Cricket: Leg Spin

Bowling spin is a fine art. Get it right and you?ll be the fear of every batsman walking out to the middle!

For this drill you need a wicket-keeper and a queue of bowlers at both ends of the wicket.

The first player takes their run up and bowls an off spin ball on one side of the cones down the middle towards the opposite stumps. Ideally the spin generated should make the ball cross over the line of cones and bounce up for the wicket-keeper to take.

Once the bowler has bowled they continue their run to the back of the queue on the other side and the drill repeats with the bowler at the other end.

A leg spin bowler spins the ball from a right handed batsmans leg stump towards their off stump. The bowler grips the ball with the top joint of the index and middle fingers lying on the seam and the third finger bent along it.

As the bowlers arm moves forward the fingers are straightened and the wrist is flicked forwards, with the palm finishing facing downwards. The 3rd finger is the one that imparts most of the spin.

On release of the ball the bowler completes a full swing of the arm, driving through to the opposite hip. Its important to pivot on the ball of the front foot and make the back knee drive through the ball.

Player 2 bowls the ball over the front set of stumps to try and hit the back set.

The practice should be setup as shown. Have one player as a wicket keeper and another as fielder.

The bowlers take it in turns to bowl, with the fielder calling if the ball was a good line (pitched in the cones) or a good length (pitched level with the red hoop).

If the ball pitches in the hoop then the ball is both a good line and length.