Leggie

The term leggie is often called Leg spin or Leg break delivery – these are ways of serving the ball. In addition, the player who uses this technique can be called so. We will tell you about the term and its use and the reception’s history in more detail.

What is Leggie in Cricket?

So, leggie is a rather unpopular slang term. A similar technique in cricket is often called the leg break delivery or the leg spin delivery. But confusion already appears here because they are not the same thing. Strictly speaking, the leg break delivery is a type of leg spin delivery. This is the name given to the serve that a right-handed bowler makes to a right-handed batsman.

In general, the leg spin delivery is a type of service in which the bowler spins the ball to hit the ground and swing away from the leg side towards the offside, which is located at a distance from the right-handed batsman.

Leggie is a strategy game that is used to confuse the batsman. In this case, the leg break delivery or leg spin delivery is not only often denoted by the same term leggie but is also often confused because the ball flies along the same trajectory. However, these techniques are slightly different. A right-handed bowler can only do leg breaks against a right-handed batsman. When a left-handed bowler uses this same technique, it is called a left-arm unorthodox spin.

The leg spinner, when thrown, rotates the wrist so that the ball deflects away from its intended end point. The term leggie suggests that the ball will hit the ground between the leg and the middle stump and then sharply head towards the off stump.

In the leggie, the bowler holds the ball with the seams under the toes. During the throw, the wrist turns to the left, the ball is released from the palm when it is under the ring finger. This movement causes the ball to rotate counterclockwise. Therefore, when hitting the ground, the ball flies to the left (off-side) and away from where the batsman expects it.

With this technique, the ball can reach a speed of 75 – 95 kilometers per hour, and the final speed depends not only on the skill of the bowler but also on the direction of the wind and other external circumstances.

Leggie, regardless of whether it is the leg spin delivery or leg break delivery, is a very difficult technique that not everyone can handle. Correctly executed, it allows the batsman to be confused and ready to receive the serve from the side opposite to where the ball is actually going.

Leggie is the most dangerous thing for a right-handed batsman. For him, hitting such a ball is the most difficult, even if he guessed the bowler maneuver because the ball is flying to the left and the bat is in his right hand.

The best leggies in cricket history

Both spin leg and leg break are quite complex techniques. Using them increases bowlers’ performance and can advance them to the major league and the international level.

At the same time, the term leggie is often used in relation to players who mastered this technique perfectly. These include the following bowlers:

• Bernard Bosanquet is an Englishman whose career started in the first half of the 20th century. While bowling, he used leg breaks and was the first to prove its effectiveness, according to some sources – even invented it.
• Abdul Qadir – the Pakistani bowler who kept the leggie on the cricket pitch in the 1970s and 1980s. Much of his credit is because he kept the technique popular before it fell in love with the players and the public again with the arrival of Shane Warne.
• Shane Warne – he is credited with the revival of leggie as a technique. This Australian, who was the captain of the national team in ODI, became famous precisely for the successful use of the spin leg. He was even called the king of this technique, and the rest of the bowlers, seeing the success of Warne, also began to implement leg spin in their game.

Leggie is an old technique, and so much so that it has been predicted more than once that it will go nowhere, but it is so effective that it is hardly worth fearing.