Left-arm orthodox spin

{{Short description|Type of left arm bowling in cricket}}

{{Use British English|date=October 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}

{{Bowling techniques sidebar |expanded=all}}

Image:Slow left arm small.gif

File:Slow left arm bowling Keedy and Parry, 2012).ogv players Gary Keedy and Stephen Parry bowling left-arm orthodox spin in the 2012 Friends Life t20]]

Left-arm orthodox spin or left-arm off spin, also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of spin bowling in cricket.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/cricket/skills/newsid_3207000/3207491.stm|title=How to bowl left-arm spin|date=30 October 2003|access-date=21 June 2019|website=BBC News}}

Bowlers using this technique bowl with their left-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery spins from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when it bounces on the pitch.

Left-arm orthodox spin bowlers generally attempt to drift the ball in the air into a right-handed batsman, and then turn it away from the batsman (towards off-stump) upon landing on the pitch. The drift and turn in the air are attacking techniques. The normal delivery of a left-arm orthodox spin bowler is the left-arm orthodox spinner.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O-Nlc7pRXo| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/2O-Nlc7pRXo| archive-date=2021-11-17 | url-status=live|title=MasterClass: Left arm spin bowling with Nadeem|date=17 October 2013|access-date=21 June 2019|publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}

The major variations of a left-arm orthodox spin bowler are the topspinner (which turns less and bounces higher in the cricket pitch), the arm ball (which does not turn at all and drifts into a right-handed batsman in the direction of the bowler's arm movement; also called a 'floater') and the left-arm spinner's version of a doosra (which turns the other way).