How Do You Play a Top Spinner in Cricket?

Cricket games are full of more than amazing skills, some of which even bowlers are unaware of until they get used to them with time. Chinaman leg breaks, for instance, are feared by many bowlers due to their complicated delivery style. However, it is more of a common term in the game. But how do you play a top spinner?

To play a topspin in cricket, you have to be in a position to bowl the ball spinning it in a forward motion twisting the ball with your fingers or wrists. As a bowler, your ball has to be fast and fall earlier before reaching a batsman and bounce off higher than expected.

Spin moves in cricket are some of the most exciting moves to watch, and they can be highly tactical as well. Keep reading to find out how this great move works.

What Does Top Spin Do in Cricket?

Top spinning is a technique that a bowler releases a ball rotating forwards in its motion. The motion behind the release of the ball is either a wrist spin or a finger spin, but in either case, the bowler has to twist the ball with his fingers.

A top spinner intends to bounce the ball higher than a batman expects, which will challenge the batsman. Furthermore, your ball should move faster and fall earlier than the defending batman may expect. To achieve this effect, you need to ensure that the ball moves as if it is acted upon by a downward force immediately after release.

Here is how it goes:

When you release the ball with a topspin by twisting your fingers, it spins in a forward direction as it moves ahead. However, your ball will be impeding more air pressure from its stop and at the same time reducing the pressure on its bottom through the forward spin.

Because of this, the air pressure on top of the ball gets heavier than that below it because of the ball’s spinning motion, thus, it moves as if it is forced to the ground by external pressure; hence the ball moves at lower and lower heights getting closer to the ground. This is the immediate effect that causes the ball to fall earlier than a defending batter expects.

This effect is what bowlers refer to as “looping” since the ball drops shorter, just before a batsman, falls faster than expected, and bounces higher than his anticipations. So the defending batsman gets deceived by that move because when he lurched forward aiming at the ball it was much shorter and bounced far higher than him.

Among the most elusive tactics in cricket, this tactic is initiated by top spinning bowlers in the hopes of “pulling” the batsman off his defense before being defeated. The secret to being a good batsman is to always read the ball’s motion and avoid swinging at simple sweeps. These moves are meant to entice you forward.

How Does Spin Bowling Work?

Spin bowls depend on whether the bowler is a finger spinner or a wrist spinner. These bowls are always aiming at luring the batsmen off their posts before hitting the wicket.

One of the things you ought to know in a cricket game is that spin bowlers aim at nothing other than deceive you by giving a false direction. However, there’s more than just reading the ball’s motion, since the ball might have been from a finger spinner or a wrist spinner. So as a batsman unless you note the key details in the two spinning techniques you might always end up with wrong moves, as the ball settles its base in your wicket over and over again.

Here is what;

• Finger Spinners Do

Right-handed spinners bowl their balls off in a clockwise motion and if you are keen enough, you will notice that their balls aim away from a right-handed batsman and always to their left. Most times such spins land off the pitch into the right side of the wicket.

• Wrist Spinners Do

A right-handed wrist-spinner ball spins in an anti-clockwise direction bowling off the pitch from the leg side of a right-handed batsman.

In both cases, you should also know the bowlers are very smart in their actions such that they would not mind pretending as if disguising their actions all to distract you from anticipating any further action of the ball after dropping down.

How to Bat Against Spin Bowling?

To bat against a spin bowl, you need to always read the motion of the ball and move accordingly. You may also need to play more aggressively hitting back the balls as they come. This confuses the bowlers on what side to spin their bowls to.

A certain level of cricket players is still afraid of spin bowlers, just as much as they are scared of taking on Chinaman’s responsibilities. Some people openly admit their inability to counter a spin bowl, but what you need to know is that spin bowlers are very important people in any cricket match. So if you ever play a batsman, you need to understand how to counter-spin bowlers’ moves beforehand.

Some batting skills for such bowls include:

• You need to always make your move when the ball is in mid-flight. You can either move one stride forward or play off your back foot if the ball is much shorter. There, you have some time to read the next gap after the ball bounces. You should make sure you are not stuck or get caught on the crease, where your feet hardly move forward or backward.

• Should you get caught up at the crease there’s always one thing you can do, focus your mind on the ball and not losing the game then move a foot ahead. From your new point, you should try leaning forwards slightly, in a position that can give you better access to the ball either right where you are, or few inches from you.

• Always aim at matching the spin. It’s easier to hit a ball in its spin direction than in a direction it’s not. So if the ball is rotating in your direction, there’s your chance. However, when the ball is spinning in an opposite direction from you, you do have limited chances of making it to hit the ball back. Therefore, what you can do in the latter is leave it or wait for a shorter ball. You can also drive it to the cover region.

• This is funny but it’s so real. Always make sure to play more shots, because the more you play against a spinner the harder it will be for him to bowl to you. So you need to be smart over there. Even the opposing captain finds it hard to set a field for you. And if any spinner dares you after you’ve heard several shots, he will be unsure of his chances to make it against you. So that waiver is what will give you the win you need.
• Make it a habit of making life in the pitch kind of hard for the spinners. You should not let either of them bowl wherever they want. Make sure you play more aggressively hitting the ball back as it came since spinners always enjoy spinning their balls in the same direction. Do not let the spinners have any bowling rhythm.

• Always engage defensive tactics such as kicking the ball away whenever it is pitched on the leg side. This is their tactic too to frustrate you, but you need to show them they will get more than they spin if they spin on a smoother area.

• You may frequently see fielders near you when you are a batter. You may be tense at times to force hit the ball, but be aware that a slight mistake will pass the ball to the fielders. You should therefore ease up in such situations and let the ball hit your bat .

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