This bowler's a 'keeper

The wicketkeeper's method of choice is leg-spin

He might be brimming with talent, but in the luck department Ben Foakes wandered beneath a ladder on Friday the 13^th. Accompanied by a black cat.

So stricken with misfortune is Foakes, he might easily have sat for McCubbin while the swagman broke to pack his pipe.

Tossed the ball at the fag-end of Surrey’s draw with Essex last week, Foakes wheeled down two overs of respectable medium-pace.

(What was definitely not respectable, however, was the unedifying spectacle of seamer Jordan Clark keeping not only in short sleeves, but also a helmet – while standing back.)

Unfortunately the classy gloveman (Foakes not Clark) sustained an injury in those two overs, forcing him to miss this weekend’s clash with Sussex at The Oval.

In a very English quirk, Foakes’ place behind the stumps has been assumed by Surrey’s No 3 – who also happens to be England’s Test ‘keeper. Yes, the bloke bounced out by Marnus at the SCG, Jamie Smith.

Anyway, enough England weirdness. Foakes’ cameo at the bowling crease is a great excuse for a dive into wicketkeepers bowling.

And the A-Z of wicketkeepers bowling runs in reverse order: Yes, cricket lovers, No 1 in our list is of course that colourful darling of the West, Tim Zoehrer.

Zoehrer took 38 first-class wickets, but it was more about the way he took them. Cricket historian Geoff Sando says Zoehrer possessed that lovely in-dip that defines the best leg-spinners.

Sando was there when Zoehrer took 5-58 – his best first-class haul – against South Australia at Adelaide Oval in 1991/92.

“It wasn’t so much the numbers -- it was the way he ripped the ball,” Sando says. “It was unlike anything I could recall.

“At that time, I didn’t think that leg-spinners had a place in Test cricket as the batsmen played them so well.

“... and then came Warne.”

From the ‘Jim Higgs once never made a run on an Ashes tour’ file of cricket trivia, Zoehrer topped the Australian bowling averages on two England trips – one wicket at nine in 1989 and 12 at 20.83 in 1993.

Wicketkeeping is the toughest job in the game so it’s only natural that Zoehrer and his fellows typically choose the most difficult bowling style – leg-breaks.

Barry Jarman fancied his leggies. His role model, the peerless Don Tallon, also bowled leg-breaks. Brian Taber too.

Darren Berry’s two career overs for Victoria? Leggies.

Rod Marsh preferred off-breaks. In 1980, Marsh bowled 10 wicketless overs for 51 runs in a rain-affected, run-saturated draw at Faisalabad. Every one of the Australian XI bowled that day, including Kim Hughes, Graham Yallop and Bruce Laird. It was only the second time it had happened in a Test (the previous occasion belonged to England, against Australia at The Oval in 1884, when Billy Murdoch made the first double-hundred in Tests – English ‘keeper Alfred Lyttelton took 4-19 bowling ‘underarm lobs’.)

In 1984 Marsh and Dennis Lillee were shanghaied by Elton John for a match between Elton’s band and Mondo Rock in Perth. The cricket gods were clearly displeased with Elton for stacking his side, as he made a golden duck. Lillee made a telling 28 not out and later assumed the gauntlets while Marsh bowled. And so it came to pass that Mondo Rock guitarist Eric McCusker was out caught Lillee, bowled Marsh.

Latter-day ‘keepers have let their bowling predecessors down a tad. There exists a YouTube clip of Ian Healy pulling off a passingly good Malcolm Marshall impression in an exhibition game – in which he bowled Joel Garner – but he never bowled in Tests and his first-class record reads 31 balls, no wickets.

Adam Gilchrist’s off-breaks never appeared in Tests but he did bowl two overs in a domestic one-day game.

And the best ‘keeper of the past 20 years has never bowled in Tests, one-dayers, or T20s. In fact, Cricinfo lists no ‘bowling style’ whatsoever on Sarah Taylor’s profile.

Lately the traffic has been all the other way. Trent Copeland and Mitchell Starc both started as ‘keepers, for example.

And what about Alex Carey? Does he bowl at all? Leggies, surely?

With thanks to Bernard Whimpress, Geoff Sando, John Hill, Daryl Schramm and Darren Berry.