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The most acknowledged exponent of the off-spinner’s mystery delivery ‘The Doosra’ — which goes the other way rather than spinning into the batsman — was Pakistan’s Saqlain Mushtaq. Disguising it as an off-break, he would bowl that ball occasionally with the back flick of one of his fingers to baffle the best of the batsmen.
His skill received the publicity it deserved during that match at The Bellerive Oval Hobart in 1999 when Saqlain mesmerised the Australian batsmen, picking up six wickets for 46, a haul which should have won Pakistan the Test to remain in the series.
But it was not to be because of some atrocious umpiring by one of the Australians called Parker.
Australia, needing 243 to win were, struggling at 126 for 5 when Parker let Justin Langer off the hook as the batsman edged Wasim Akram into the hands of the keeper.
A number of more debatable decisions then followed as Langer and Adam Gilchrist put on 238 for the sixth wicket to win the match by four wickets.
It was in the course of that match that ‘The Doosra’ made the headlines for the first time when Saqlain was asked to explain how he bowled it and what did he call it.
“I call it Doosra,” he said. The Australian press then asked me to explain the concept and meaning of ‘The Doosra’ and it became a fascinating headline the next day.
Saqlain’s success with it in the Tests or in the ODI’s was because he bowled it sparingly as a surprise delivery, as did Muttiah Muralitharan later, to pulverise many a batsmen.
If only Saeed Ajmal had done his homework or had studied the two great bowlers, he would have been a lot more successful bowler than he is today.
It is alright when he bowls a couple every over in limited overs cricket where batsmen, looking for runs, play across the line to falter against that trajectory.
In Tests, however, it is a different ball game. On Monday when two experienced batsmen of the caliber of Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla, with their powers of concentration and skill, began to frustrate the opposition in a record stand, Ajmal’s overdose of doosra — after every second delivery — was not much of a problem.
He conceded over a hundred runs for his solitary wicket as the two South Africans notched up a hundred each. Only few weeks ago Ajmal had informed the media that he was working on a new delivery for the forthcoming World Cup.
And only a couple of days ago, even Umar Gul claimed to have developed a special delivery after he bowled A.B. de Villiers with a beauty.
None of those deliveries, however, worked in the second innings as Kallis and Amla plundered runs at will.
