The return of left arm spinners

Its always a pleasure to watch a left arm spinner in action. (The ones with clean action, not the types of Abdur Razzaq). The casual trot to the wicket, the pivot, and then the final delivery is sheer poetry in motion. My first memory of a left arm spinner was watching Maninder Singh in action with his colorful turbans. Ravi Shastri, though not in the same league as Maninder was also passable. I had read a lot about Bishen Bedi from the Sportstar but never had I got the opportunity to watch him in action. I got this when cable TV invaded our households in the 90’s. The silken run up, the final pivot and then the release was a pleasure to withhold as opposed to the rickety whiplash action of Chandra. Slowly ODI’s evolved into slam bang stuff, wickets became grave yards for bowlers offering no turn or bounce and the left arm spinner vanished out of the scene. The only ones to be seen were Jayasuriya and Keith Arthurton who bowled those round arm faster ones that were near impossible to hit. But the last couple of years have seen the resurgence of the left arm spinners. New Zealand’s match winner in the absence of Bond has been Vettori, England have unearthed Monty and before that has Ashley Giles, Bangladesh only potent weapon for a long time has been Mohammad Rafique,. But none of them possess the classical left armers action. Monty spins it a long way but doesn’t toss it up too much, Vetorri has all the variations but just doesn’t evoke the poet in you.

It’s a sight to watch a left arm spinner toss up the ball above the batsman’s eye level, the batsman bringing his foot forward and the ball dipping ever so lightly pitching and turning to catch the edge or beat the beat. The best part follows later, the batsmen bedazzled and the joy in the bowlers face on outfoxing him. This is a sight to behold. Unfortunately you rarely get to see this happen nowadays. Yesterday happened to be one of the days when a forgotten practitioner of the art, hailed as the heir to Bishen Bedi, decided to do a déjà vu at the Wakende. Three years ago, on a raging turner with the ball turning square Murali Kartik had bowled India to victory. That was a different wicket; all he needed to do was come up and land the ball on the right spot and he did so and the wicket did the rest. But yesterday was a different scenario; the Australians had got off to a flyer and were in cruise mode. The first of his wickets was a sight to behold, Brad Hodge like a snake swaying to tune of its charmer, plonked his front foot down and then, as if mesmerized followed the path of the ball and obligingly poked it into the hands of the waiting slip fielder. A classical left arm spinner’s dismissal, pitching on leg turning to off and catching the batsman’s edge teasing him all the while to sound his death knell. This was not a brutal reverse swinging yorker that zeroes into the toes, a dismissal not by brute force but by deceit. The dismissal of Brad Haddin was a lesson in setting up a batsman, leading him to his own doom. Kartik spun a couple right across his bat and then woth absolutely no change in action sent down the arm ball. Haddin committed himself to front foot plonked his front leg down the pitch only to see the ball thudding into his pads and was a dead duck. From there on Kartik was into his rhythm, couple of trots to the wicket and then teasing and taunting all the batsmen to their doom.

Once couldn’t notice that throughout the series he was bowling with a lot more confidence, flighting the ball more and was enjoying his cricket more. A county stint with Middlesex seems to have done wonders for him. I guess Sourav Ganguly didn’t handle him very well, he was asked to bowl over the wicket and fire it into the legs of the batsman. He was used to stem the flow of runs and not as a wicket taking bowler. Also he was never given an extended spell, he was always one of the players who was chopped and changed as per the fancy of the selectors. Dhoni has invested faith in him, thrown him the ball whenever he needed a wicket and Kartik has responded wonderfully well.

It is great to see a match where there is an even contest between bat and ball. Beyond a point it gets boring to see the Haydens and Dhonis bludgeon opposition into submission through sheer power. Yesterday there was a bit in the wicket for all the bowlers and it was fun to watch the so called destructors stutter and stumble when they faced quality bowling. Only last week Paul Harris bowled South Africa to victory in Pakistan, Kartik has done the same for India, a forgotten species which we thought had mutated in order to adapt itself to the new environments, has suddenly come out into the open in all its pristine glory. The left arm spinners are not only buzzing, they in fact seem to be stinging!!!!


P.S : If any one has watched the India A South Africa A series ……..please watch out for Praghyan Ohja the young spinner from Hyderabad