An off cutter is a type of delivery in the

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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 st ...

. It is

bowled In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (Th ...

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

. A bowler releases a normal fast delivery with the wrist locked in position and the first two fingers positioned on top of the

cricket ball A cricket ball is a hard, solid ball used to play cricket. A cricket ball consists of a cork core wound with string then a leather cover stitched on, and manufacture is regulated by cricket law at first-class level. The trajectory of a cric ...

, giving it spin about a horizontal axis perpendicular to the length of the pitch. For an off cutter, a right-handed bowler pulls his fingers down the right side of the ball (from his viewpoint), in an action similar to bowling an

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which sp ...

, only at higher speed. This changes the axis of spin to make it more like an off break, which makes the ball deviate to the right when it bounces on the pitch. From a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

's point of view, this deviation is to the left, or from the

off side The off side is a particular half of the field in cricket. From the point of view of a right-handed batsman facing the bowler, it is the right-hand side of the field, or the half of the field in front of the right-handed batsman when he or sh ...

towards the

leg side The leg side, or on side, is defined to be a particular half of the field used to play the sport of cricket. It is the side of the field that corresponds to the batsman's non-dominant hand, from their perspective. From the point of view of a righ ...

. This deviation is known as ''cut'', and the delivery is called an ''off cutter'' because it moves ''away'' from the off side. What differentiates a genuine off cutter from a delivery that simply nips back off the seam is that it is deliberately bowled. A fast off cutter can also be bowled by placing the index and middle fingers on one side of the vertical seam, with the remaining fingers spread and tensed on the opposite side of the ball, as used by

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. Off cutters do not turn as sharply as off breaks bowled by an

off spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which ...

bowler, but at the speed of a fast bowler even a tiny deviation can cause difficulties for the batsman. If he is not quick enough to react to the movement, the batsman can miss the ball with his bat and be bowled between bat and pad or out

leg before wicket Leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed in the sport of cricket. Following an appeal by the fielding side, the umpire may rule a batter out lbw if the ball would have struck the wicket but was instead in ...

if struck on the pads. A fast bowler will typically use the off cutter as a variation ball, as it is most effective when it surprises the batsman.

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, and

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managed a bagful of wickets with this delivery because of the accurate lengths at which they operated, between fuller and good lengths (ball landing 2 to 3 steps in front of the batsman) at close to the off stump line. The surprise comes because, when facing rigorously accurate off-side bowlers, like those mentioned above, batters usually incorporate plans to leave the ball, or exaggerate foot movements to the pitch of the ball in anticipation. The calling card of this delivery, for the batsman to read it in advance, is the typical wobble in the seam after ball release with the seam slanting predominantly towards the batsman. A simple way for a beginner to learn to bowl cutters is to try imparting strong back-spin to the ball by pulling down on the seam at the time of release while keeping the seam vertical. Cutters work especially well on pitches that are rough, or when the ball lands on cracks on the surface. Such surfaces grip the seam and stop the reverse rotation, leading to considerable deviation as well as causing the ball to keep low after pitching. In the latter case, the balls are also called 'shooters'.

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used this tactic in matches in the West Indies and the Indian subcontinent, particularly in one match in Calcutta towards the end of his career when he had lost some of his speed. In test matches, bowlers tend to 'work the cracks' using cutters, meaning that they try pitching the ball on cracks repeatedly with the result that few of the balls that do pitch on cracks unsettles even a well-set batsman. In contemporary cricket, the off-cutter is primarily used as a slower ball in limited over cricket.

References

{{Reflist Bowling (cricket) Cricket terminology

See also

See also

References