I have been struggling with some doubts about off-spin and leg-spin for 15-odd years now! I know the basic definition very well as long as right handed players are involved.
I know that when a right arm bowler turns a ball in to the right handed batsman towards his leg stump, it is called off-spin. Now if the right arm bowler turns a ball away from the right handed batsman towards his off stump, it is called leg spin. Also, I know that off-spinners turn the ball with their fingers while leg spinners turn the ball with their wrists. ... (Para 2).
The first confusion arises when a right arm bowler bowls to a left hand batsman. Now if the bowler is a finger spinner, his delivery will obviously move away from the left hander. So to the batsman he is a leg spinner, but the bowler is still bowling off spin! So whose point of reference is taken to describe the bowler?... (Para 3)
The second confusion arises when a left arm bowler bowls to a right hand batsman! Now if that bowler is a wrist spinner, the ball will come in to the right hand batsman! So should he be called an off spinner even though he uses his wrists? I've seen commentators perplexed with this issue and to be on the safer side, they just call bowlers like Daniel Vettori and Pragyan Ojha as 'left arm spinners'. ... (Para 4)
Finally, if a left arm spinner bowls to a left hand batsman, I don't think there should be any confusion as the definitions in para 2 above apply - you just need to replace 'right' with 'left'.
However, paragraphs 3 and 4 are still baffling, I would appreciate if someone throws some light on them!
Oh wait! How could I forget googlies, doosras, leg cutters, off cutters and chinamen? (Kindly stop reading if your head is spinning). I know that if Shane Warne, a right arm wrist spinner turns a ball in towards the leg stump of Sachin Tendulkar, a right hand batsman, it is called a googly. And when Muttiah Muralitharan, a right arm finger spinner turns the ball away from Tendulkar, it is called a doosra. Googly, doosra and chinaman are deliveries which are called wrong 'uns because they do the reverse of what is expected of them. What is a chinaman? - you may ask. It is basically a wrong 'un bowled by a left arm wrist spinner - now you figure out which way it is going to turn if Brian Lara is batting*. Off cutters and leg cutters are simply spinning deliveries bowled by fast bowlers. Please don't ask me which way they turn as explaining that now will make my head explode!!
*Ans - In towards Lara's pads. (Lara --> Left hand bat).
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