Muralitharan with a new mystery ball!!!

[R_Powell_fan]

Murali's new mystery ball !!!

An Offspinner's version of the 'flipper'

Interesting don't you guys think.

 

[luckyeddie]

Similar in concept to Warnie last week, squeezing a ball out of the palm of his hand yet delivering the ball with an orthodox leggie action?

Top bowlers, both.

Innovative.

 

[Gotchya]

Does anyone remember the details when Warne said a similar 'mystery ball' thing before an ashes series ?

 

[luckyeddie]

Originally posted by Gotchya
Does anyone remember the details when Warne said a similar 'mystery ball' thing before an ashes series ?

Remember it well, Gotchya. It's called 'mind games'.

The difference was, last week when he completely bamboozled, er, Jayasuriya(?) in the semi-final and clean-bowled him, it was unannounced and genuinely took everyone (well, me and Sanath anyway) by surprise.

I read an interesting interview promoting his book (I didn't know his ghost could write) and the following passage from the 'Literary Luncheons' series is interesting...

"The trick comes in convincing the batsmen that every ball is a hand-grenade. So when he announces a new mystery ball, there probably isn't one, but no-one can be too sure, especially the batsmen, many of whom probably go to bed replaying that Gatting ball in their heads".

 

[R_Powell_fan]

I see no real reason why any batsman should lose any amount of sleep because of hype around a variation a spinner is developing...But do they really do that ?? Coz I wouldn't...But then again I don't have to go out to bat against a witty Murali or Warnie for that matter.

 

[The Argonaut]

It has always been mind games with Warne. I don't think he has ever had a new variation for 7 or 8 years. The shoulder injury was bad for him because he lost the ability to bowl a decent flipper.

If he could return to the days when he could bowl the flipper and even a decent wrong un then he will again be the most dangerous bowler in world cricket. If not then he's your everyday better than average leg spinner of a lesser quality than Stuart MacGill.

Personally I hope he comes back to his best.

 

[Rik]

Hmmmm but McGill and Warne are different types of Legspinners, Warne turns the ball a long way but McGill gets more bounce

 

[full_length]

Warne's mystery ball was a bad joke

He claimed that he could get the ball to reverse it's path or stop

In those days beach boy === dumb blonde

 

[sasnoz]

in muralis case why would he anounce a new delievery to the aussies he should use as a complete surprise without blabbering
now the aussies might setup a camera at the nets to see this new delievery :saint:

 

[marc71178]

Murali's new mystery ball !!!

Maybe he's found out how to bowl it with a more traditional action (or even bowl left handed!)

 

[Kimbo]

Murali would end up looking like a right knob if he said he had a new delivery and never bowled it. I'm sure he has it ready.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Originally posted by sasnoz
in muralis case why would he anounce a new delievery to the aussies he should use as a complete surprise without blabbering
now the aussies might setup a camera at the nets to see this new delievery :saint:

The idea is to make the batsmen worry even more about what the ball's going to off the pitch and thus inhibit their decision-making/render them hesistant and theoretically more likely to play an unconvincing shot/prod and get themselves out (most likely bat-pad).

 

[full_length]

but seriously..

Well, I doubt if that's the case with Murali. He's too spontaneous (and far too simple-it would appear) for that.

More interestingly, his 'mystery delivery' is eminently do-able. See, it just so happens that leggies discovered the flipper and are using it. The question can immediately be asked as to why offies can't do it.

I find it difficult to believe that Murali plays mind-games.

 

[luckyeddie]

Originally posted by full_length

.....I find it difficult to believe that Murali plays mind-games.

And that's the best sort.

 

[Gotchya]

He claimed that he could get the ball to reverse it's path or stop

Well dont know about warne but back some time i started taking leg spin seriously and since i was practising all the time. I experimented a lot, and guess what, when i used both my wrists and fingers to impart spin while bowling a googly, it produced a really wicked google, occasionally if i managed to impart vertical spin(only possible when using the wrists as well as the fingers) it did stop in its tracks, but ofcourse i found it impossible to master, let alone disguise the effort......alas

 

[R_Powell_fan]

Yeah but Murali is an unusual offspinner because he uses a lot of wrist movement which is unusual for an off-spinner.

 

[Neil Pickup]

I can actually bowl a big spinning, well disguised googly with use of my wrist - it's just getting it on the wicket that's the difficulty...

 

[Kimbo]

All spinners are wrist spinners. It is so stupid to call an off spinner a finger spinner. Its impossible to bowl offspin without a big wrist movement.
That is something Dipak Patel obsesses over in spin clinics.

 

[full_length]

Yeah that's true. Most spinners in India are wrist spinners. However, I think most of the English spinners are finger spinners. Isn't that true. I think Phil Tufnel was and none of the other spinners who came and went used the wrist much.

Oh I dont think it's true that it's impossible to bowl offspin without a 'big' wrist movement. You're bound to have some wrist in it for controlling the delivery, but I think this is more about whether or not the wrist action contributes heavily to the spin on the ball.
Just hairsplitting I guess.

 

[royGilchrist]

Few things:

-Warne's mystery ball reminds me of what I read about Sydney Barnes' mystery ball. Which apparently used to spin twice, but there is so much exagerration in thsoe days and who what to believe.

-Warne's ball of the century or whatever the hell its called did not impress me that much, it just was a huge leg break which was helped by the bowlers' rough and made Gatting make a fool of himself. I think the ball of the century was easily the Wasim Akram delivery to Lamb in WC92 final. Coming in from round the wickets and when the ball left his hand his hand was well wide of the off stump, and the ball was thrown diagonally towards the middle and leg and after pitching became a leg cutter and removed his off stump. It was just wonderful, I dont remember seeing a beter ball than that. I have seen Waqar, Imran, etc swing the ball a lot more (Imran to Vishwanath) but their arm action was generally helping the swing direction, but in Wasim's case it was in opposite direction.

Terry Alderman used to bowl a wicked outswinger, just beautiful to watch, and I remember McDermott developing a really nice outswinger late in his career. Going completely off topic here

-Someone said Macgill doesnt spin the ball much, What?? He spins it miles, but he only has a real leg break and has absolutely no control over the line and flight of the ball. But his leg break spins as much as anyone.

[Edited on 5/10/2002 by royGilchrist]