LEARN HOW TO BOWL THE DOOSRA OF SAEED AJMAL

LEARN HOW TO BOWL DOOSRA OF SAEED AJMAL

The first method involves bowling the ball with either a scrambled seam or perpendicular seam (i.e. the seam is more or less perpendicular to the direction of the ball's motion). Here's how to do it.

LOOK HOW TO BOWL A DOOSRA

SPLIT SCREEN OF HOW TO BOWL DOOSRA

1. 1
   Hold the ball like a fast bowler normally would, with the index and middle fingers on either side of the seam. For better ball control, the index finger should just about touch the seam. The thumb may rest on the ball but usually does not contribute to delivery. The remaining two fingers are used to hold the ball in place. The run-up involved in bowling the doosra is the same as in a normal off-break.
2. 1. Towards the end of rotation, position the bowling arm vertically and close to the head. Position the wrist at the highest point, the palm of the hand facing left (roughly towards the cover position). Just before release, bend the wrist inward. Deliver the ball by moving the index finger downwards over the ball, thus imparting overspin towards the direction of first slip or the point.

   Second Method

   The second method of the doosra is slightly harder to bowl, but when done correctly enables the bowler to drift the ball into a right-handed batsman (and away from a left-hander). The grip is the same for this type of doosra, the only thing that differs is the arm position and release.
   1. 1
      Position the arm away from the body (a 'slingy' rotation helps).
   2. 2
      Till the highest point of rotation the arm and wrist movement are similar to that of a regular off-break.
   3. 3
      Release the ball by quickly rotating or 'flicking' the wrist anticlockwise about a vertical axis so that the palm now faces backward, in the direction from batsman to bowler.
   4. 4
      Deliver the ball by straightening the index and middle fingers (spin is imparted by the flicking or rotation of the wrist).
   5. 5
      To get the ball to turn after pitching, point the index and middle fingers slightly leftward while releasing the ball.
3. 6
   By keeping the seam steady (from a lot of practice), drift (or swing) the ball from left to right.
4. 
   
5. 
   
6. 
   

Method 1

This method is best if you want to use it as a surprise variation as the action is the same as the standard off-spin action and easier to hide from the batsman. Therefore, it is very effective in deceiving batsmen when they expect the ball to turn the other way. The drawback of this method is that the ball does not turn very much and is thus not as effective as a stock delivery. This is the method used by Saqlain Mustaq and Saeed Ajmal.

Grip

The grip for the doosra is identical to the standard off-spinner’s grip. The seam of the ball runs across the fingers and most of the spin is being imparted by the index and middle fingers. The ball should not be held too tight and the thumb should bend back to be out of the way.

Action

As you are using the doosra here as a stock ball, you must stick to your standard off-spinner's side on action.

Just Before Release

To disguise the doosra, follow a regular bowling action similar to bowling an off-spin delivery. Just before the time of the release, you will rotate the wrist so that the back of the hand faces square leg. Drop your shoulder (of the delivery arm) and bend the elbow a little more than during the standard off-break delivery. Your point of delivery will be a little lower than your off-spin stock delivery. Be careful not to straighten your arm during the release.

 

Figure 1: Off-Spin Doosra Wrist Position (Method #1) Back of hand faces towards mid-wicket and seam is angles towards 1st slip.

At Release

At the time of the release, the back of your hand should face towards square leg and your fingers should spin the ball similar to an off-break. The changed wrist position causes the ball to behave like a leg-break. This finger spin along with the rotation from the wrist and shoulder imparts the spin to leg-break.

The doosra can be bowled with plenty flight or as a quicker delivery just like the standard off spin.

Do not be fooled into thinking this is an easy delivery. Although it is most certainly not impossible as there are many examples of bowlers who can bowl this delivery. Work hard at bowling the doosra and you will also get there!

Method #2

This method is best if you want to use the doosra as your stock delivery as it will be very difficult to hide it as a variation delivery. The ball turns very bigger with this method if you get it right. It is not as effective for a surprise delivery as the action (at release of the ball) is quite different from the standard off-spin action.

AJMAL DOOSRA FULL TECHNIQUE

DOOSRA THAT AJMAL BOWLS IS REALLY DIFFICULT AND YOU SURELY NEEDS A LOT OF PRACTICE,

Chanderpaul under injury cloud

Shivnarine Chanderpaul visited hospital as rain washed out the opening day of the third Test at Edgbaston for examination on a side strain.

He was noticed leaving the ground earlier in the day and made the journey with team manager Richie Richardson and physio C.J. Clark. After play was abandoned a West Indies spokesman confirmed the situation. "A day off gives him a day off to see how he goes," he said. "He has been to hospital for a scan."

