Leg-spin bowling is one of the greatest mysteries of cricket, taken to a new level by Australia's Shane Warne. It is said to be one of the most difficult skills to master, but, as Warney has proved, a good leg spinner will almost certainly get plenty of wickets. It is often described as wrist spin because, unlike off spinners, the revolutions of the ball are generated by the wrist rather than the fingers. Leg spin involves turning a ball off the pitch from the leg-side of a right-handed batsman, to the off-side.

This on it's own is an effective weapon but the key to really successful leg spin bowling is variation - leg-spinners have five main variations in their armoury:

Leg-spinner 
Googly
Flipper
Top-spinner
Slider

Each delivery requires a slight change in wrist position when the ball is released.

As mentioned above, leg spin involves turning a ball off the pitch from the leg-side of a right-handed batsman, to the off-side. Also known as the leg break this when bowled to perfection can even pitch behind the batsman's legs and turn back on to the wicket! However, it's most productive form in terms of wicket taking is to pitch outside the off stump inviting the drive - if it turns enough the batsman will either produce an edge or miss the ball completely leaving them open to stumping by the wicket keeper. An alert keeper is a must for a leg spin bowler!

Leg spin:



The googly is the leg-spinner's prize weapon - and bowled properly, it is almost undetectable. The googly was invented by Bernard Bosanquet, who played seven Test matches for England between 1903-05. A googly, or "wrong'un", is a delivery which looks like a normal leg-spinner but actually turns towards the batsmen, like an off-break, rather than away from the bat. Unlike a normal leg-break, a googly is delivered out of the back of the hand, with the wrist 180 degrees to the ground.

The googly:


Like the googly, the flipper is yet another weapon in the leg-spinner's armoury. It was said to have been invented Clarrie Grimmett, a leg-spinner who played 37 Tests between 1924 and 1936. Rather than turn away from the bat like a normal leg-spinner or towards the batsman like a googly, the flipper skids on low and fast after pitching. You could describe it as a back spinner - and like the "wrong'un", it takes a long time to perfect. It is the hardest of all the variations to perfect and is the only one that involves a change in grip. The ball is "squeezed" between the thumb and fingers in a way so it spins backwards and skids on low and fast with under-spin after hitting the pitch.

The flipper:



If trying to pick the leg-spinner, googly and flipper was difficult enough for a batsman, they've also got the top-spinner to contend with. Like a topspin shot in tennis, the ball will kick off the pitch with extra bounce, often striking the batsman high on the bat or the gloves. It is delivered from the side of the hand, halfway between the release of a leg break and a googly and hence the seam of the ball is upright and faces towards the batsman.

The top-spinner:



The slider is the reverse of the topspin in that it spins backwards like the flipper and skids on low and straight towards the wicket. It is also delivered from the side of the hand and is a great ball to get the batsman out via lbw.

I've managed to bowl four of the variations with varying degrees of success - the only one I have not even attempted is the flipper as that is very tricky to even attempt let alone master! Practice is the key and I'll be trying them all out in the nets - see if you can spot them!!