In cricket, few things are as exciting and puzzling as a well-bowled googly. A googly is that half-deceptive delivery from a leg-spinner which turns into the batsman's legs contrary to his anticipation.
Over time, many bowlers have mastered this art and either left batsmen bewildered or audiences in awe. Let's take a look at some of the best googly spinners!
Shane Warne can be considered amongst the all-time great leg-spinners. While his leg-breaks were legendary, it was his googly that often left batsmen completely bamboozled. Warne could disguise a googly so well that most batsmen would not have a single inkling about what sort of delivery it was. His deceptive delivery would spin sharply in the opposite direction, catching many batsmen off guard. Add to that his mastery of the googly, another important reason why he finished as a player with more than 700 Test wickets. Having taken such wickets bears evidence to his mastery over spin bowling.
Anil Kumble could always be counted upon for accuracy and bounce and was another spinner to make hay with the googly. Whereas a few of his contemporaries had turned the ball big, Kumble wasn't one of them; because of the subtlety and the speed at which he bowled, his googly was lethal. Many batsmen fell playing down the wrong line against Kumble's googly that resulted in bowled or LBW dismissals. He could mix his deliveries quite well with no noticeable change in action, and this made him one of the most difficult bowlers to face, especially on subcontinental pitches.
Abdul Qadir is credited with breathing life into the dying art of leg-spin during the 1980s when fast bowling was predominant in the cricket world. Qadir was a master of spin and possessed many varieties of deliveries, but his googly stood out. Sharp and well-disguised, his googly often came out with plenty of wrist action that made it tough for batsmen to pick. The way Qadir could perplex batsmen with his googly, he is considered one of the most feared spinners of his era and played a crucial role for his team in many of their victories throughout his career.
Coming from the same generation as Abdul Qadir, Mushtaq Ahmed was one of the premium leg-spinners during the 1990s. Mushtaq had a potent googly that was particularly hard to detect. His googly was quicker through the air, so, in essence, once batsmen realized it was turning in the other direction, thereby becoming a googly, it would be hard to adjust. The fact that Mushtaq could bowl the googly effectively helped him be among the top wicket-takers in particular in Test cricket.
While R Ashwin is considered an off-spinner pioneer of the "doosra", his googly-like delivery was equally impressive. This delivery, when bowled by Ashwin, turned away from the right-handed batsman and was, in essence, an off-break in reverse-a sort of googly-and carried much the same effect.
The above-mentioned spinners have not only mastered this art but have used it to their advantage to outfox some of the world's best batsmen. Indeed, their power to bowl the googly with such deception and consistency has made them some of the most difficult bowlers to face in the history of cricket.
