Who Is More Effective/Valuable in the Modern Game? Right-Arm Off SPin OR Slow Left Arm? (*Official* Battle of the finger spinners)

[Burgey]

It's fair to say they're both worthless disciplines.

 

[shortpitched713]

Outswing/spinning the ball away has always been seen as the match up you want, but I think when you are a highly skilled bowler you would rather be swinging/spinning the ball into the batter instead. Attack the stumps, bring more bowled and LBWs into play. That's probably why we see right arm offspin being the dominant spin bowling form historically. And even top tier legspinners / left arm orthodox bowlers all have a ball that goes on straight as well.

I hate to agree with Starfighter, but this is a horrible take, especially regarding spin.

SLA is a thing, ( and left arm wrist spin almost nonexistent ), primarily because of how bloody effective their stock delivery is against the predominantly found right handed batsmen. The offies who are effective in history ( but I wonder why there aren't a lot more of them? /sarcasm ) , almost all tend to feast on lefties whenever they get the chance.

I'll only agree with you that attacking the stumps is important, but this is more to do with the initial line to get the batsman to play at the ball, not the direction of deviation.

Otherwise, unless you are express, with something line a reverse swing Yorker, or possibly have the turn of a Murali/Warne, you aren't generally trying to deviate the ball back into the batsman, but rather away. It only makes sense to do so.

 

[mr_mister]

Interesting thread. Won't weigh in on the ball moving in vs moving away thing too much, I know cnerd is an offie like me and maybe there's a little bit of trying to convince himself it's not the inferior skill(I'm sad about it too mate)

However, I agree with cnerd regarding most cricket situations are mismatches

McGrath vs Lara or Lillee vs Viv were super rare situations

To Starfighters point about it usually being more "mediocre vs mediocre" I'd say at first glance yes, Boland bowling to Rory Burns or whoever seems evenish on paper, but then we factor in who has the home conditions advantage and suddenly it seems like there is usually always one side of the matchup with a pretty clear advantage

Warne v Sachin sounded even on paper but in reality was a mismatch

 

[Chubb]

If of equal ability and only one can play I'd take a SLA for two reasons. Their attack angle is likely to be more effective to right handers, and it is easier for them to bowl a containing line over the wicket.