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From S.Giridhar and V.J. Raghunath, IndiaWe set off to do a story on offspinners and left-arm spinners - similar to what we had done some months back on legspinners. We had hoped that our favourite mystery and left-arm chinaman bowlers will find adequate space. To our dismay we found that many of the names that rolled deliciously off our tongues just did not have enough wickets to qualify under stodgy criteria such as minimum number of wickets, etc. So we said, to hell with all that - let us just enjoy ourselves writing about our favourite chinaman and mystery bowlers - the non-conformists, conjurors and sleight-of-hand purveyors.The left-arm chinaman is a mirror image of the right-arm leg break - bowled by turning the wrist so that the ball turns the opposite way to left-arm finger spin. When bowled back of the hand, it becomes the googly, it turns the other way. We identified 10 chinaman bowlers as we trawled through the history of the game. Even if you were to add up all the wickets taken by the chinaman bowlers it would be less than a combined tally of Bedi and Underwood. There are 45 left-arm spinners who have more than 40 wickets each but just four chinaman bowlers who meet this criterion. The strike-rate of the chinaman bowler is superior (a wicket every 70 balls as compared to 79 for the orthodox left-arm); the bowling average is similar, 31.6 as compared to 31.2. The difference is that while the 45 left-arm spinners have taken over 4800 wickets in 1605 matches, the 10 chinaman bowlers have played only 184 matches to take 427 wickets.Old timers had the great fortune to see the peerless Garry Sobers bowl a lot of this stuff. In fact they were so fortunate that they saw that genius bowl left-arm fast, slow orthodox and chinaman all on the same afternoon. His 235 test wickets are a wonderful mix of all three. In the fifties, Johnny Wardle played for England. A maverick - and that sat badly in England - he bowled orthodox finger spin in England, but served up chinaman and googlies abroad. He bowled the way his heart dictated and he bowled really well - 28 Tests, 102 wickets at a strike rate of 65 balls per wicket. His average of 20.39 is the best for any post-war spinner who has over 100 wickets. In our statistical analysis, he is second-best among left-arm spinners since 1900 (min. 50 wickets) which is awesome. But he rubbed the administrators and his captain Peter May the wrong way. He would have played a lot more games for England but for Mays preference for his Surrey team-mate Tony Lock.Time for a lovely story: Johnny Martin who played for Australia in the sixties bowled his chinaman very slowly through the air. In a Sheffield Shield match, Martin beat a batsmen all ends up and struck him on the back foot in front of the stumps. To his utter disgust, the Umpire turned down his appeal. Martin asks the umpire: Whats wrong, ump, isnt he in front? Umpire: Yes son, he is. Martin: Then why isnt he out? Umpire: Because the ball wouldnt have reached the stumps, Johnny!Why is it that most of the chinaman bowlers are from Australia? Is there something in the Australian air that makes spinners bowl back-of-the-hand wrist spin rather than finger spin? Just as they have given cricket so many famous legspinners from Mailey to Warne and MacGill, so too have they provided us a line of chinaman bowlers, from Fleetwood-Smith to Hogg. Strangely, Australia hardly has a worthy presence among orthodox left-arm spinners.Fleetwood-Smith (10 Tests, 42 wickets) in spite of some sterling performances in the 1930s is unfortunately best remembered as the bowler who conceded the highest number of runs in an innings - one for 298 out of an England score of 903 for 7. This was The Oval test where Hutton made 364.Much later, Lindsay Kline (13 Tests, 34 wickets) and Martin (eight Tests, 17 wickets) had their unforgettable moments too: Kline took a hat-trick against South Africa in 1957 but his moment of glory was as a No. 11 bat for Australia in the famous 1960-61 series against West Indies. Coming in as the last batsman he stayed for more than 100 minutes with Slasher Mackay to earn Australia a draw in Adelaide. More than the fact that he lasted against Hall, Sobers, Worrell and Gibbs for that long, what was amazing was that he was practicing at the nets in the afternoon against similar bowling for more than an hour as if anticipating what he would be called upon to do later that day! Immediately after, he was dropped for the final Test - typical of Australian cricket, no sentiment at all.Martins moment came in the same series. After the famous Tie in Brisbane, Australia won the second Test comfortably in Melbourne, thanks to Davidson and Martins bowling. In a golden spell, Martin removed Kanhai, Sobers and Worrell in four balls. Had he done it in three, it would surely have ranked as the grandest hat-trick ever!Time once more to pull the leg of the chinaman bowler: This story was told with great relish by Dileep Sardesai. In the fourth Test in Barbados of Indias landmark tour of West Indies in 1971 - the series belonged as much to Sardesai as it did to Gavaskar - India were 70 for 6 and Sardesai was left with Solkar to repair the damage. Sobers, the West Indies captain, had Inshan Ali their chinaman bowler on at one end. Now, for the Indians this slow bowler was a far happier proposition and not wanting Sobers to change him, Sardesai and Solkar decided that in every Inshan Ali over they would deliberately appear to be beaten by the odd delivery, as though they had failed to pick him. Sardesai chortled that the extended spell to Inshan Ali actually helped the Indian cause. Knowing Sardesai, this could well be a true story!Not much need be said about the chinaman bowlers of the last 25 years. We have watched them in close detail on TV. None more so than Paul Adams of South Africa, perhaps the only bowler to have ever had his face towards the umpire while delivering! His action - called frog in the blender - caused great consternation to the English batsmen when he was first unleashed. But batsmen sorted him out in time, because although Adams bowled good