A leg cutter is a type of slower ball in the sport of cricket that is primarily bowled by fast bowlers. To bowl this delivery, the bowler will apply a small amount of sideways rotation to the ball as it leaves their hand. When the leg cutter is bowled by a right-arm bowler it will leave the hand rotating in an anti-clockwise direction, meaning that when it hits the pitch, it could spin from right to left (away from a right-handed batter)and a leg cutter that is bowled by a left-arm bowler will leave the hand rotating in a clockwise direction. This means that when the ball hits the pitch there’s a chance it could spin from left to right (in towards the body of a right-handed batter).
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How to bowl the leg cutter
The most critical aspect of bowling with the leg cutter is holding the ball with the correct grip. All you have to do to move from the normal fast bowling grip to the leg cutter grip is move your index finger down the side of the ball and place your middle finger more centrally on the top of the ball.
Once you have the ball in the correct grip, you should go through your run-up exactly as you usually would. As you approach the crease, prepare to release the ball. In this phase, concentrate on making sure that your run up and bowling action are the same as it normally does. A lot of bowlers who aren’t comfortable bowling slower balls tend to slow their action right down when they’re going to bowl a ball like a leg cutter, and this can give a batsman a clue about what you’re going to do.
This step is where the spin is applied to the ball, and this is also what causes the delivery to be bowled more slowly. As the ball is leaving your hand, rotate your hand slightly as if you were turning a doorknob to open a door. As you do this, drag your middle finger down the side of the ball. Left-arm bowlers will be dragging their middle finger down the right side of the ball, and right arm bowlers will be dragging their middle finger down the left side.
Leg cutters are much more frequently seen in indoor cricket as the physical arena in which the game is played limits the pace at which bowlers can bowl, and hence they must use other techniques to prevent the batsmen from scoring.
