The Lethal Leg Break - The One that Edges: An Analysis

The Leg-Break is one of the most feared deliveries as far as a right-hander is concerned. And considering that most of the batsmen are right-handed, it should be no surprise that one of the biggest successes and geniuses in Cricket was a leg-spinner.

However, this is not about Warne and his deadly arsenal. Nor is this about the mechanics of the delivery. This is more about "going one level-up" from simply viewing the game, to understanding why it is what it is. Mechanics would not be just "one-level-up"—it would be all the way.

One way in which the leg-break is used is as a delivery that moves away from the right-hander*. The right-hander has to move towards the ball to hit it. Of course the right-hander will have to move across to hit any ball that comes on the off-side outside the line of the stumps.

But the difference here is that the ball is moving away from your line-of sight. In the case of an off-spinner the ball moves into you and hence towards your line-of-sight. So in the case of a leg-break, effectively you are trying to hit at something that is thrown at something else and not at you.

Add to it the fact that the bat tries to intercept the ball from it's "side", rather than meet it head on. That is perhaps a little bit difficult to hit.

Also the Willow being just over four inches (quarter over it, to be precise), a small error in calibration, would mean that you will edge the ball into the hands of the guy at the first slip. The error necessary is really much lesser than 2 inches (half the width of the bat), since here one should really conisder half the width of the bat as projected on a plane perpendicular to the line of motion of the ball, after it bounces up and has turned.

Of course this applies only to the case where you play with a straight-bat. When you use the cross-batted shot, the variability in the bounce will get you, unless you are lucky.

The best tactic against the leg-breaker will be then to leave any delivery that cannot be taken a half-volley (the ball would not have moved away that much and perhaps you may escape with a thick edge more often than not) or the one that goes outside the line of the stumps.

At any rate it will be courageous or stupid to go down the pitch at the ball, since you may miss it—it is moving away from you—and find yourself stumped.

It doesn't help that you are forced to play on the front foot to this delivery. To tempt the batsman more, the cover fielder maybe removed and an open boundary presented promising rich rewards if the shot is made clean.

It is a teasing sensation to square drive or cover drive a leg-break. You have to lean forward to the delivery and the more the delivery moves away from you, the faster you need to move towards it.

That sinking sensation may set in way before the shot is made—that you may reach it but a millisecond too late. Because when you are committed to the shot, the decision is made and it is difficult to back off.

An example may be viewed here. This is a good example of one's estimation going wrong at this delivery.

All things considered, the leg spinner is very difficult to bowl. The requisite flight, and height are easier for finger spinning off-spinners than the wrist-spinning leg-spinner, while maintaining the line and length.

Always be wary of a leg-spinner!

*There are also other ways in which the Leg-Break or the Leg-Spin is used. Like the one that Warne frequently bowls around the legs to hit the stumps, or the one that sort of holds the line and either hits the stumps, or more often than not, gets the LBW. But that is for another day.