This is the point where bowling science takes a back seat, and hype takes over.

We are told that the Zooter, or Slider, or "Mystery Ball" -- a delivery by any other name -- was taught to Warne by former Aussie spinner turned coach Terry Jenner.

Essentially, Warne grips it like he would a top spinner -- first and second fingers spread wide on the seam, and lets go. The difference being that this ball is released not out of the back of the hand, as with the various

variations of the leg-spinner's art, but out of the front of the hand.

Released easily, there is for this ball no 'grip', no 'bite' -- so on pitching, it tends to hold its line or, at best, fractionally deviate in to the right hander, and to stay low.

The fact that it is delivered from out of the front of the hand, not the back, makes it an obvious pick for batsmen who spot it easily, and early, and are thus enabled to play strokes depending on the length.

Warne uses it, to a considerable extent, against South African batsmen, as seen in the recent Test series. And has employed it also against the Englishmen, with some success. The last time one of this kind was spotted on Indian soil was in Calcutta -- when Sidhu went dancing down to the pitch to drive powerfully through extra cover.

And that, folks, about does it for Warne's bag of tricks. Spare a thought now for captain Mark Taylor. Thus far, he had the luxury of crowding the bat with three, four fielders, buttressed by a point, short cover and mid off on the off side, and just a short midwicket and a mid on on the on (even, at times, bringing midwicket closer and dispensing with mid on, shifting that fielder behind square for the uppish sweep).

Such fields were facilitated by the fact that till the Indians got stuck into Warne, he was rarely taken for runs on the leg side. Now, however, this field has perforce been diluted -- a slip and a bat pad, either on off or leg, is about all Taylor can now afford, since he now finds the need to push sweepers back on either side of the wicket to counter the strokeplay. Further, the Indian willingness to go over the top means that when Taylor keeps his fielders in conventional positions, Warne gets hit to the fence -- and when mid on, mid off and cover are dropped back, the Indians have been checking their shots, guiding it to the left or right of the fielders concerned and easily taking the singles.

Which about does it for this analysis. Grateful thanks to the guy who invented spin vision. And to the camera crews of Channel 9, during the recent series against South Africa, and to ESPN during the ongoing Indo-Australian series, for bringing Warne's skills into such sharp focus and, thus, facilitating this analysis.

Text: Prem Panicker; Graphics and design: Rajesh Karkera; Layout: Shailesh Soni

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