a problem, because the batsman will instantly get suspicious of anything pitching outside off. Therefore I'd still advocate forgetting about the googly unless you really plan on mastering it, and rather just using top spinners and sliders.
Kuldeep Yadav has taken quite a few wickets with his googly and batsmen don't seem to pick it at all. Even Yasir Shah has completely fooled a few batsmen with his googly. I have no idea why, I guess batsmen tend to be a bit more clueless than you'd expect.
 
"I set myself a goal for this off season to a gain a consistent delivery that breaks from off to leg."

Chino#21 said:
Have you tried rather giving the slider a go? In my opinion it's a far more effective delivery and easier to disguise as well.
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You realise the slider doesn't break in from off to leg,right? Did you misread this bit of the post?
 
Thanks for the advice Chino, I already have a slider of sorts that comes out of the front of the hand with seam in the "big legbreak" position. Sometimes it grips as a legbreak & other times skids straight on.
I just wanted one that breaks the other way as another option against the better batsman. An expro bat who I bowled against last season said if you have the googly, show it early and you might not have to bowl it again. Knowing you have it in the bag adds to the bats pressure.
 
Billywhizz said:
Thanks for the advice Chino, I already have a slider of sorts that comes out of the front of the hand with seam in the "big legbreak" position. Sometimes it grips as a legbreak & other times skids straight on.
I just wanted one that breaks the other way as another option against the better batsman. An expro bat who I bowled against last season said if you have the googly, show it early and you might not have to bowl it again. Knowing you have it in the bag adds to the bats pressure.
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Yes I understand that you want one that turns the other way, but I really don't think it's all that necessary for your variation to turn significantly. The slider, if you bowl it well enough, will either swing or drift in, or even be angled in towards the batsman, and if it skids on properly it will "break" in slightly.
But I completely understand that you want to use the googly as well, because it's a far more exciting variation and definitely puts pressure on the batsman, as you said. Undoubtedly you'd want to use this one against left-handers, as it's almost always a certain wicket if they don't pick it. I used to bowl my googly against right-handers (turning away from them) a bit slower and with more flight, which would lure them out of the crease, but of course with the over spin it would dip, and because it's straight on the stumps they would try to hit it over the leg-side, only to watch it turn away at the last moment. The fielders always have a good laugh when the batsman doesn't pick the googly and looks hopelessly confused when he misses it.
 


At the start of the video Warne makes an interesting comment - it doesn't matter if batsmen can pick your googly, they've still got to play it and don't know how much it will turn or bounce. I think this is a bit short-sighted, because if the batsman does not pick it it will almost certainly result in a wicket if you pitched it on the right spot, so it should be very desirable to disguise it well.
 
Chino#21 said:
At the start of the video Warne makes an interesting comment - it doesn't matter if batsmen can pick your googly, they've still got to play it and don't know how much it will turn or bounce. I think this is a bit short-sighted, because if the batsman does not pick it it will almost certainly result in a wicket if you pitched it on the right spot, so it should be very desirable to disguise it well.
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His comment is in keeping with this answer: 'keep working on it, develop it as a ball in its own right so it is strong, perhaps when you have it strong you can then worry about disguising it, but don't let concerns about disguise constrain you, you might find that batsmen will totally fail to pick it anyway.

Curiously, my googlies are never picked by the batsman but generally always by the umpire who I guess gets to see the ball flash!
 
boogiespinner said:
His comment is in keeping with this answer: 'keep working on it, develop it as a ball in its own right so it is strong, perhaps when you have it strong you can then worry about disguising it, but don't let concerns about disguise constrain you, you might find that batsmen will totally fail to pick it anyway.

Curiously, my googlies are never picked by the batsman but generally always by the umpire who I guess gets to see the ball flash!
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Yes that's also true. Batsmen could never pick mine despite the fact that it is quite easy to pick if you know what to look for. I am 100% sure this is because of adrenaline, nerves, lack of knowledge etc. from the batsman's side. Other leg spinners batting against me would very often if not always be able to pick the googly because they understand what it looks like from being able to bowl it themselves. Luckily leg spinners usually aren't the best batsmen.

But back to my point about mastering the googly.. it takes so much time and effort to master this delivery which is difficult to disguise. So I think it would be better to develop a slider, which is almost automatically disguised, and maybe a good top spinner or faster ball. You can still bowl one googly every match to scare the batsman, but there is no need to master it if you only intend on bowling it once.
 
Hi Guys, i am new to this forum and here specifically to add variations to my bowling.. I can bowl a very decent leg spin delivery, and good control on line and length of it. I am finding it difficult to bowl googly, seems hard to release the ball from the back of the hand (it still spins like a leg spin), any tips on what i could do or tips on how to practice releasing the ball from back of the hand.
 
n3n said:
Hi Guys, i am new to this forum and here specifically to add variations to my bowling.. I can bowl a very decent leg spin delivery, and good control on line and length of it. I am finding it difficult to bowl googly, seems hard to release the ball from the back of the hand (it still spins like a leg spin), any tips on what i could do or tips on how to practice releasing the ball from back of the hand.
Click to expand...
Learn the Top-Spinner first - get that nailed and you'll see the potential for the Googly from there. Don't practice the Googly endlessly or you'll lose your leg-break (Googly syndrome).
 
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