Doosra
A doosra is a particular type of delivery by an off spin bowler in the sport of cricket. The term comes from Urdu and in this context it means "the other one". (It literally means "second" or "the second one".)
The doosra is a relatively new type of ball, developed in the late 1990s by Pakistani spinner Saqlain Mushtaq. The bowler bowls the ball with the same finger action as a normal off break, but holds the wrist turned so the back of the hand faces towards the batsman. This gives the ball spin in the opposite direction to an off break, causing it to spin from the leg side to the off side to a right-handed batsman.
The doosra is the off spinner's analogue of the leg spinner's googly, which also spins in the opposite direction to the bowler's stock delivery.
The doosra has been used effectively by its inventor Saqlain Mushtaq and Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan.
Muralitharan's doosra was, however, the subject of an official report by match referee Chris Broad during Australia's tour of Sri Lanka in 2004, for illegal straightening of the arm at the elbow during the bowling action. Subsequent biomechanical tests conducted at the University of Western Australia in Perth showed that Muralitharan was straightening his arm by angles of up to 14 degrees when bowling doosras, well outside the International Cricket Council acceptable guideline of 5 degrees for spin bowlers. Muralitharan was subsequently instructed by Sri Lanka Cricket not to bowl the doosra in international cricket.
