Spin twins

[Twodogs]

Moving on from the fast bowling combos that the West Indies thread turned into what spin bowling combination-spinners are always at their best bowling in pairs-would you love to captain?

Probably more accurately who would you partner Warnie with? Murali, Qadir, Vettori(most underratted spinner ever), Gibbs.


I'd go with Derek Underwood, accurate, turns it from the other direction and just devestating on a pitch that offered the slightest bit of assistance.

[The Coon Dog]

I'd go with Derek Underwood, accurate, turns it from the other direction and just devestating on a pitch that offered the slightest bit of assistance.

Deadly Derek still holds the record in Test match cricket for caught & bowled.

[Chops]

Derek was a good bowler but they seemed to doctor a lot of pitches to help him out.

[Twodogs]

Deadly Derek still holds the record in Test match cricket for caught & bowled.



What a great stat! Geeeeeez I love this game.

[GVGjr]

Gibbs for me.

[Mantis]

Bit younger than you 'oldies', but along with Twodogs I really rate Vettori as a bowler. If he was playing for the Aussies rather than the sheepshaggers he would be hailed as a star.

[Twodogs]

Bit younger than you 'oldies', but along with Twodogs I really rate Vettori as a bowler. If he was playing for the Aussies rather than the sheepshaggers he would be hailed as a star.


Apart from Warne I reckon that Vettori is the best exponent of flight, drift and loop I've seen. For a bloke who doesnt spin the ball a great deal he'd be a hell of a tricky bastard to face.


He also uses the entire area of the return crease better than anyone else to get different angles and unsettle the batsmen.

[The Coon Dog]

Speaking of drift, how good is it when Warnie flights one, starts drifting towards leg, dops, pitches on leg & 'whooshka' goodbye Mike Gatting!

[Twodogs]

Speaking of drift, how good is it when Warnie flights one, starts drifting towards leg, dops, pitches on leg & 'whooshka' goodbye Mike Gatting!


That picture of Gatting walking off shaking his head and looking back at the stumps is one of my favorite sporting images of all time, along with John Aloisi running and waving his shirt and the other Socceroos about to engulf him.

[Mantis]

Apart from Warne I reckon that Vettori is the best exponent of flight, drift and loop I've seen. For a bloke who doesnt spin the ball a great deal he'd be a hell of a tricky bastard to face.


He also uses the entire area of the return crease better than anyone else to get different angles and unsettle the batsmen.


As an off spin bowler myself who relies on flight and drift more so than spin the 2nd point you make is very relevant, I use the crease a lot. My theory is that the crease is your friend. It can really increase your chance of getting a wicket by deceiving the batsman.

My favourite wicket of all time was about 4 years ago. I was playing in the Willi comp and we were playing against the top team. After making about 150 we had them about 4/60. I was about 10 overs into a long spell and had a bit of rythmn going. Anyway I was bowling to a new batsman and I balled a looped flighted ball which was whacked through the cover's for 4. Fair enough. I heard the batsman talk at the end of the over and the new batsman say that he would wait for the over pitched one which he would wait on and milk me all day long. Ok smart arse, next over chucked in a few 'darts' to keep him on strike, then went really wide on the crease, big drifter, went for the same shot and edged it straight to slip, on your bike son.

We went on to win that game in a pretty close game and I still reckon that was the crucial wicket.

[The Coon Dog]

My favourite wicket of all time was about 4 years ago. I was playing in the Willi comp and we were playing against the top team. After making about 150 we had them about 4/60. I was about 10 overs into a long spell and had a bit of rythmn going. Anyway I was bowling to a new batsman and I balled a looped flighted ball which was whacked through the cover's for 4. Fair enough. I heard the batsman talk at the end of the over and the new batsman say that he would wait for the over pitched one which he would wait on and milk me all day long. Ok smart arse, next over chucked in a few 'darts' to keep him on strike, then went really wide on the crease, big drifter, went for the same shot and edged it straight to slip, on your bike son.

We went on to win that game in a pretty close game and I still reckon that was the crucial wicket.

Did you give him a send off?

[GVGjr]

I dabbled in both leg and off spin. There is a couple of secrets with off spin with one of them using the crease as Mantis described. John Embury was a master at it. The other one is to have a reliable, but hard to detect, arm ball.
I got a few wickets by being able to disguise the arm ball and getting them coming down the track to smother the spin only to find it drifting away. The keepers love a good stumping.
The keeper used to put both hands on his head like he was adjusting his cap when he wanted me to bowl it.

With leg spin for me it was mainly if I was able to get them playing off the back foot. I was always a chance then.

Great spinners keep looping the ball even if they were getting carted when the others start trying to bowl tighter.

[Griffen#16]

I saw the mighty Tim May take 5/9 at the Adelaide Oval one day. When he didn't have the runs, he bowled a few handy spells.

I'm not sure who I would nominate, imo Murali is clearly the best spinner going around these days.

[Twodogs]

Great spinners keep looping the ball even if they were getting carted when the others start trying to bowl tighter.



You've got to have the mentallity that when they come down the pitch it's a challenge and a chance to get them to make a mistake. We've got a young leggie ATM who panics a bit when the batsman attacks him-I've been at him to look at it in a positive way and accept the challenge.

[Twodogs]

Did you give him a send off?



"Tell your story walking pal" while pointing to the pavillion is my favorite.

[Mantis]

Did you give him a send off?

He was the competition's quickest bowler and it looked like we would have to bat again, so no, but I would have liked to.

[GVGjr]

He was the competition's quickest bowler and it looked like we would have to bat again, so no, but I would have liked to.

Very wise move.

[dog town]

Vettori would be perfect to partner Warne. More defensive than some of the others but oh so clever. Warne in his early days when he was a little more attacking would have got squillions of wickets bowling in tandem with Vettori.