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This article is an extract from Spin Bowling Tips. Master the art of spin bowling with the most comprehensive eBook on spin bowling ever produced, available now at PitchVision Academy.
The slider or back spinner is the reverse of the top-spinner. Instead of bouncing and kicking as the top-spinner does, the back spinner delivery will skid onto the batsman. This delivery is great for trying to trap the batsman LBW.
The grip is exactly the same as the leg-spin stock delivery. Two fingers up and two fingers down with the thumb on or off the ball as preferred.
The ball releases the hand rotating backwards.
It is essentially the reverse of the top spinner (explained in previous chapter). The thumb must face the batsmen and the side of the hand (on the little finger’s side) must face the bowler, but with the back the hand facing towards mid-wicket.
The action is the same as the standard leg-spin stock delivery (explained in leg spin stock delivery chapter).
The shoulders, hip and feet should be aligned with the target. The front arm leads and steers the action and pulls down driving the action forward. As the front arm pulls down the right shoulder will come forward generating the power in the delivery. The right shoulder should rotate towards the target and finish with that shoulder facing the stumps.
Line, Length, Flight and Target
The line, length and flight of the slider should be the same as the top-spinner. In other words, aim it at the batsman and wickets. Bowling the ball too wide will lose the advantage of the ball skidding and keeping low on the batsman.
The length should be a little shorter than normal. You want the batsman to play you of the back foot with this delivery. You are looking for the ball to keep low and trap him LBW.
You can vary the flight of the delivery as well. But do not bowl this delivery with too much flight. The real weapon here is that you want the ball to skid and keep low – and a quicker trajectory is better suited.
This delivery is very similar to the flipper but not as hard to bowl. So, start with this one before moving onto the flipper.
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Comments
I have searched many sites but cannot find how to bowl the drifter,any tips you can give to me.
Mate, you wont because there's not a ball called a 'drifter', you've probably heard a wrist spinner referring to one of his leg break variations as his drifter simply because the way that he bowls and presents the seam causes more drift than a slightly different variation? I take it you're looking to bowl a leg break that has loads of drift? If that's the case you simply need to be looking at information regarding 'The big leg break' or the biggun as some people refer to it. To be honest I'm not a big drifter of the ball myself because I'm still working on the Big Leg Break - but in essence when the ball leaves the hand the seam needs to be spin perfectly at 90 degrees to the direction of flight. The batsman would see the smooth face of the ball the opposite to a seam ball
(ll) = seam ball ( ) with the seam rotating anti-clockwise for a leg break
The roughness of the ball is a factor and it's something I've yet to investigate myself, but in the same way that seamers rough up one side of the ball to create drag and make the ball swing, you can increase the effect of the drift by having the rough side of the ball either facing the batsman or facing you as it leaves your hand. You'll have to follow it up yourself. If you want to explore the dynamics and physics of drift there's a pretty comprehensive description in Bob Woolmers book the Art and Science of cricket.
But in short what you need to be looking for is information on how to bowl the "Big Leg break". There's pelnty of information on that subject on the internet including my own blogs.
I've had another look into this myself and found a couple of sources including Woolmers book. There's an explanation in Woolmers book of Warnes ball of the century that looks at Drift in some detail, but the description follows a kind of caveat in that he says that "How this happens is not yet well described in scientific literature" and he goes on to say that the description is the most likely account of the physics behind the delivery. There's another really detailed account here on my mates blog http://pencilcricket.blogspot.com/p/magnus-effect-in-leg-spin-bowling.ht... from reading both accounts the delivery requires the Big Leg Break approach with the ball spinning 90 degrees to the direction of flight - but the axis which the ball spins around isn't horizontal and is in fact tilted forwards. It's the tilting forwards that then allows the magnus affect to start influencing the drift. Warnes delivery is also suspected not to have been the 100% pure big leg break but it probably some way back towards a normall leg break thus using dip as well. It's an exceptionally complex subject and if you look at Peter Philpotts book and his explanation from the 1980's which he credits to someone he knew who knew about physics - it's extremely basic and discredited by Woolmers explanation.
I think if you can bowl a good leg break and get the wrist round to bowl a Biggun as well, you'd probably do well thinking about the axis through which the ball rotates. If you can get the axis to be tilted forwards you'll probably start to see drift. Also get yourself a cheap new ball and rub all the shine off one side with a rasp or something similar and keep the shiny side good. Bowl with the shiny side going away from you and that should exaggerate anything you do that starts to get the drift going. Just watch what you're doing when you bowl. Drift isn't something that has bothered me that much till last summer when I started to notice that I was getting it to drift a bit. I think after reading all the material I have tonight I'm going to think about trying to get the axis pointing downwards and see if it makes a difference? You can see why wrist spinning is the most difficult speciality in cricket you need a masters degree in physics!!!
shakib al hasan bowls a ball that drifts hugely an goes straight on, i hear people refer to it as a drifter. They also say that it is a totally different ball to the armball. an that is what i was refering too. I bowl left arm orthodox
Sounds like an undercutter or a slider (offspinner's version) Chad. Graeme Swann bowls something similar.
Its a variation of the arm ball, basically it's all on The angles and how u hold the ball and seem position to get drift (for all spinners) il try and keep it simple enough lOl.
ul get even more drift. Hope this helps xx
Its very similar to swing bowling, having the rough/dull heavy side in the direction u want it to swing drIft, for off spinners it's usually best to drift it away soooo for that rough side facing the batsman shinny side facing ur self seem angle shud be towards fine leg, remember ur holding it as a spinners grip now so wen u release the ball u need to release it with just a lil bit of over spin to n the seam angle in the air should be pointing toward fine leg n u will have drift n u don't need to try n turn the ball big i bowl leg spin n I just explained it for a off spinner, it's literally the same principle but the seem position shud be pointing towards third man, u just need to get the seam position right n to get turn it depends on how much u tweak it n rip it, plus if u ball into the wind with this trick
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