Leg-spinner Crane needs to heed advice of mentor MacGill and attack like Warne in Sydney

Alex Broun 20:52 05/01/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Crane bowled on day two at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

    The young leg-spinner took the ball midway through day two of the New Year’s Test at the famous Sydney Cricket Ground.

    He handed his cap to the umpire and marked out his run, his heart beating twice as fast, as he prepared to deliver his maiden ball in Test cricket.

    Waiting patiently down the other end was a well-set batsman ready to pounce on anything short or over-pitched. In the field one slip and a short leg, plus some scouts on the boundary.

    The bowler ran in, dragged it down short and the batsman easily rocked back and pulled the ball to deep midwicket. A single and the Test career of a young leg spinner had begun.

    The above is describing not 20-year-old English leggie Mason Crane who bowled his first ball in Test cricket on Friday in the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney. It’s actually describing then 22-year-old Shane Warne, the greatest leg-spinner in history, who made his Test debut almost 26 years to the day in the same city.

    The debut of a leg-spinner in Test cricket is something to be celebrated as leg spin bowling is without doubt the most difficult of all bowling arts.

    There are two key questions with a leg spinner: 1. Can they spin it? 2. Can they control it?

    A few can answer the first question positively but very few can answer the second in the affirmative.

    England spinner Mason Crane (R) sends down a delivery as Australia's batsman David Warner (L) looks on, on the second day of the fifth Ashes cricket Test match at the SCG in Sydney on January 5, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / WILLIAM WEST / --IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE-- (Photo credit should read WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

    At just 20, Crane has been quickly promoted through the ranks.

    Hence it so rarely happens that a leggie reaches Test standard and of those who are lucky enough to make their debut, very few are able to forge a lasting career at Test level, especially English leg-spinners.

    In the last fifty years England have only picked five leg-spinners – Robin Hobbs, Ian Salisbury, Chris Schofield, Scott Borthwick and the unlucky Adil Rashid.

    Of those only Salisbury reached the 15 Test mark and Rashid’s 38 wickets were the most taken.

    Warne’s debut was one to forget – 45 overs, seven maidens, one wicket for 150.

    But the legendary Australian’s one wicket was one to savour – man of the match Ravi Shastri – who on 206 went for one too many lofted cover drives and skied one to Dean Jones at deep cover.

    And here’s the rub – although Warne was carted in that first Test – he stuck to his guns, kept tossing the ball up and eventually got his man. He would go on to take 707 more wickets in a career that lasted a decade and a half.

    Crane ended his first day with 17 overs, no maidens, no wickets for 58 and he’s already talked about hoping for better figures in his first Test than Warne.

    But to do that Crane must also stick to his guns.

    Already, as Warne himself pointed out in commentary, Crane was tightening up, burying the ball in the palm of his hand reducing spin and drift.

    SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 05: Mason Crane of England nearly collides with fielder Mark Stoneman of England as he attempts to catch his own delivery during day two of the Fifth Test match in the 2017/18 Ashes Series between Australia and England at Sydney Cricket Ground on January 5, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

    England’s newest spin hope will be hoping to take his maiden wicket on day three.

    The perfect leg-spin delivery floats out of the back of the hand, drifts in towards a right hand batsman, then bites off the pitch spinning back across the batsman to take the edge or the off stump – as was so perfectly displayed in Warne’s ball of the century which accounted for Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in 1993.

    But as Crane conceded some boundaries he began to flatten his delivery arc, resulting in zero drift and precious little spin.

    It might have meant less runs but it also meant less chance of a wicket.

    So if Crane is to follow Warne’s path and play 50, 100 – or even 20 Tests – then he needs to keep following the advice of his coach, former Aussie leggie, Stuart MacGill, and toss it up. MacGill was never one to bowl safely.

    Yes the roof of young Crane’s mouth may end up getting sunburnt as he looks skywards to watch sixes disappear into the crowd, especially with Mitch Marsh soon to bat, but with this Australian batting line-up, on this wicket, in the end Crane will get wickets – and not just one. Maybe two, three, four, even five.

    And for Crane, the great Hampshire hope, at the start of his test career – two for 200 is much better than none for 90. Just ask Shane Warne.

    Recommended