Chinaman bowlers

[Sooda]

Why are there not many of them? Even historically speaking. It struck me when I saw katich bowling yesterday I can think of only Sobers, I know Bevan played a few tests as an all rounder. Not many specialist Chinaman bowlers. Brad Hogg of course, but wasnt quite test class. Isnt it essentially left arm leg spin. We get a fair few right arm leg spinners in the world over (relatively speaking anyway), is it harder to bowl leg spin if youre left handed which makes them bowl normal slow left arm...?

[gaurav92]

It is technically a very special art if you can bowl chynaman and have control over the line of the ball and the amount of rotations that you can devote to the ball Franly speaking Chynaman bowlers are not so successful as they do not have the tendency to consistently persist on a particular line and length,it is a shoulder extension that results in some drift to the ball in order to outfox the batsman but they are not found many in number because they do not have much variations in the bag to trouble the batsman They have a straighter one(arm ball) A Flipper A Wrong-un that is difficult to bowl and disguise perfectly and finally they can even bowl a Zooter But thats not enought to trouble the batsman and thats why most left arm spinners go for the Orthodox spin rather than going for the Chynaman as it is difficult to control and disguise

[Sooda]

ACHHAA So there is no equivalent of the googly for a Chinaman bowler AND dont Leggies can get over the same problem re: control

[Shane]

Paul Adams :D We were born on the same day, only it was a 11 years later for me, i remember trying to bowl like him in one of the friendly college games and ended up spraining my back.

[gaurav92]

ACHHAA So there is no equivalent of the googly for a Chinaman bowler AND dont Leggies can get over the same problem re: control

Wrong un is another name for Googly

[Lord]

Paul Adams :D We were born on the same day' date=' only it was a 11 years later for me, i remember trying to bowl like him in one of the friendly college games and ended up spraining my back.[/quote'] :cantstop:

[Sooda]

Thanks for that Gaurav. I did think of Adams actually. But only later. Post posting.

[Lurker]

One reason for that is the sheer demise of left-arm spin bowling itself. Most countries today do not have a slow left arm orthodox spinner in their ranks and only Daniel Vettori comes to mind as a certain selection in last decade. India traditionally had some of the biggest names in this area - Bapu Nadkarni, Vinoo Mankad, Salim Durrani, Dileep Doshi, Ravi Shastri, Maninder Singh and of course Bishen Singh Bedi. But since late 80s India has struggled to put in a decent left arm spinner. Most left arm spinners use Chinaman as the surprise weapon. Typically this is called the arm ball or the armer, the one that is bowled at off stump of a right handed batsman and either keeps its line or moves in towards middle and leg. Bedi's armer was renowned and Shastri probably took more wickets with his armer than traditional left arm spin. The lack of arm ball has gone against bowlers like Sunil Joshi, Pragyan Ojha has been working on it but has not managed anything useful yet. xx

[Sooda]

^ Ah. Is that what the arm ball does. I have read/heard of it as a weapon in the armory of the left arm spinner but never quite sure what it did. So effectively its a SLA's doosra. True say re the dearth of left arm spinners generally, but there are still occaisionally cropping up unlike Chinamen bowlers. And we can list names of left arm spinners and Leggies but struggle to come up with anything like the same number of Chinamen bowlers I guess the fact that its is harder to control makes it so much less common. No as many 'great' wrist spinners as finger spinners generally.

[The Outsider]

Most batsmen are right handed(specially at FC level and below). To face and incoming delivery with inconsistent control on the part of the bowler makes Chinamen bowlers very prone to be taken for runs.

Most left arm spinners use Chinaman as the surprise weapon. Typically this is called the arm ball or the armer, the one that is bowled at off stump of a right handed batsman and either keeps its line or moves in towards middle and leg. Bedi's armer was renowned and Shastri probably took more wickets with his armer than traditional left arm spin. The lack of arm ball has gone against bowlers like Sunil Joshi, Pragyan Ojha has been working on it but has not managed anything useful yet.

That's the biggest pile of rubbish I have read in a while. A Chinaman is a googly by a left arm wrist spinner. The arm ball is a ball which goes on with the arm for either a left arm finger spinner or a right arm finger spinner - it carries on with the wrist. A Chinaman is delivered from the back of the hand like an orthodox leg spinner delivers a googly. In fact a Chinaman bowler's stock ball is one which comes into a right hander and the surprise ball goes away completely opposite to an orthodox left arm spinner.