length and line he became too predictable. Nevertheless, by the time he finished he had 134 wickets in 45 matches. More recently, we have seen Hogg - tongue hanging out - bowl for Australia. Katich bowls too but we think that he should be bowled a lot more by Ponting.It is surprising that the sub continent that produced left-arm orthodox spinners (Vinoo Mankad, Bishan Bedi, Dilip Doshi and Iqbal Qasim come to mind), does not have a single chinaman bowler in its Test history. The one chinaman bowler who could have played for India was a wonderfully gifted bowler from Hyderabad - Mumtaz Hussain. A contemporary of Gavaskar, Mumtaz promised a lot when he made his name in university and Ranji Trophy cricket with a mesmerizing mix of orthodox left-arm, chinaman and the googly. He was so difficult to read that the keeper had to devise a set of hand signals to read him. Sadly within a couple of seasons Mumtaz had greatly reduced his chinaman and bowled mainly orthodox finger spin. Soon - for it was the time when Bedi ruled - Mumtaz faded away into the anonymity of first-class cricket. It is probably the closest that India came to having an international chinaman bowler.Custom Nike Baseball Jerseys Authentic . -- Peyton Manning will have all of his wide receivers available for the first time in a month when the Denver Broncos begin their playoff run Jan. Custom Nike Houston Astros Jerseys . LUCIE, Fla. https://www.customjerseysnikebaseball.com/custom-nike-new-york-mets-jerseys/ . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Custom Nike Kansas City Royals Jerseys . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. Custom Nike Chicago Cubs Jerseys . At a Manhattan federal court hearing, attorney Jordan Siev said his law office has gotten more evidence nearly every day to support its lawsuit accusing MLB and Selig of going on a "witch hunt" to ruin Rodriguezs reputation and career. He said the defendants went "way over the line.CHICAGO -- Jake Arrieta almost certainly wont win a second straight NL Cy Young Award. He likely wont be the No. 1 or 2 postseason pitcher for the loaded Chicago Cubs, either.Arrieta showed Friday he can still dominate. And he figures its because hes stopped trying so hard.Arrieta struck out 10 in seven innings and the Cubs beat the sloppy St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 for their 98th victory, the most since they last played in the World Series in 1945. Chicago clinched home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs.A lot of the time more effort creates some inconsistencies in my delivery, Arrieta said. Trying to do more than I have to. I had several outs today where I took my foot off the gas and I was at 60-70 percent and got nice, easy groundballs to second base or shortstop.Manager Joe Maddon said Arrieta looked familiar when he struck out the side on 11 pitches in the first inning, a reference to his 22-win 2015 season that included a 1.77 ERA. Arrieta said competitiveness and stubbornness have been the reasons his walks, hits and runs are up from a year ago.Weve been hyper-critical of him all year based on what he did last year, Maddon said. But to his credit, I think hes handled that very well.With veteran Miguel Montero back catching him, Arrieta (18-7) allowed five hits and walked one. Anthony Rizzo had three hits and Ben Zobrist drove in two runs as the Cubs tied a team record with their 56th home win.Chicago scored four runs in the first inning off Mike Leake (9-11) and dropped the Cardinals 1 1/2 games behind the Mets and a half-game behind the Giants for the two NL wild-card berths.Pedro Strop came off the disabled list to work the eighth, and Travis Wood and Carl Edwards Jr. finished the five-hitter.Rizzo, Zobrist and Chris Coghlan drove in runs in the first off Leake, who lasted 3 1/3 innings and is winless in four starts since recovering from shingles.I couldnt locate early. I was slightly erratic, Leake said. I just started out on the wrong foot.Leake allowed another run on one of two wild pitches. Cardinals gaffes included Kolten Wong face-planting into the turf chasing Rizzos first-inning ddouble and Matt Adams getting picked off first.ddddddddddddLeake gave up five runs, seven hits and three walks. Manager Mike Matheny used six relievers.The Cardinals are hoping to return to Wrigley Field in two weeks. But that requires earning one of the two wild-card berths and then winning the single-elimination game for a spot in the division series.Zobrists fourth-inning groundout added another run for Chicago (98-55), which has won four straight.The Cubs have so much depth as they seek their first World Series title since 1908 that Arrieta is likely the No. 3 playoff starter behind Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks.But Arrieta feels if he can control his effort, hell be at his best come October.I dont give up many hits, Arrieta said. So if I can keep guys off base via the walk, Im going to be in a pretty good spot.TRAINERS ROOMCardinals: LF Matt Holliday (broken right thumb) took batting practice off RHP Mike Mayers before the game. He blistered a couple balls, Matheny said. It was exciting to see. Holliday will likely have another BP session before hes activated. ... SS Aledmys Diaz (arm fatigue) was out of the lineup.Cubs: Strop (knee, groin) worked around a leadoff walk in his first appearance since Aug. 10. Once he settled in and the slider became his pitch again, he felt at home, Maddon said.GROOMSMAN STRIKES OUTArrieta and Cardinals 2B Matt Carpenter were college teammates at TCU. Arrieta was Carpenters wedding groomsman. Yet Carpenter cant solve his friend. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts, leaving him 0 for 24 in the regular season against Arrieta.CARDINALS ROTATIONLHP Jaime Garcia will take the Cardinals rotation spot of struggling RHP Luke Weaver on Monday vs. Cincinnati.ROSS RECOGNIZEDCubs chairman Tom Ricketts presented retiring C David Ross with the No. 3 from the Wrigley Field manual scoreboard before the game.UP NEXTRHP Jason Hammel (15-9, 3.56 ERA), contending for the final Cubs postseason rotation spot, faces rookie RHP Alex Reyes (3-1, 1.08) on Saturday. ' ' '