Chanderpaul did not bat during the two training days ahead of this Test having also sat out the two-day tour match against Leicestershire last weekend. In the first two games of the series he has scored 235 runs and twice came close to scoring a hundred at Lord's.

With the toss delayed neither team has been confirmed for the match and the rain could yet give Chanderpaul extra time to recover. There are two reserve batsmen in the squad - Narsingh Deonarine and Assad Fudadin - although one of those was already expected to replace the out-of-from Kirk Edwards who has endured a dismal tour.

CHANDERPAUL MISSES ANOTHER CENTURY

Chanderpaul injury not serious, could play in 3rd Test

Birmingham: West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul could play in the rain-affected third and final Test against England at Edgbaston after scan results showed a side injury was not serious.

The scan showed a strain to his side and no tear, so he could still be involved, a West Indies team spokesman said on Friday.

With Thursday and Friday's play washed out, the teams are yet to be named. Should Chanderpaul, who averages 50 from 142 Tests, be forced out of the match it would mean the end of his tour as he is not in West Indies squad for the one-day series which begins on June 16.

England are seeking to sweep the series 3-0 after wins at Lord's and Trent Bridge. The damp conditions at Edgbaston meant it was the first occasion in 48 years that the opening two days of a Test in England had been washed out, since Australia toured in 1964.

West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul could play in the rain-affected third and final Test against England at Edgbaston after scan results showed a side injury was not serious.

The scan showed a strain to his side and no tear, so he could still be involved, a West Indies team spokesman said on Friday.

With Thursday and Friday's play washed out, the teams are yet to be named.

Should Chanderpaul, who averages 50 from 142 Tests, be forced out of the match it would mean the end of his tour as he is not in West Indies squad for the one-day series which begins on June 16.

England are seeking to sweep the series 3-0 after wins at Lord's and Trent Bridge.

The damp conditions at Edgbaston meant it was the first occasion in 48 years that the opening two days of a Test in England had been washed out, since Australia toured in 1964.

WI TOUR TO ENGLAND 2012

WI TOUR TO ENGLAND 2012

WI TOUR TO ENG

Clip OF 3rd TEST

WI VS ENGLAND 1st TEST DAY 4

Cricket-England win toss, to bowl

Reuters) - England won the toss on Saturday and chose to bowl first against West Indies on day three of the third and final test, after rain had completely washed out the first two days at Edgbaston.

England, seeking to sweep the series 3-0, controversially omitted Stuart Broad meaning they have now opted to rest their two leading fast bowlers after James Anderson was left out of the original squad.

Their places have gone to Graham Onions and Steven Finn.

West Indies made four changes to their side that was beaten at Trent Bridge, as the world's top-ranked batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul missed out with a side injury

Struggling batsman Kirk Edwards also made way as Assad Fudadin came in for his test debut and Narsingh Deonarine was recalled.

Off-spinner Sunil Narine was also given a test debut in place of Shane Shillingford, while fast bowler Tino Best came back for his first test appearance in three years.

It is the first test match in England since 1964, when Australia were touring, to lose days one and two to the weather,

Teams:

England: Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, Matt Prior (wicketkeeper), Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, Graham Onions.

West Indies: Adrian Barath, Kieran Powell, Darren Bravo, Assad Fudadin, Marlon Samuels, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Tino Best, Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul. 

England vs West Indies

May-2012
Thu 17 - Mon 21 10:00 GMT, 11:00 local	1st Test - England v West Indies Lord's, London England won by 5 wickets |
Fri 25 - Mon 28 10:00 GMT, 11:00 local	2nd Test - England v West Indies Trent Bridge, Nottingham England won by 9 wickets |
Jun-2012
Thu 07 - Mon 11 10:00 GMT, 11:00 local	3rd Test - England v West Indies Edgbaston, Birmingham |
Sat 16 09:45 GMT, 10:45 local	1st ODI - England v West Indies County Ground, Southampton, Southampton
Tue 19 09:45 GMT, 10:45 local	2nd ODI - England v West Indies Kennington Oval, London
Fri 22 09:45 GMT, 10:45 local	3rd ODI - England v West Indies Headingley, Leeds
Sun 24 13:30 GMT, 14:30 local	Only T20I - England v West Indies Trent Bridge, Nottingham

3rd Test: England win toss, to bowl first vs West Indies

Birmingham: England has won the toss and opted to bowl first against West Indies in the third test at Edgbaston on Saturday. Play will finally begin at 1000 GMT on day three after the first two days were washed out by rain.

West Indies make four changes to the side that lost at Trent Bridge. Star batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul is out with a side strain, his place taken by Narsingh Deonarine. Assad Fudadin and Sunil Narine make their test debuts, replacing Fidel Edwards and Shane Shillingford, while Tino Best comes in for Kemar RoachEngland also makes two changes, with bowlers Steven Finn and Graham Onions replacing James Anderson and Stuart Broad, both of whom are rested. England leads the three-Test series 2-0.

