Spell-binding Spells

Book excerpt: Spell-binding Spells is a book for everyone who loves cricket. It is about stunning spells—those few overs that occur rarely in cricket, when bowlers weave magic and batsmen are mesmerized. What did the stunning bowling spells of Anil Kumble, Narendra Hirwani, Ravichandran Ashwin, Padmakar Shivalkar, and Yuzvendra Chahal achieve that Kapil Dev’s career best spell could not? Curtly Ambrose and Sarfraz Nawaz, 14-years apart, bowled identical deadly spells against the same opposition taking 7 wickets for 1 run. Who were the hapless victims? Why did Gary Gilmour of Australia with an ODI bowling average of 10.31 and Clarrie Grimmett of Australia after taking 13 wickets in a Test in two magnificent spells, never play for their respective countries again? Spell-binding Spells looks at 50 of the most magnificent bowling spells in the history of cricket and answers some of these questions. VVS Laxman says: “This book is a tribute to bowlers, a breed that has never profited from the benefit of the doubt in a sport whose rules have historically always favoured batsmen. This nice little treatise is a reminder that we must ensure that the history of this game continues to get passed on from one generation to the next.”