In the sports of cricket, spinners have a variety of ways to deliver the ball, but the two most popular and classic ones are the googly and the doosra.
With spinning, to some extent, one can talk of a tricky, very talented, and surprise play. What, then, is the main difference between googly and doosra in cricket?
The difference between a googly and a doosra is that the former is delivered by a leg spinner and the ball rotates from the right to the left. On the other hand, an off-spinner causes the ball to rotate from the left to the right in the doosra. The doosra technique is a newer entry than the googly and is even more complicated to master.
Googly
When it comes to a googly, this is one of the deliveries that a leg-spinner employs to spin the ball in an opposite direction to his standard stock delivery.
For a right-handed batsman, a regular leg-break ball would rotate from the leg side to the off side making it less of a line with the bat and thus less hard to play. But with a googly spinning from the off side toward the leg side, it becomes a right-handed batsman’s ball right under the same bowling motion.
Bernard Bosanquet, one of the English cricketers, was the one who came up with the idea of the googly. Initially, he kept it as a secret to amuse his teammates but soon started to use it in matches in 1900 after his retirement from fast bowling.
The term ‘googly’ first appeared in print during Lord Hawke’s tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1902. However, it was only after a series of wickets that his googly – or ‘Bosey’ as it was also called then – got the attention of the cricket world.
Doosra
A doosra is a delivery of an off-spinner that rotates the ball inversely to his usual stock delivery.
A normal off-break would rotate from the batsman’s off side to the leg side and into him for a right-handed batsman. A doosra would rotate from the leg side to the off side and out of a right-handed batsman, trying not to alter their action.
The doosra is a newer concept in comparison to the googly. During the 1999–2000 Pakistan tour to Australia, bowler Saqlain Mushtaq invented it. Pakistan wicketkeeper Moin Khan is the one who brought the term “bowl the doosra” into usage, which means “(the) second (one)” or “(the) other (one)” in Hindustani.
Through the stump microphone, TV commentator Tony Greig heard the term and associated it with Saqlain’s new mystery delivery, which the player elaborated further during the post-match interview.
What is the Difference Between a Doosra and a Googly?
The major differences, as already mentioned above, are the spin direction, bowling technique and grip plus the time of each appearance on the cricket stage.
Moreover, the googly and the doosra are divided by another point, and that is the whole matter of acceptance or rejection of the character. It is quite easy to throw a googly, however, the doosra is almost impossible without committing the offence of chucking the ball.
The reason for their ban is that the delivery could not be taught legally. Hence, in 2009, the Australian cricket authorities decided not to give young spinners instruction about the delivery.
Is there a Similarity Between Googly and Doosra?
Both deliveries aim to mislead or deceive a batsman with an aspect of surprise, thus they are the same in a way.
In both cases, the bowler has to work hard to hide his grip and not change his movement in any way that could be noticed. The bowlers’ strength lies in their ability to take wickets without the batsman becoming suspicious, so they should not bowl too many times, otherwise, the batsman will notice and the element of surprise would be lost.