Teams:

England: Andrews Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, Matt Prior, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, Graham Onions.

West Indies: Darren Sammy (captain), Adrian Barath, Kieran Powell, Assad Fudadin, Darren Bravo, Narsingh Deonarine, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin, Tino Best, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine.

Cricket: Edgbaston Test rained off again

The third Investec Test at Edgbaston became the first in England for almost half a century to suffer a washout for each of the first two days.

As persistent rain showed no signs of moving away from Birmingham, umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Tony Hill abandoned play shortly after lunch without a ball bowled for the second successive day. No toss or exchange of teams has yet taken place in this final Test of a series England have already won – after victories over the West Indies at Lord’s and then Trent Bridge.

The last time a home Test failed to start before day three was in 1964, when England and Australia were kept off the field at Lord’s. This double washout means there is still a chance the tourists’ lynchpin batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul may be able to take part after all, despite a side injury.

Chanderpaul had a scan this week, and a slight side strain rather than a tear has been diagnosed. It will be the end of this tour for the left-hander if he does not feature here.

Chanderpaul has not played limited-overs cricket for his country since last year’s World Cup, and is not in the Windies’ squad for either three NatWest Series one-day internationals or a one-off Twenty20 against England. Back to this final Test, a minimum of 156 overs have been lost – with only eight extra overs permitted on each of the final three days, assuming no further interruption from the weather. Today’s forecast is significantly better. England will have precious little time nonetheless to try to close out a 3-0 whitewash – although there is minor encouragement in the reduction of the follow-on from an initial 200 to 100 for what has become a three-day match, at best.

Meanwhile, cricket’s only appearance as part of an Olympic Games will be recalled later this month when teams from France and Britain meet to reprise a match that took place in Paris 112 years ago.

France Cricket (FC), the national governing body for the sport, will field a side against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Twenty20 and 50-over-a-side matches at Chateaux du Thoiry on 16 June to help raise awareness of the sport within the country. In an Olympic year, the matches will also be a reminder of one of the more unusual episodes in the history of the Games.

The 1900 contest, which took place at the Velodrome de Vincennes, featured a British side from the south west of England – the Devon Country Wanderers – and a French line-up made up of players from the Standard Athletic Club and the Albion Cricket Club in Paris.

The match was 12-a-side and the majority of France’s team were expatriate players, many of them born in England. Britain won the game by 158 runs, with totals of 117 and 145-5 declared, easily outstripping France’s scores of 78 and 26, but the match was only formally recognised as an Olympic event by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1912.

“It is a bit of a quirk that we are the silver medallists,” said Mark Moodley, the general manager of FC.

“When we talk to people about the sport it has become a bit of an ice-breaker before we have a more detailed in-depth discussion... but it is not something we boast about as it happened so long ago.”

ISSUE OF SIGNING THE CENTRAL CONTRACT.......

ISSUES OF SIGNING CENTRAL CONTRACT FOR PAKISTANI PLAYERS...

PLAYERS BLAMES MISBAH AGAIN...

Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik and eight other players in the national team have signed the central contracts offered to them by the Pakistan cricket Board, signaling a moral victory for the authorities.

Well-placed sources in the national team said that Malik and others signed the contracts after learning that the PCB had rejected demands from some players to further increase the pay hike given recently in central contracts and match fees.

The PCB had announced a 25 per cent raise in the monthly central contract retainers and another 10 per cent hike in the match fees.

"Malik signed the contract followed by others including the national T20 captain, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal and some of the younger players in Sri Lanka and handed it over to the manager," one source confirmed.

He said so far seniors like the national Test and ODI captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi had not signed the contracts and had told the board they wanted to show the contracts to their legal advisors first.

A row broke out between some players and the board before the team left for Sri Lanka when senior players refused to sign the contracts and demanded an increased pay hike.

But the PCB made it clear through the team management in Sri Lanka that any player who doesn't sign the contracts will be deprived of a lot of facilities including insurance and bonuses.

While announcing the contracts and pay hikes the board had wanted the players to sign them before leaving for Sri Lanka.

"But now the process of getting the contracts signed is being completed in Sri Lanka by manager, Naved Cheema." one source said.

The source said players, who will only play the Tests in Sri Lanka including Faisal Iqbal and Taufiq Umar and who are attending a conditioning camp in Lahore, have agreed to sign their contracts this week.

PCB's legal advisor, Tafazzul Rizvi said that usually a period of 10 to 15 days is given to the players to sign the contracts as the board gives them time to consult their legal advisors if they feel this necessary.

