Muttiah Muralitharan

I've been having a discussion with some Aussie blokes on the internet elsewhere about Murali. The bloke was saying that Murali doesn't bowl the Wrong Un yet clearly here on the cricinfo site it states that he bowls offspin suggesting that his stock ball is the off-spinner. Now whether this bloke is arguing about the technicalities of whether it's finger spin or wrist spin and suggesting Murali's stock ball is a finger spin technique thus suggesting it's not a true Wrong Un I'm not sure? But reading below and the emphasis on the Murali's flexible wrist being a key aspect of his bowling I'm of the opinion that his stock ball which is an off-spinner is more like a Wrist Spin action than a finger spin action and therefore a Wrong Un?

So let's agree that -

1. Murali bowls Right Arm spin.
2. His Stock ball is the off-spinner
3. This action is very wristy and therefore more of a wrist spin action than a finger spin action?

So that then means that his 'Other' ball in urdu 'Doosra' is a ball that spins the other way (leg spin) and this is his variation. The question and point that was being asked on the forum was What is it he does in the delivery that makes the ball go the other way when the ball obviously comes out of the hand looking like an off-spinner delivery and ends up turning massively to slips like a leg break?

This is the bit that I know - as I can do it and thought that I'd discovered a new ball when I first did it (My Gipper) it's a combination of the wrong un (e.g. the hand upside down almost and the ball coming out of the back of it) and the Flipper. You have the ball covered in the hand with the wrist cocked and it's delivered out of the back of the hand but at the point of releasing it you then use your fingers in exactly the same way as the Flipper and this puts massive leg spin on the ball. So from the bats point of view it looks like you're bowling a wrong un but it then goes the other way.

Murali's action is so wristy and bent in it's approach to the release that it catapaults the ball in a much faster manner and without the finger flick it produced good offspin.

Discuss.................


http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/srilanka/content/player/49636.html

He bowls marathon spells, yet is forever on the attack. From a loose-limbed, open-chested action, his chief weapons are the big-spinning offbreak and two versions of the top-spinner, one of which goes straight on and the other, which has now been labelled his doosra, which spins in the opposite direction to his stock ball. His newest variation is a version of Shane Warne's slider, which is flicked out the side of his hand and rushes onto batsmen like a flipper. His super-flexible wrist makes him especially potent and guarantees him turn on any surface.