Off spin
Off spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner and refers to a right-handed spin bowler who uses his fingers to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side towards the leg side (that is in towards the right-handed batsman, or away from a left-handed batsman). This contrasts with leg spin, in which the ball spins from leg to off and which is bowled with a very different action.
A left-handed bowler who bowls with a similar action to an off spinner is known as a left-arm orthodox spinner.
Off spin is generally considered less difficult to play than leg spin, as off breaks typically spin less than leg spinners, and do not generally possess the same loopy, potentially deceptive flight. However, the off spinner often bowls faster and more accurately than a leg spinner, therefore having the capability to deceive the batsman with changes in the pace of the ball. In addition, modern off spinners such as Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan have demonstrated that they can spin the ball as prodigiously as most leg spin bowlers.
Notable contemporary off spinners include Harbhajan Singh of India, Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, and Saqlain Mushtaq of Pakistan. Mushtaq in particular has been credited with the invention of the "doosra", sometimes called the "floater" or "mystery ball", which behaves comparably to the leg spinner's googly by turning in the opposite direction to a normal delivery. Another common weapon of the off spinner is the arm ball, which doesn't spin but goes straight on "with the arm". More skilled offspinners also have the topspinner. Off spinners also rely to a great extent on varying the speed, pitch and flight of the cricket ball.
List of off spinners
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- Harbhajan Singh
- Jim Laker
- Muttiah Muralitharan
- Saqlain Mushtaq
- Erapalli Prasanna
- Paul Wiseman
- Shoaib Malik
- Chris Gayle
- Michael Vaughan
- Robert Croft
- Nathan Hauritz
- Shaun Udal
- Dan Cullen
- Andrew Symonds