A googly is a delivery bowled by a right-arm leg-spinner that turns in the opposite direction to their stock leg break, spinning back into a right-handed batter (from off to leg) instead of away toward the off side. Also called a wrong’un or a bosie, it is one of cricket’s classic pieces of deception: the bowler disguises the ball with the same grip and arm action, so the batter expects it to spin one way and is beaten when it goes the other. It is a legal, orthodox variation, not a trick outside the laws.
Leg spin first: what the googly departs from
A leg-spinner’s normal delivery is the leg break. Bowled with a flick of the wrist and fingers, it grips the pitch and turns from the leg side to the off side for a right-hander, moving the ball away from the bat and toward the slips. Batters learn to read the seam and wrist and play for that away turn. The googly exploits exactly that expectation.
How a googly is bowled
The bowler keeps the leg-break grip but rotates the wrist further over so the back of the hand faces the batter at release. The ball then comes out over the top of the third finger and spins the opposite way to a leg break. Crucially, the arm action and much of the wrist look the same on the way through, so a well-bowled googly is very hard to pick from the hand. Some batters try to read it out of the hand, others off the pitch, and the best wrist-spinners hide the difference well enough to fool both.
Which way it turns
| Delivery | Bowler | Turn vs right-hander | Danger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leg break (stock) | Right-arm leg-spin | Leg to off (away) | Edge to slip or keeper |
| Googly (wrong’un) | Right-arm leg-spin | Off to leg (into batter) | Bowled, lbw, inside edge |
Because the googly comes back in, it often threatens the stumps and the pads rather than the outside edge. A batter playing for the away turn can leave a gap between bat and pad, and the ball darts through it. Against a left-hander the mirror applies, so the same googly spins away instead of in.
Where the name comes from
The googly is credited to Bernard Bosanquet, an English cricketer who developed it in the early 1900s and first used it in senior cricket around 1900. That is why the delivery is nicknamed the bosie or bosey in his honor, alongside the more common wrong’un. The technique later spread worldwide and remains a core weapon for leg-spinners at every level, from club cricket to the international game.
Reading and countering it
Facing a googly is a battle of information. Batters watch the wrist and the seam angle, look for a slightly higher or loopier trajectory, and stay ready to adjust if the ball turns the unexpected way. Good footwork helps: getting to the pitch of the ball reduces the amount it can deviate before reaching the bat. A bowler who can bowl the leg break, the googly and other variations keeps the batter guessing every ball, which is why the field around the bat matters so much, as covered in our guide to cricket fielding positions.
Bowlers use the googly sparingly for maximum effect. If every ball turned the wrong way, batters would simply adjust, so the delivery works best as an occasional surprise mixed into an over of stock leg breaks. A leg-spinner might bowl several leg breaks to lull the batter into playing for the away turn, then slip in a googly to trap them on the crease. The threat of the googly is almost as valuable as the ball itself, because the batter must respect both possibilities on every delivery, which slows their footwork and clouds their shot selection.
The googly is often at its most dangerous when a batter is trying to survive rather than score, because a false shot can lead to a wicket and, for a batter dismissed without scoring, the dreaded duck. Master reading it, and much of leg-spin bowling stops being a mystery.
Frequently asked questions
Which way does a googly spin?
For a right-arm leg-spinner bowling to a right-handed batter, a googly turns from the off side into the batter (off to leg), the opposite of the stock leg break, which turns away toward the off side.
Is a googly the same as a wrong'un?
Yes. Wrong’un is the common nickname for a googly, and it is also called a bosie or bosey after Bernard Bosanquet, the English cricketer credited with inventing it in the early 1900s.
How is a googly bowled?
The bowler uses the same leg-break grip and arm action but rotates the wrist so the ball is released out of the back of the hand. That reversed wrist position makes the ball spin the other way while the action looks unchanged.
Why is a googly hard to face?
The deception is the point. The batter reads a leg break from the hand and plays for the ball to spin away, but it turns back in instead, often finding an inside edge, the pad, or the stumps.
