Watch: Twitter user Flighted Leggie) has brilliantly dissected a Rashid Khan hat-trick ball from the ninth edition of the Big Bash League, revealing his technique and the hoax he produced to befuddle the batsman.
Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match awards, player interviews, analysis and much more.
The googly he bowled to defeat Jordan Silk would have been exceptional by itself. But the Twitter analyst revealed the extra level of mystery and mastery which made Rashid’s delivery even better.
He started by describing Rashid’s variations and his grip when generally bowling both leg-breaks and googlies. In the video, he shows Brad Hogg explaining how to pick Rashid’s variation – if there is a split finger grip, it will be a leg break and if the fingers are closer together, it will be the googly.
Off the hat-trick ball against Jordan Silk, Rashid runs in with the split finger grip, indicating he would bowl a leg break. But instead, the ball turns into the right-hander and cleans him up, leaving the batsman and the commentators in awe.
The video goes on to explain how Rashid pulled this off. Rashid started the delivery stride with a split finger grip, but changes it midway to bring them closer together and produce the googly in a gobsmacking move.
Watch the video here:
That’s pretty neat from Rashid Khan pic.twitter.com/PAKNy3X0g7
— Flighted Leggie 🏏 (@flighted_leggie) April 11, 2021
Rashid Khan himself came out to praise the compilation:
🙏🙏🙌🏻🙌🏻
— Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) April 11, 2021