In the sport of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, a knuckle ball (or knuckleball) is a type of delivery employed by a

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. ...

, and a type of

slower ball In the sport of cricket, a slower ball is a slower-than-usual delivery from a fast bowler. The bowler's intention is to deceive the batsman into playing too early so that he either misses the ball completely or hits it high up in the air to off ...

. As similar to a slower ball, the bowler's intention is to deceive the batter into playing too early so that they either miss the ball completely or hit it high up in the air to offer an easy catch. The ball is bowled by the bowler positioning the ball on the knuckles of their index and middle finger, instead of in the fingers themselves. The delivery deceives the batsman as from a batter's perspective, the ball appears to be a stock delivery. However, when it is released it is slower than expected. The delivery was adopted from

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

’s

knuckleball A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from laminar to turbulent flow. This chan ...

. The physics of the operation are largely the same. However, the seam on a cricket ball is equatorial, and thus the extent of erratic movement is reduced due to the symmetry (at least in the conventional release position where the planes of the ball's trajectory and the seam are nearly co-planar). Though Jeetan Sareen developed the knuckle ball for cricket as early as 1989, the Knuckle ball was first introduced to the world stage by India's

Zaheer Khan Zaheer Khan (born 8 October 1978) is an Indian former professional cricketer who played all forms of the game for the Indian national team from 2000 till 2014. He is a fast-medium left-arm bowler. He was the second-most successful Indian pace ...

in the

2011 Cricket World Cup The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and for the first time in Bangladesh. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, thus ...

. Bowlers who often use the knuckleball include India's

Bhuvneshwar Kumar Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh (born 5 February 1990) is an Indian international cricketer who is playing for the Indian cricket team. He currently plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League and Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket. He is ...

Shardul Thakur Shardul Narendra Thakur (born 16 October 1991) is an Indian international cricketer. He is a bowling all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right arm medium pace. Domestic career Thakur was initially criticized for his lack of height for ...

Deepak Chahar Deepak Chahar (born 7 August 1992) is an Indian international cricketer. He is a right-arm medium pace swing bowler, who plays for Rajasthan in domestic cricket and Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. In 2019, he became the fir ...

and Australia's

Andrew Tye Andrew James Tye (born 12 December 1986) is an Australian cricketer who plays One Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) for the Australian national cricket team. At the domestic level he plays for Western Australia and P ...

. Tye's lethal use of the knuckleball leads to vast success in

limited overs Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

competitions, and his eventual selection for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Tye's fame is largely due to his world-renowned use of the knuckleball.

Jofra Archer Jofra Chioke Archer (born 1 April 1995) is a Barbadian-born English cricketer representing England and Sussex. He is a right-arm fast bowler. In April 2019, Archer was selected to play for the England team in limited overs fixtures against Irel ...

successfully deployed the knuckleball during the

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...

and subsequent Ashes Test series against Australia.

References

{{reflist Bowling (cricket) Cricket terminology