"Otherwise there is nothing in these contracts that should worry the players. Most of the clauses remain the same and the amendments that were made were made in the last contracts," he said.

PCB rejects demand of players to further increase pay: Sources

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board has rejected demands from some players to further increase the match fees and the pay announced recently in the central contracts, according to sources.

The PCB had announced a 25 per cent raise in the monthly central contract retainers and another 10 per cent hike in the match fees.

PCB exclude Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq from central contracts list

Pakistan Cricket Board announced the list of players who would get central contracts and retainers this year with former captains Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik making a comeback while senior players Kamran Akmal and Abdul Razzaq were excluded.

The announcement came after a delay of four months since the contracts and retainers of the players had expired in December 2011.

While 21 players were given central contracts, another 21 got retainers. The Board announced an increase of 25 per cent in the monthly retainers given to players who have contracts and retainers and another 10 per cent increase in match fees.

The players in the top category of the central contracts will get a monthly retainer of 313,000 rupees while those in Category B will be paid 218,000 rupees and those in category C will get 130,000 rupees.

After the 10 per cent increase in their match fees, the top category players will be paid Test match fees of 385,000 rupees and 330,000 rupees for an ODI and another 275,000 for Twenty20 International match.

The Category B players will get 330,000 for a Test match and 275,000 for an ODI and Twenty20 International match.

Afridi and Malik were back in the list of contracted players after losing their contracts last year.

Afridi was excluded from the list of contracted players for the second half of 2011 as he had announced his retirement from international cricket in protest against his removal from ODI captaincy.

Malik was not given a contract since he was not cleared by the integrity committee of the Board.

As expected, Akmal and Razzaq were left out of the list of players for the new contracts and retainers since they have not been considered for the national team in recent times.

The exclusion of fast bowler Mohammad Sami was the only surprise as he made a comeback to the national team for the tour of Sri Lanka.

Sami, who impressed in the domestic season and has been picked in all three formats for the Sri Lanka tour, has not got a contract nor a retainer.

PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf said the contract amount and match fees had been increased after a gap of three years.

"After three years we have increased the fees payable to the players which we hope will be a morale boost for them," he said in a statement.

"We have also given recognition to those players who have distinguished themselves with consistent performances in the domestic circuit. We have also recognized U-19 players in the list and this will serve as a huge encouragement for them," he added. (PTI)

Contracted Players:

Category A: Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Umar Gul, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Rehman, Umar Akmal.

Category B: Shoaib Malik, Taufiq Umar, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema.

Category C: Sarfaraz Ahmed, Adnan Akmal, Hammad Azam, Wahab Riaz, Imran Farhat, Faisal Iqbal, Nasir Jamshed.

Retainers: Sohail Tanvir, Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Shakil Ansar, Haris Sohail, Reza Hasan, Ahmed Shehzad, Usman Salahuddion, Ayub Dogar, Imran Khan, Bilawal Bhatti, Awais Zia, Shahzaib Hasan, Mohammad Khalil, Anwar Ali, Afaq Rahim, Bismallah Khan, Babar Azam, Sami Aslam, Zia ul Haq, Usman Qadir.

KARACHI: The pay hike announced by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in the central contracts and match fees has not been received well by many of the leading national team players. Sources were quoted as saying Monday said that captain Misbahul Haq, senior batsman Younus Khan and Twenty20 captain Mohammad Hafeez had already held discussions on the issue soon after the new central contracts and retainers were announced on Friday night. “Some of the players are not happy with the 25 percent and 10 percent hikes as they feel keeping in mind the rising inflation they deserved a better deal,” one source close to the players said.

The PCB on Friday announced the list of players who were given central contracts for the year 2012 after a delay of four months as the last contracts had expired in December last year. A source confirmed that most of the players, who left on the tour to Sri Lanka early on Monday morning, had refused to sign the contracts. “The players feel that the board should have given them more time to have the contracts vetted by their legal advisors and it is not possible for the players to sign the contracts at such short notice,” the source said. 

Meanwhile, Pakistan team manager Naved Cheema said that there was no deadline set by the board for the players to sign the contracts. “The longer the players take to sign the contracts and return them back to the board their payments will be delayed,” Cheema said. Interestingly match and tour fees, central contract retainer payments and other bonus payments to the players have been held up for the last four months by the board for various reasons. The function in Lahore, held to honour the Pakistan team that won the Asia Cup in March in Bangladesh, also turned sour when Misbah, Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal all reportedly left the function early as they were not happy with comments passed on some players by the programme host and well known writer Anwar Maqsood and later by a bunch of comedians. The players believed they were being unnecessarily ridiculed at the function and at one stage when Misbah was called on stage he told Anwar that it seemed as if the players had come to the function after losing matches and not winning matches.